Things to Consider When Choosing a New Printer
It used to be so
easy – laser printers were ‘business’ machines and inkjet printers were
domestic machines.
These days, it’s
more confusing with new innovations in technology making the decision a whole
lot harder than was once the case.
In simple terms,
the difference in the basic technology is still easy to understand:
·
Inkjet
printers use liquid ink which is sprayed through microscopic nozzles on to the
paper.
·
Laser
printers use a toner cartridge (which is filled with a very fine powder) and a
heated fuser.
So, with the
technology being so obviously differentiated, making a choice between the two
types of printer ought to be straightforward:
·
Laser
printers have always tended to be more expensive than inkjet, but they have
typically been faster (once they have warmed up), and have a higher output per
cartridge. If you
needed something fast that could handle heavy office workloads, you bought a
laser. Hence, they have
traditionally been the choice of business.
· Meanwhile, if you wanted
high-quality, affordable colour printing for the home or professional quality
photo prints, you went for down the inkjet route.
So far, so
simple.
But things have changed:
Colour
laser printers have now started to retail at prices tempting to home users,
while business inkjets have been taking strides forward in development so that
they are becoming more of a credible business choice.
The last
couple of years have seen the evolution of a new breed of inkjets that are
faster than their ancestors, and more ecologically friendly than their
toner-consuming laser cousins.
So, what’s the real story?
Both
Inkjet and Laser printers still have advantages and disadvantages, although it
is fair to say that improvements to the core technology are helping both types
of printer to push past their limitations. There are five main things you need
to consider when you are looking at choosing your next printer:
1.
Speed
2.
Quality
3.
Durability
4.
Costs
5.
Networking
and security
1.
The Fast and the Furious. Time is money; speed is important.
It has
traditionally been the case that laser printers were the fastest kids on the
block, but inkjets are the new boy-racers.
Not so
long ago, inkjet printers topped out at around 30ppm (pages per minute) in
black-and-white and only 10ppm in colour. Yep – the printer equivalent of a Granny
in a Honda doing 50mph in the slow lane. Meanwhile, laser printers were
routinely hitting speeds of up to 40ppm, irrespective of whether it was
printing in black and white or colour. Ferrari territory.
Now,
though, laser printers are hitting speeds of 60, and even 70ppm. You might
think that this would be like the lasers simply upgrading from sports car to
supercar; widening the performance gap between the two types of machine and
leaving the inkjets in the dust.
Nope.
The new
generation of inkjet printers now have print heads that span the entire width
of an A4 page, and they can spew out pages at a ridiculous speed; up to 75ppm,
which matches and even beats some of the fastest laser printers, and turning
preconceptions on their heads. Granny just overtook Vin Diesel doing 120mph in
the outside lane.
2.
Quality is king
In many
cases a good quality laser printer will still have the edge when it comes to
clean, crisp black text and colour graphics for most business documents.
However, whilst
not quite stealing a march on the lasers just yet, inkjets have improved
dramatically. Inkjet text reproduction is now easily good enough for all
internal documents and even most external use.
Add to
that, inkjets almost universally produce the best results when printing photos,
and you can see that the newer generation of inkjet printers are very much a
contender when it comes to selecting a credible business machine.
3.
Durability – your business needs a workhorse
This is
where laser printers have always smashed it out of the park. They are built to
handle enormous workloads of anywhere between 2000 and 20000 pages.
Even with
the new generation of inkjets, they still wimp out after a monthly workload
exceeding the range of 1500 to 5000 pages (depending on model).
But, you
know what? 1500 – 5000 pages is a lot.
In fact, it’s
probably going to be perfectly adequate for most smaller SMEs (where an average
print job is around four pages) or small departments in large businesses. So,
even on the durability front, don’t count out the inkjet just yet.
4.
Money, money, money. How much does it cost?
In printer
lore passed down from days of yore, we know that lasers are expensive to buy
but cheap to run, while inkjets are cheap upfront but cost you more in the
consumables, with a laser toner cartridge churning out thousands of prints, and
an inkjet cartridge running out every five minutes.
But, as
with so much else in this brave new world of printing devices, this
conventional wisdom is no longer reliable.
On the one
hand, lasers are getting cheaper to buy up front. Budget models are coming with
smaller starter cartridges that run out fairly quickly, though the standard or
super-sized cartridges will still have impressive lifespans. In toner alone,
expect the cost per page to come in at around 2p for a black-and-white page and
5p to 10p for a colour page.
On the
other hand, business inkjets are getting their own costs per page right down,
to the extent that some models can now produce prints for around 1p per page
for black-and-white to 5p per page for colour. Meanwhile, extra-large
cartridges have hit the market and so too have clever innovations like Epson’s
Ecotank range. This means a lot of newer inkjets are able to print over 9000
pages (black) or 6500 pages (colour).
It’s only
fair to note that there are other costs to consider.
Laser
printers still deliver excellent results even on plain paper (although smoother
paper will always produce even better results), so there’s no need to splash
out on dearer paper.
Having
said that, inkjet paper is no longer so much more expensive, and inkjets
usually consume less power than lasers, so they are cheaper (and more
ecologically friendly) to run in terms of power consumption.
Combine
that with a lower purchase cost, and there’s definite scope to save your
business money.
5.
Networking and Security – plug in, baby
It is
still true that the top-end enterprise level laser printers offer more
management tools, plus support for more high-end networking (e.g. Gigabit
Ethernet and IPSec).
But even
in this area, inkjets are coming into their own. An increasing number of office
inkjet printers have the same or similar embedded management features that
laser printers have, plus document security features that you normally only get
with MPS (managed print services solutions), such as secure pull-printing,
where jobs are held in a queue until released at the printer with a PIN code.
Not only
that, but also the new generation of inkjets come with wireless and cloud-printing
features that enable the printer to work with a wider range of devices or take
print jobs from remote locations.
So, a
laser might offer more management and security features at the top end of the
market but a business inkjet can still give you all the tools most businesses
need.
What’s the bottom line?
It’s no longer a
straightforward decision of ‘laser for business’ and ‘inkjet for home’. But
that’s a good thing.
As technology
has evolved, the range of functions and applications available across a wide
range of different machines means that your business can now take advantage of
the features it needs at a price that is competitive. Combine a smart printer
choice with a MPS solution, and you will be optimising your efficiency in terms
of your business expenditure and your operational effectiveness.
Thanks for reading,
and if you think that this information will be of use to someone else you know,
please don’t hesitate to share it.
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