Laser printing has typically been limited to the office as the unit costs and ongoing costs of toners made it out of reach to the majority of other users. This is starting to change with makers now selling mono lasers for around £60.

Laser printers are still superior in terms to speed compared to the Inkjet, here the PPM is normally at least double the Inkjet at 20-30PPM. Instead of using Ink these printers coat toner powder onto a drum which has been charged with an electrical current and where the laser has marked points, effectively drawing the letters onto the drum, the toner is attracted to the discharged points then this is rolled onto a sheet of paper. Lasers are easily more cost efficient on a cost per page basis.

Colour laser printers are still very costly at several hundred pounds the output quality is very high most organisations either buy both and keep the Laser for text and use the Inkjet for images and graphics. Or if that is not practical stick with a quality Inkjet even though the text quality and speed performance will be lower.

Inkjet Laser Standalone Online What to consider Resolution Printer Inks Printing Speeds Photo Paper Connections