LASER VS INKJET PRINTERS
Making the choice For many businesses, when deciding on printer fleet, it comes down to a choice of laser or inkjet – but which is best and what role does a reseller need to play in helping customers to come to the right decision?
The death of business printing has been greatly exaggerated. Over the past 20 years or so, the ‘paperless office’ has been touted regularly, but today it is still nowhere near being a reality and printing for many businesses is a daily necessity. This means that businesses still need to buy printers, and getting the right one for their business is imperative. Often the choice comes down to laser or inkjet – and resellers have a vital role in ensuring that customers get the right printers for their business. Distinct qualities Inkjet and laser printers have distinct qualities. “Inkjet printers and MFPs are devices that squirt measured drops of ink onto paper, making them fantastic to use for printing high- quality images on coated stocks like gloss,” explains Rowan Jeffreys-Hoar, director indirect sales, Ricoh UK. “However, the ink can bleed when used on recycled or standard office paper. This means you can likely expect a lower print quality compared to laser printers unless you use expensive coated paper. “It might cost less to buy inkjet printers and MFPs, but the printing costs can be higher as you have to replace the ink. This means they are probably more attractive for personal or home use where we print less so use less ink. Those who print at higher volumes should consider laser technology as it presents lower page and lifetime costs. “Ultimately, the advantage of inkjet printers is their lower initial cost, the unparalleled photo quality when printed on glossy stock, and the fact they consume low energy during operation. However, they have a higher cost per page and can slow down when printing high-resolution graphics. Additionally, when unused for long periods the ink can clog in the print heads meaning they need manual cleaning to fix them.” Janis Kemers, VP print and supplies, TD SYNNEX Europe, agrees on the quality of the colours that inkjet printers can provide:
“Inkjet printers produce good colour rendition, brightness and accuracy compared to laser printers, so enable better quality prints of graphics and photographs,” he says. But there are downsides, he adds. “Once printed on a page, standard inkjet ink could be more likely to fade over time, and not all ink prints provide water resistance.” Janis adds that, going forward, technology such as refillable tank printers will be important. “These enable longer periods of printing with bottles or bags of ink supplied with the printer in the box, ranging from consumer, to SOHO, to SMB and now to enterprise printing,” he says. “This solution is not only providing a low cost per page, but very importantly the most eco-friendly approach to printing.”
Rowan Jeffreys-Hoar director of indirect sales Ricoh UK
ricoh.co.uk
It might cost less to buy inkjet printers and MFPs, but the printing “
costs can be higher as you have to replace the ink.
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