When you’re purchasing a printer for your home, you will have a huge range of different brands and models to choose from. There really is such a vast selection of printers available on the market these days, but the vast majority of these will fall into one of the following two categories; an inkjet printer or a laser printer. Arguably, the most important decision you can make is which of these two types of printers you’re going to purchase.
The main difference between inkjet printers and laser printers is the type of cartridge that they use, inkjet printers use ink cartridges whereas laser printers use toner cartridges. If you’ve always just assumed that these two types of cartridges are the same thing, to help you decide which type of printer will be best for your home, below we have looked into the differences between these two printer cartridges in more detail.
What are printer ink cartridges?
This is probably the most ‘traditional’ type of cartridge available and when people think of a printer they will think of ink cartridges. As the name suggests, printer ink cartridges contain liquid ink and tiny droplets of this ink are squirted through nozzles onto the paper in your printer to print all of your documents.
What are printer toner cartridges?
Toner cartridges are more modern than ink cartridges and they are filled with a dry fine powder that is made from polyester. When it comes to printing with toner cartridges, it is slightly more complicated than printing with ink cartridges and the laser printer will use electrical charges to create the text and images on the paper.
Which printer cartridge provides better print quality?
General speaking, when you’re just printing documents of text with normal font sizes, the print quality won’t differ too much between these two different cartridges. However, if you’re printing smaller fonts, then a laser printer with toner cartridges tends to be better.
That being said, when you’re printing photographs and colour documents, inkjet printers with ink cartridges can provide a better print quality. Often, colour produced by printer toner cartridges will be less vivid and to print quality images with toner, you will need an expensive laser printer.
Which printer cartridge is the least expensive?
You will probably find that the upfront cost of both laser printers and toner cartridges are more expensive than inkjet printers and ink cartridges. However, when you’re looking at cost-effectiveness, toner is the best option as these cartridges last much longer than ink.
Both colour laser printers and inkjet printers will require more than one cartridge to be able to print all of the colours that your documents need, so there is no difference in this regard. As far as price is concerned, it will all come down to how much you can afford to spend upfront.
Which printer cartridge lasts longer?
When you’re using printer toner cartridges, not only will they last longer in the sense that they will print more pages per cartridge, but they are also easier to maintain as you don’t have to worry about the ink drying up and becoming unusable.
Often, you will have to replace printer ink cartridges more frequently, but depending on how much you’re going to be printing, they can still last a long time. It is just important to ensure that you’re correctly caring for ink cartridges to prevent them from clogging up.
Purchasing cartridges for your new printer
Hopefully, you will now know a little bit more about the differences between printer ink cartridges and printer toner cartridges. Using the information above, you should find it easier to choose between the two most popular types of printers available on the market these days and ensure that you’re investing in the right printer for your home. It goes without saying that it is always important to consider the cartridges when you get a new printer.
No matter whether you choose an inkjet printer or a laser printer, be sure to visit the Toner One website for your cartridges. We have a huge selection of both printer ink cartridges and printer toner cartridges on our site from well-known brands and we pride ourselves on providing genuine new cartridges at incredibly affordable prices. We always aim to please our customers with quality products and quick delivery, so be sure to browse through our current printer cartridge ranges today.