There was once a clear-cut boundary between the laser printer and the inkjet printer. The laser printer offered high, fast output and was best suited to offices with heavy but simple printing requirements. The inkjet printer was smaller, more versatile and suited for low volume printing in the home or perhaps a home office.

There is still a certain amount of truth in this old wisdom but as laser printers have become smaller and more versatile and inkjet printers have become faster and better able to cope with high volume printing the lines have become blurred. So the question becomes, “should I invest in a laser printer or is an inkjet printer the way to go?”

The modern printer has to accommodate many demands both at home and in the office. It’s all about having the right tools for the job. Laser printers have got smaller and with laser printers like the Samsung SCX 4623 F toner printer or a HP LaserJet M 1130 MFP Toner printer being in the same basic price bracket as good inkjet printers such as the HP OfficeJet 6500 you might wonder why not go for the laser printer? They print crisply, quickly, and with toner cartridges they almost always have a higher page yield than inkjet printers. So, they would be fine choices – if you only needed to print in black-and-white. Unlike the HP OfficeJet 6500 ink printer, which has full colour capacity, the Samsung SCX 4623 and HP LaserJet printers only take black toner cartridges and can only print in one colour.

You might be tempted by one of the cheaper colour laser printers, like the Samsung CLP-315 toner printer. These can be respectable workhorse printers, but can be more than double the price you would have paid for a black and white laser printer while not giving you the same quality of colour image that you could expect from an inkjet printer. Inkjet printers offer versatility and the capacity to print on a whole range of mediums, such as photo paper and T-shirt transfers. Generally speaking, inkjet printers, such as the HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 ink printer mix colours and handle images better than the lower-priced colour laser printers.

When deciding on a printer look at what you need it to do for you, and judge what it is likely to cost you over its lifetime rather than just at the time of purchase. There really is a lot to consider on this issue and as the gap in performance between both laser and inkjet printers narrows it’s likely to get harder to make a general statement about the better type of printer for a particular task.

For the moment though a good rule of thumb is that if you want high quality low-yield prints, with graphical content, for home or small office use, your best bet is an inkjet printer. As your volume of printing increases, the greater capacity of toner cartridges and cleaner, faster prints may make a laser printer the better option.

Fortunately Inksaver.co.za is here to ensure that you don’t have to make these decisions alone, give us a call and take advantage of our customer support services. Whether you just need advice or access to the widest range of quality toner and ink cartridges in South Africa, we’re here for you.