Printers Buyers Guide

Printer Technology

There are two main types of printing technologies - by which we mean how the image gets onto the paper - inkjet and laser or LED. Let’s take a look at each one.

InkJet Printing

Inkjet printers each feature a print head containing thousands of tiny holes, and these tiny openings drop microscopic droplets of ink onto the paper. Inkjet machines use a liquid ink produced either by either a coloured dye or a liquid that contains solid pigments in suspension. As the print head moves horizontally in the machine, the paper passes through perpendicular to it. As the page passes through, the individual holes in the print head are activated (usually by heat or electrical current depending on the manufacturer) and a small drop of ink is pushed out onto the page. This process is performed at high speed with thousands of droplets forming together to recreate the digital text or image that is being transferred onto the paper. To the naked eye, the overall image looks to be solid because the dots are so tiny.

Laser or LED Printing

Laser and LED machines work in a similar way to inkjet in that the image is made up of lots of tiny dots, which, when viewed as a whole, appear to be a solid image. However, the method in which the tiny dots make their way onto the paper is vastly different. Where an inkjet uses liquid dots, a laser machine uses dots made up of toner – a fine powder of solid particles. When compared with an inkjet machine, lasers are much more complex. These machines rely on many more stages during the process than inkjet. In simple terms, the basic process uses a light source (laser / LED), drum (for mono) or multiple drums (for colour) and toner.

In order to create an image on the page, the drum is first charged and then the laser or LED is shone onto the drum in the outline of the intended image. The toner itself is attracted to areas of the drum that have the charge knocked off and a series of rollers transfer the powder from the toner cartridge and presents it at the drum. The areas that are charged repel the toner and the area that is not attracts the toner particles which are pulled onto the drum and stick to the parts that make up the image. At the same time, the paper is also transported to meet the drum, which, in turn, transfers the image across to the page itself. The paper is then passed through a fuser unit (a hot roller) which applies heat and pressure to melt the toner particles so that they stick to the page and create a finished image.

Inkjet or Laser / LED Printer?

So which technology should you choose?
If you’re looking for a home printer for occasional printing, we would advise you to buy an inkjet printer, especially if you’ll only be printing small volumes of documents and coloured images, inkjet printers will get the job done. Laser and LED printers are known to be more durable and can print large quantities of monochrome and coloured documents frequently.

Colour laser / LED printers are good for everyday colour printing but if you’re looking to print professional high resolution photos, go with a photo inkjet printer. High quality photo inkjet printers are specially engineered to produce vividly detailed photos with the tonal variety and deeper blacks that photographers and creatives need. Many professional photo inkjet printers use pigment-based ink which is more fade-resistant and works with a wide variety of art paper types as well as a range of paper sizes, but you can also find dye-based photo inkjet printers if you don’t require the longevity of pigment ink. The below summary table gives a brief comparison, but we’ll look at each of these facets in more detail later.

It’s also worth noting that since there are less moving parts, LED printers are more reliable than laser printers over time. They are also smaller and lighter so they may appeal to those working in smaller offices.

Printer Performance

Now we’ll look at all the facets that impact how an image will look on paper, how fast the printer can produce this and in what volume over time. These intertwined characteristics all have an impact on which type of printer will be best for your individual needs.

Mono or Colour Printing

A common perception is that inkjet printers are better with coloured images, and laser printers are best for black and white text. The technology behind the two printers also determine the limitations they have when it comes to the quality of their print results. This difference manifests itself more noticeably when printing high-resolution photographs. Advancements in printer technology have allowed colour laser printers to now produce impressive full colour photos as well. Although inkjet printers still win over laser when it comes to high resolution photos boasting rich tones and depth, colour laser printers are now an option to consider for those looking to print medium-quality colour images while enjoying the reliability, endurance, and economic benefits of a laser printer.

In summary:

• Mono laser printers: Excellent for text and documents
• Inkjet printers: Great for all round use on documents and medium-quality colour images
• Photo inkjet printers: Excellent for printing high quality photos with wide colour range and tonal depth

Print Quality

As we’ve seen, printers print by applying ink or toner onto the paper. The resolution of a printer is measured in dots per inch (DPI) and when more dots are squeezed into a square inch, the resulting image is sharper. A 600DPI printer squeezes 600 dots horizontally and 600 dots vertically in every square inch of the sheet. Some inkjet printers have a higher resolution in one direction, so you might also see a resolution like 600 x 1200DPI. Up to a point, the higher the resolution, the crisper the image on the sheet.

Printers can place dots of different sizes, intensities, and shapes onto the page, changing the way the print out looks. Some printers are capable of an optimised DPI print process, meaning their printheads calculate the placement of ink drops to improve the print quality. Optimised DPI occurs when the paper moves through the printer in one direction more slowly than usual. As a result, the dots overlap somewhat. The final result is rich, however this technique uses more ink and time than the printer's standard settings.

Whether you need higher resolution capability depends on what you mainly be printing. For a letter or business document with graphics, 300DPI will look fine. For the average photographer, 1200DPI would be ideal and these specs are within reach of most printers on the market. There are exceptions - a professional photographer may want a higher resolution and should consider at least 2880 x 1440DPI or higher.

Print speed

Print speed may be an important factor to one user and completely irrelevant for another - again it comes down to usage. A photographer may want a high quality print no matter how long it takes, whereas an office may have a requirement to regularly print documents running to hundreds of pages. The speed of a printer is measured in pages per minute (PPM). Laser printers are built to accommodate the demands of a workplace so they are engineered to print faster (between 15 to 100 PPM), while inkjet printers print slower at about 16 PPM. Since laser printers are faster, they are able to produce more documents compared to inkjet printers and therefore have a higher monthly print volume.

Print Volume

Print volume refers to how much your printer can print at a given time. A laser printer is considered to be the workhorse of the office because of its capability to quickly print large amounts of documents. Given that inkjet printers are meant for home use, their print volume is significantly smaller.

A seemingly small difference in PPM can lead to a huge different in monthly print volume. The monthly print volume refers to the recommended number of pages a printer should produce to keep the device in optimum condition - not too much stress versus enough volume so that ink doesn’t dry out.

There is also another figure quoted called the ‘duty cycle’, this refers to the absolute maximum a printer should be able to cope with without issues occurring - paper jams, component failure and the like. All these figures should be used in conjunction to determine the best printer for your needs - you don’t want to overwork a printer but neither do you want it sat idle.

Page Yield

Page yield is the amount of pages you will get from the ink or toner in your printer. Toner cartridges will deliver a greater page yield than ink cartridges as toners last longer than ink cartridges. Most ink cartridges contain an ink volume that can usually print between 135 – 1000 pages. Toner cartridge page yields can range from 2,000 to upwards of 10,000.

If you have a high monthly print volume you may find that the lower yield of ink cartridges becomes very expensive, so a laser printer may be the better option. Furthermore, it is highly recommended that when choosing a printer you not only look at the cost of the device but the cost of replacement ink or toner cartridges too, in order to understand what printing will really cost you in the long run. A good way to compare these is ‘cost per page’.

cost per page = cartridge price / cartridge page yield

Using the examples of the inkjet printer versus laser printer we used above, the below table gives you a typical estimate of how the costs per page compare.

Dual Sided Printing

Dual sided or duplex printing is basically printing on both sides of the sheet of paper. This is advantageous as it saves paper costs and reduces the amount of paper in any given document. Double-sided printing consumes less energy compared to normal printing too. The speed at which a printer can produce a double-sided document is down to whether it has a single or a dual print engine.

With a single-engine duplexer, each page of your print job prints on one side first and then flips over and prints on the other side. This method is common in lower cost inkjet and laser models. A double-engine duplexer means that both sides of the media are printed simultaneously. With this method, usually found in high-end laser printers, a conductor belt generates a picture of both sides of the print job using the data retrieved from your PC. Then, it sends both sides of the page image to one of two transfuser belts that merge and apply toner as pieces of paper slide through the printing device.

Paper Handling

As we’ve seen higher end printers offer better print volumes and speed, so naturally they need larger volume paper trays to cope with the throughput. They may be simply able to hold more blank pages or have multiple trays for different types of paper - A4, photo A4, or A3. They will also feature bigger output bins too, so printed documents don’t require collecting quite as often if there are many print jobs in progress.

Printer Connectivity

To use a printer (or its scanning functionality) you need to be connected to it in one way or another. There are three common ways to do this - USB, LAN port or wirelessly. Let’s take a look at each.

Specialist Printers

The printers we’ve covered so far deal with the vast majority of print scenarios - text, documents, photos that will be good enough for most users - however, there are a number of specialist models that we briefly touched on. Let’s look a little deeper.

Photo Inkjet Printers

Photo inkjet printers stand apart from regular inkjet printers in that they usually contain many more ink tanks - up to 10 or 12 in some models versus 5 or 6 in a regular printer. The reason for this is in order to produce much more realistic images with tonal depth, hues and richness. Not only are there more of these inks, but they are usually pigment based, rather than dye based. Dye inks consist of a soluble colourant, or dye, dissolved in liquid, while pigment inks consist of microscopic specks of solid colours which are suspended in liquid.

Dye inks are cheaper to produce than pigment ink so you’ll find that they are the most common inks used in entry-level and mid-range photo printers. You’ll get great colour vibrancy as dye inks tend to offer brighter and more vivid colours than pigment inks and so especially effective for colourful portraiture or landscape images. Dye also works with a range of photo papers with the best results coming on high gloss media – ideal for album photography. Pigment ink, however is found in professional-grade photo printers, capable of high-quality output onto a variety of media. It also has durable output as pigment inks don’t smudge and are lightfast - ideal for photos that will be on display. Pigment ink also gives consistent results with all finishes of media including gloss, matte, lustre or even fine art canvas. Also, having multiple black inks offer the best results for black and white photography.

Photo printers will usually be able to print A3 or even A2 sizes too, to offer greater flexibility in size and shape of images. Typically their print resolution quality is much higher too, with 5760 x 1440 or 4800 x 2400 DPI not being uncommon.

Ink Tank Printers

Ink tank printers are regular inkjet printers but with much large refillable tanks rather than replaceable cartridges - the idea being that refilling a larger ink receptacle from a bottle creates higher page yield and lower cost per page.

This type of printer is ideal if you want the lower costs associated with laser printers but better flexibility with photo printing.

Large Format Printers

Large format printers (LFPs) provide a way to print very large images - these are ideal if you’re a professional photographer requiring large superb quality prints, a commercial printer producing marketing displays, or an architect drafting building designs.

LFPs include models designed specifically for CAD line drawings, formerly known as plotters. These have the ability to print high quality line drawings, graphics and images of 3D renders.

Barcode Printers

A barcode printer is a printer designed to produce barcode labels which can be attached to other objects. Barcode printers use either direct thermal or thermal transfer techniques to apply ink to labels. Thermal transfer printers use ink ribbons to apply the barcode directly into the label, while thermal transfer printers use heat to blacken the barcode onto the label.

While both are effective, barcodes produced from direct thermal printers are more likely to become unreadable if exposed to elements such as heat, sunlight, and chemicals, and therefore don’t have the longevity of barcodes made with thermal transfer. Because of the longevity of the barcodes produced by thermal transfer printers, as well as their overall printing quality and higher expense of production materials, they tend to be more costly than direct thermal printers. Barcode printers can be used for small business to industrial use, and are most commonly used for shipping products.

3D Printers

3D printers differ greatly from regular paper printing - they use computer-aided design (CAD) to create three-dimensional objects through a layering method. Sometimes referred to as additive manufacturing, 3D printing involves layering materials, like plastics, composites or bio-materials to create objects that range in shape, size, rigidity and colour.

Although a relatively new technology, it has been adopted by manufacturing industries to create low cost prototypes, the medical profession for rapid production and even F1 racing teams to produce car components quickly at race events. Due to it being an entirely different printing process you can learn more in our dedicated 3D Printers Buyers Guide.

The Best Printers

Hopefully, you’ve found this printer guide useful in advising the considerations that should come into purchasing a printer. Click on the links below to explore our ranges of printers and accessories.

If you need further assistance with your printer choice, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our friendly advisors.