Laser Printers as Compared to Inkjet Printers

1. Jonathan Stanley
EET 251: Computer Configuration II
Professor Bruce Yamashita
08/20/2015
Laser Printers as Compared to Ink Jet Printers
A couple years before my teenage years, I had received my first computer. Needless to
say I was amazed at all it was capable of doing. From the Internet, online and offline games, to
being able to find any information I wanted to at the click of a button, it was hard for me to
imagine anything else that it could do. Over the next few years however, and as computer
technology began to soar, I started to learn about the various types of hardware that could
hookup to computers to perform certain duties and tasks. One of these hardware devices that
stuck out the most to me was the printer, in which I was able to get after a few years of getting
my household’s second family computer. This computer was a package deal through Dell, in
which it came with a monitor, CPU, a scanner, and a printer. All the pieces of hardware were
pretty easy to wrap my head around and learn how to use them as well as how they worked,
except one. The printer seemed to be the most complex piece of the bundle as far as how it
worked. Immediately I became interested in the printer and wanted to know how it was able to
do what it did. In my younger years it seemed like the printing process was, select the right
printer, click print, the information goes into the printer, then magic happens, and then you get a
piece of paper that looks just like the page loaded on to your computer. Every inch of me wanted
to take it apart to see what was on the inside to get an idea of how it worked, although my

2. knowledge of the piece of equipment said otherwise. I was afraid of breaking something or not
being able to put it back together and getting in trouble with the parents.
As the years went on, I researched about printers and got a pretty decent idea about how
they worked and the various types of printers at the time. I basically found that printers are
devices that accepts text and graphic output from a computer and transfers that same information
to paper. Along with this, there are various printer methods including laser printing, inkjet
printing, dot matrix printing, photo printing, dye-sublimation printer, thermal printing, 3D
printing, and so much more. As for the laser, inkjet, and dot matrix however, each one offers a
different speed, print quality, and type of ink cartridge used. In this research paper, I will be
focusing on laser printers and inkjet printers. More specifically, I will be comparing the two in
various ways. I will research topics such as what they are, how they work, the advantages and
disadvantages of each, which one costs more, and which one, if possible, is better than the other.
I will be using various resources online along with my course textbook to find any and all
information about these two types of printers.
The printer is the single most varied piece of equipment in a computer system. By varied,
I mean that they can come in a wide range of styles, different configurations, and each having
their own specific set of features as well as the price variation for each one. There are many
things that printers can or can’t do, and this all depends on the type of printer technology that it
uses, which basically means how it puts images or text onto the paper. Printers in our day and
age are available in several different types which are impact, inkjet, dye-sublimation, thermal,
laser, and solid ink, however we will only be focusing on inkjet and laser printers. Inkjet printers,
which are also known as ink-dispersion printers, are the simplest devices. “An inkjet printer uses
a printhead connected to a carriage that contains the ink. A belt and motor move the carriage

3. back and forth so the ink can cover the whole page. A roller grabs paper from a paper tray
(usually under or inside the printer) or feeder (usually on the back of the printer) and advances it
through the printer” (Meyers, 2012). Once the paper is fed through, the ink is ejected through
tiny tubes. To move the ink however, I learned that inkjet printers use one of two methods. The
first method, in which most inkjet printers use, is to use heat to move the ink, while the second
and least used method is all mechanical. While using the heat method however, the printer uses
tiny resistors or electroconductive plates at the end of each of the tiny tubes that will boil the ink,
thus creating a tiny air bubble that places a small drop of ink onto the paper. The tiny droplet of
ink then becomes a portion of the image being printed. The ink for these printers are stored in
small, special containers known as ink cartridges. Older inkjet printers only consisted of two ink
cartridges, that is one for black ink and one for color ink. In these colored ink cartridge, there
contained three separate compartments for each different color, which meant if you ran out of
one color, you had to replace the whole cartridge, ultimately wasting ink and money. However
due to the modern age and newer inkjet printers, they now contain four separate cartridges which
consisted of one for black, one for red, one for blue, and one for yellow ink. Separating the
cartridges allowed for a more efficient and cost-effective use of ink for the user, along with
providing a higher quality printout. “Today you can find color inkjet printers with six, eight, or
more color cartridges. In addition to the basic inks, the other cartridges provide for green, blue,
gray, light cyan, dark cyan, and more. Typically, the more ink cartridges a printer uses, the
higher the quality of the printed image, as well as the higher the cost of the printer” (Meyers,
2012).
Laser printers on the other hand use a process called electro-photographic imaging. “This
allows them to produce high-quality and high-speed output of both text and graphics” (Meyers,

4. 2012). How a laser printer ultimately works relies on various photoconductive properties of
certain organic compounds. “Photoconductive means that particles of these compounds, when
exposed to light, will conduct electricity. Laser printers usually use small lasers as a light source
because of their precision, while some loser-cost printers may use LED arrays instead” (Meyers,
2012). Instead of ink cartridges, the laser printer uses something called a toner cartridge that
supplies the toner that creates the image onto the page. In addition to this, the toner cartridges
also contain other laser printer parts that suffer the most wear and tear over the lifetime of the
printer. This makes the need for replacing individual parts pretty much impossible and lowers
maintenance costs for the users because all the parts that are most likely to break are replaced
when you replace the toner cartridge. The first ever laser printers used to only print in black and
white, but due to technological advancement, can now print in color even though most laser
printers produced today are black and white printers. This is probably due to the fact that colored
laser printers are more expensive than black and white laser printers, due to the colored printers
having four separate toner cartridges for each color which includes black, blue, red, and yellow.
The overall operation of a laser printer is bit more complex than that of an inkjet printer because
it contains a lot more parts that work together to produce a printed page. These parts include the
photosensitive drum or imaging drum, the erase lamp, the primary corona/charge roller, the laser,
the toner, the transfer corona/transfer roller, the fuser assembly, the power supplies, the turning
gears, the system board, the ozone filter, and the sensors and switches. Sounds a bit complicated
doesn’t it? After reading through the description of each piece and how they coincide with one
another however, I learned that the basic operation of the laser printer is that when the data is
sent to the printer from the computer, a laser will project the image of the page to be printed onto
the electrically charged imaging drum. Then photoconductivity will allow the charged particles

5. to fall away from the areas exposed to the laser. The toner particles are then electrostatically
attracted to the charged areas of the imaging drum that have not been hit by the laser. The drum
will then transfer the image into the paper by passing through rollers, allowing direct contact.
After this, the paper is passed onto a finisher, which is the part of the laser printer that uses
intense heat to instantly bond the toner onto the paper, producing the resulting printed page. As I
researched the two printers I realized that laser printers are a lot more involved than inkjet
printers.
Although inkjet and laser printers are probably among the most popular of printers used
today, there are several advantages and disadvantages to each one. Inkjet printers have a
numerous amount of advantages including being smaller and lighter, low cost, cheaper ink
cartridges, easy to replace or refill cartridges, excellent photo quality, and include no warm-up
time. An inkjet printer’s size and weight makes it ideal for at home or small office use as it can
fit into tight spaces. Lower costs refer to the inkjet printers having “a low startup cost and being
less expensive than laser printers, as well as having ink cartridges that are cheaper to buy than
toner cartridges” (Williford, 2012). In addition to low startup costs, inkjet printers “are also
cheaper to replace since it is often easier and cheaper to just buy a new printer if it breaks down”
(ComputerHope, 2015). Along with ink cartridges being cheaper to buy, they can also be
“refilled and reused, cutting down on waste and saving money” (Williford, 2012). As for
excellent photo quality, “inkjet printers are geared towards photo printing and can produce
amazing results, printing pictures with vivid colors, high contrasts, and virtually no pixilation”
(ComputerHope, 2015). Although having some very impressive advantages, inkjet printers also
have a few disadvantages. These disadvantages include less efficient ink use, slower printing,
and they can be a bit messy to clean. “Inkjet printers have a higher cost per page when it comes

6. to printing, due to their rather inefficient usage of ink. When compared to inkjet printers, laser
printers are much more efficient with their use of toner” (ComputerHope, 2015). Inkjet printers
being slower than laser printers is mostly due to each jet tube of ink placing a pixel of an image
or text onto the printed page one spot at a time. In cleaning at inkjet printer, “it is not an easy or
clean task, as ink cartridges can sometimes leak and the ink can stain almost anything it comes in
contact with, including clothes and hands” (ComputerHope, 2015).
As for laser printers, there are multiple advantages and disadvantages for them as well.
Some advantages of laser printers include a more efficient use of toner, faster print speeds, and
are less messy to clean up. Although toner cartridges cost more than ink cartridges, the toner will
ultimately last longer making the “cost per page considerably less, which means a total lower
cost of ownership over the life of the printer” (ComputerHope, 2015). It is a given that due to
overall printing process, a laser printer will print multiple documents a lot faster than inkjet
printers will. Laser printers are less messy to clean up because the toner does not stain as bad as
ink does which makes cleaning the printer not as horrible. Along with these advantages, there are
also some disadvantages to laser printers. These disadvantages consist of a larger physical size,
needing a warm up period, upfront costs for toner is more expensive, and laser printers cannot
print great quality graphics or photos due to the use of powdered ink rather than liquid ink.
According to the size of a laser printer, there exists “some compact laser printers on the market,
but in general, laser printers are bigger and heavier than their inkjet counterparts” (Williford,
2012). As for the warm up period of a laser printer, this is mainly due to the finisher process that
heats up the toner on the printed page to permanently bond the powdered ink to the page. As I
concluded my research about these two types of printers, I learned that laser printers are most
commonly used for bigger businesses that have a tendency to print multiple documents at a time

7. along with having to print these multiple documents on a daily basis. On the other hand however,
inkjet printers are most commonly used for home and personal use due do their lower startup
cost, smaller size, durability, and their great print quality for photos and other documents.
Overall, inkjet and laser printers have a huge amount of advantages and disadvantages
that are specific to each one. For anybody who is deciding to grab one of these printers, they
must weigh the pros and cons of each type and decide what is best for them. The most important
deciding factor when choosing a printer however, comes down to what somebody is looking for
in a printer and focusing on what they plan to print with it and how often they plan to print it. If
somebody wanted a printer that would last a long time, use ink more efficiently, and plan to print
multiple documents every day, then the laser printer may be the way to go. Along with these
basic needs, the laser printer could also offer a longer life span, little or no maintenance due to all
of the easily broken parts being included inside the toner cartridge, faster printing after warming
up, and not as messy to maintain or clean. If somebody wanted a printer just to have one in case
it is needed, wanted to print the occasional document or photo, or didn’t have a whole lot of
money to put down on a printer at the time of buying one, then the inkjet printer may be the best
option. Along with these basic needs, an inkjet printer can also offer a smaller size which can fit
into tight places, cheaper and refillable ink cartridges, excellent photo printing quality, and have
almost no warm up time to start printing. Inkjet printers are among the most popular printers
however, as more and more people are using them for at home or personal business use. Due to
this factor, inkjet printers will always be on top because there will never be more businesses
needing laser printers than households using inkjet printers. Perhaps one day when printing
technology advances further and further, laser printers will become more affordable, smaller, and
turn out to be the preferred printing method among each and every household worldwide.

8. References
1) Meyers, M. (2012). CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide 8/E 220
801&802, 8th Edition: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
2) Williford, T. (2012, August 28). Pros & Cons for Home Use: Inkjet vs. Laser Printers.
Retrieved from http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/inkjet-vs-laser-printers-which-is
better-for-home-use-176198
3) ComputerHope. (2015). Inkjet vs. Laser Printer. Retrieved from http://www.computerho
pe.com/issues/ch001400.htm