Inkjet (or DeskJet) printers and Laser (or LaserJet) printers have very different methods of printing. Laser printers use toner power in toner cartridges. Laser and heat are used to bond toner powder to the printed paper. An inkjet printer uses liquid ink in inkjet cartridges. The liquid ink is sprayed through nozzles onto the printed paper where it dries.
The ink in inkjet cartridges can sometimes dry up and this causes small blockages within the printhead nozzles that spray the ink onto the paper. This can lead to your prints being streaky and faded, or completely missing one colour. You can often clear the blockages by choosing the option to “clean printheads” in your printer settings. Sometimes you have to clean the printheads multiple times to get a clean print. We recommend you print a test page to make sure everything is printing properly before you go back to printing your project.
If cleaning the printheads doesn’t work, for some printer models you can buy cleaning cartridges. The inkjet printer cleaning cartridges will clean the printheads and will break up and remove any ink that has dried inside the nozzles within the printhead.
An inkjet printer is generally less expensive than a laser printer, and works well if you’re going to print a few pages regularly. Many inkjet printers are used specifically to print high quality photographs.
Inkjet cartridges have a lower page yield than toner cartridges. This means you can generally print a few hundred pages with an inkjet cartridge. Toner cartridges can generally print several thousand to tens of thousands of pages. The printer you choose depends on what you are going to print regularly.
If you have any questions about the type of printer you need for your office, please feel free to ask your ETB Account Manager! We are here to help you with all your printer consumable needs! 😊