Whats the diferance between a lazer jet printer and a ink jet printer?

Answer 1

An ink jet printer shoots ink at the paper. A laser printer uses powder that is heated up along a rod and the letters are 'stuck' to the paper using electrostatic charges.

Answer 2

At a very simple level, the practical difference to the user is that the laser printer makes up the image of a whole page at a time then prints it very quickly. An inkjet effectively prints the page a character at a time and doesn't necessarily take more than a line into its memory at any given time.

They use very different technologies, though in essence (amazingly) most of the ideas go back a couple of hundred years.

Inkjets tend to be cheaper to buy but very much more expensive to run

Inkjets tend to be slower

Inkjets, because they're line printers rather than page printers, tend not to be able to print as near to the top and the bottom of a page as lasers can, so you have to use bigger top and bottom margins

Material produced on inkjets tends to be less resistant to fading and to the ink running when it gets wet

Laser printers work by fusing toner (carbon, for black print) into the paper under heat and pressure and tend to produce the most permanent print currently available.

Colour laser printers are amazingly cheap.

In point of fact all printer manufacturers now seem to aim to make their money out of the supply of toner or ink, rather than by selling printers. Accordingly the big question is not the initial price, but the cost of toner or ink. "Do it yourself" refilling of toner cartridges (and some ink cartridges) is possible at very economical prices.

All in all, at the current moment laser printers are faster and much less troublesome, as well as being cheaper to run. If you choose one which uses cartridges it's easy to refill, then you're on to a winner.

Answer 3

If you make lots of copies and want them fast...get a Laser. Color is available also!

Ink Jets are the cheaper printers for printing an occasional eMail or term paper, even a color picture once in a while.

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Answer 4

If you are thinking of buyin a laser printer or an inkjet printer, here is a good article http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1950419218

As far as I know, laser printers are best for black and white as they are faster and black and white cartridges are cheaper for the large amount that you can print out with them.

However, inkjet are generally slower and more value for money if you want to print color.

Hope it helps!