Inkjet printers and laser printers
Inkjet printers operate by forcing droplets of ink on to the paper via a nozzle, whereas, laser printer uses laser beam for image processing. Laser printers use toner which is a dry plastic powder mixed with carbon black or colouring agent which is very economical.

Advantages of laser printers
Laser printers facilitate precision based printing and they are considered to be cheaper to run, whereas inkjet printers are expensive to run.

Larger volumes could be handled by laser printers as they print relatively faster than inkjet printers. In the case of inkjet printers, printing speed is quite slow and it cannot handle bulk printing.  In the laser technology based printers, the ink dries quickly, unlike the prints produced by the inkjet printers which take time to dry.

Laser printers are best suited for small business and for home use. Such printers come with advanced features, high volume paper tray and multiple finishing options than inkjet printers, resulting in increased productivity. The incorporated advanced technology in these printers enable one to take print outs rapidly, whereby the cost of printing per paper is reduced considerably.

Laser printers are becoming cheap each day and with the increasing demand for these printers, you could expect advanced models in the future. At present, you can choose from the available various improved models and designs.

Consider you requirements and then choose the type of printer, whether laser or inkjet. For instance, if you want to print monochrome pages in bulk quantities, go for monochrome laser printers than an inkjet printer.

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Basic Parts

The basic parts of laser printer are a toner hopper, corona wire and discharge lamp, laser scanning unit, fuser, developer roller and a photoreceptor drum assembly. All these parts can be considered as a heart of a laser printer, if any of these parts gets damaged or goes wrong then it is to be replaced or should be given for an intensive repair.

Benefits

There are great models of inkjet printers that are available in the souk, but most of them prefer laser printer as it gives the most accurate and good quality print, with greater printing speed. While comparing the features of an inkjet printer and a laser printer, laser printer seems to be useful to some people as per their need. Laser printers will give you the prints with the accurate quality and speed. The printing speed will be too good when compared to other printers.

Laser printers may be a bit expensive, but when purchased, the toner of the printer can be used for a long time and not like the inkjet cartridges. Inkjet cartridges tend to get over at a less time period and the toner will let you print lots of information unlike inkjet printers.

People still use inkjet printers due to its cost effectiveness. Due to the technological development it is sure that the prices of the inkjet printer will drop.

Here are few steps to follow:

• The first step you have to do is setting the default print quality. If you want it as high, you have to choose ‘high’ option. Otherwise you may select ‘low’ option for low quality printing. This adjustment changes the universal quality of your laser printer. To choose this option, you have to choose ‘Printer preferences’ from the control panel.

• Then you can modify the basic quality of individual print jobs. To alter the individual print job, you have to choose a program which will be shown in the ‘Print’ dialogue box.

• Changing the old toner cartridges is also a simple step to improve the printing quality. How will you know that you are in a position to change the cartridges? Here is the simple trick. Suppose you set ‘high’ option to set print quality, but still all your printed documents are low in quality, you have to understand that you printer needs a new cartridge.

• Setting appropriate printer preference according to the type of paper in which you want to take printouts. The consumption of ink will vary on the basis of distinct type of papers that you use.

• If you have a picture editing software, you can change the quality of picture with the help of that software. It is the simplest way to sharpen a picture without more ink consumption.

• Cleaning the printer regularly allows the unit to work effectively.

Advantages to laser printers are no smearing of ink after printing is complete, overall lower printing costs per page when doing high volume printing, and usually speed. Disadvantages are slow warm up speed if printing has been stopped, initial costs higher than inkjets, and generally low quality colour reproduction.

Paper

Generally laser printers will be boxy in shape to accommodate the mechanical parts necessary to make its special printing process happen. The paper will have its own tray, though a few will have extending flat feeder guides. Paper capacity may range from 50 sheets to 500 or more. Paper size is generally limited, though higher end models can accommodate larger sheets. Be sure to select the printer with the right capacities and sizes for your work load.

A duplexing unit will allow you to print on both sides of the paper, cutting costs.

Speed

Laser printers load the entire image first. After this, all parts of the ink laying process can occur simultaneously, greatly speeding up the process. Paper speeds are measured in pages per minute (ppm). From model to model this ranges from 5 pages per minute to more than 25 pages per minute. Some high end office models can print 200 pages a minute. Black and white printers tend to print 15 pages per minute or more. Photo laser printers generally print less than 5 pages per minute. They can be very slow, especially when high quality is required.

Resolution

Resolution is labeled in dpi or dots per inch. It measures the quality and clarity of the output. The number will be given in terms of horizontal and vertical resolution. Typical laser printer resolution is 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi. Laser printers can be more precise than other printers and usually generate higher resolution black and white output. Resolution and quality of colour output generally suffers. Higher quality colour printing can be had to the detriment of speed and economics.

Colour

Traditional colour laser printing requires the printer to transfer each of the three different colours separately. Misalignment of the drum can occur which causes blurring or other quality issues. Some laser printers have an extra large drum in which all colours may be laid down without moving the drum first, improving accuracy. These will print very slowly. Sometimes the ink will be waxy instead of the traditional powdered toner.

Colour capable printers will generally be the only ones capable of direct connect. Direct connect allows you to hook a device such as a digital camera directly to the printer.

Printer Type

Laser printers are available as network printers, photoprinters, personal printers and workgroup printers. Higher end models can do multi-functions such as photocopy, or fax.

Network printers allow multiple computers to use them. They usually have a wireless connection.

Personal Printers are connected to one computer. They can be wireless or connected by a cable.

Work group printers are a type of network printer which is dedicated to a specific work group in the office.

Photo printers are technologically specialized to handle special inks and create quality photos. Photo capable printers are more likely to come with memory card slots and pict bridges. Pict bridges allow the printer to read the memory card with out the aid of a computer.

Platform

An operating platform is the software that runs your computer. Examples of this are Micrsoft winders XP, NT, Vista, or MAC. Its very important to select a printer that is compatible with your operating system or the two will not be able to communicate.

Memory

Since laser printers load the entire document prior to printing, it must contain a certain amount of memory. Having a large memory is critical when printing extremely long or graphic intense documents, or graphics alone. Memory is known as RAM (random access memory). The printer should have at least 1 MB of RAM for one page of low resolution graphics, and 4 MB of RAM for 1 page of higher resolution graphics.