Monday, July 2, 2012

Knowing the Differences Between Toner and Ink Cartridges

By Joseph Mingioni


Choosing a printer for your home or business can be a tough choice, but it can be made easier knowing the differences between ink cartridges and toner cartridges. Two of the largest differences between the two types of cartridge involve their cost and how each of them will be used. Before going any further at all, you should be aware that toner cartridges go in laser printers, and inkjet printers are the type to use ink cartridges. While a laser printer itself may cost a bit more than an inkjet printer, you will also have the added bonus of getting quantity from a laser printer.

People all over the world are typically familiar with the use of ink cartridges, since inkjet printers are a very common feature in most homes. Ink cartridges will be filled with liquid ink, and this ink will be directed to the paper in your printer when you assign a print job.

When using a laser printer, though, you will most likely be in some kind of corporate office. If you were to look at toner, you would see that it is a fine powder contained in the cartridge; when you do a print job, the toner powder gets sprayed out from a nozzle in much the same ways as an ink cartridge. The reason that large corporations and printing offices choose to use laser printers over inkjet printers can be seen if you run a speed comparison between the two kinds of printers; laser printers are simply much faster. As with any kind of product, laser printer models differ quite a bit when you compare them, but regardless of which type you get, you can be sure that it will be faster than an inkjet printer.

Ink cartridges are almost always less expensive than a toner cartridge. When comparing their quantities, though, you are going to run out of ink much faster than you run out of toner. Ink cartridges also are at risk of drying out before you can use them all the way up -- a problem unknown to those who use toner cartridges. Many people end up throwing out ink cartridges before they've used all the ink, because they have let the ink dry out.

Obviously, you'll need to make your final decision on which sort of printer and cartridge will work for you based on the kind of printing you expect to be doing. Your print needs and wants means more for your decision to use an ink cartridge or toner cartridge than any information you can glean from simply comparing the two types.

Deciding whether to use ink or toner comes down to knowing how you print.




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