3 Types of Printers

When considering purchasing a new printer, you have multiple types to choose from that
could meet your needs. Inkjet and laser printers are examples of printers both home and
business users can use to print high-quality text documents and photos, although
performance and costs vary between these options. There are also special-purpose printers
that are most common for companies that need to print invoices, receipts or even physical
objects. Understanding the features, uses, pros and cons of these three types of printer
options can help you make an informed choice.

credit: jittawit.21/iStock/GettyImages

Inkjet Printers

A popular choice for home users, inkjet printers are an economic option for printing high-
quality documents and photos in both color and black and white. This type of printer
features a print head with nozzles that spray ink from ink cartridges onto the paper. Inkjet
printers typically have at least two ink cartridges – a black ink cartridge and a tri-color one
with magenta, yellow and cyan ink – although some photo printers use separate cartridges
for individual colors. Despite their relatively low price, many inkjet printers are capable of
printing high-quality documents and photos between 300 to 600 dots per inch and
sometimes even higher.

Inkjet printer advantages include capability for printing black and white documents quickly
and having many options available under $100 for home users. Downsides include being
slower than laser printers for color documents and involving a higher expense per page
due to ink replacement requirements. In addition, some drying time is necessary after
printing documents to prevent smearing of ink.

Laser Printers

Available in monochrome and color versions, laser printers are particularly popular with
people who need to print hundreds or thousands of pages a month. Instead of using a print
head and liquid ink cartridges, these printers use a cartridge with a powder called toner
and feature a complex system that includes a laser, charged wires, print drum, mirror and
fusing rollers. These printing components work together to generate positive and negative
electrical charges and heat that help release and melt the toner powder onto the page to
print your text and images.

A benefit of using a laser printer is that you can print quality documents at a quick speed,
up to around 40 pages per minute for monochrome pages and 26 pages per minute for
color pages. While they do cost more upfront, laser printers offer a lower printing cost per
page since you can print thousands of pages before needing to replace the toner cartridge.
The University of Wisconsin, however, warns that laser printers usually aren't the
recommended option for printing photos at home, especially due to the high cost of color
laser printers.

Special-Purpose Printers
While inkjet and laser printers satisfy daily printing needs for most users, special-purpose
printers exist for commercial and home usage. Often used to print invoices for businesses, a
dot-matrix printer (also called an impact printer) has a print head with pins that press
down on an ink ribbon to create the characters on a document. Other common business
printers are thermal printers, which use heat and special paper or ink to produce
documents such as receipts, and line printers, which print a whole line at a time and use a
continuous paper feed. A newer special-purpose printer both businesses and home users
can use is a 3D printer, which lets you create physical objects using computer modeling
software and a special plastic filament.

Which Printer Is Best for Home Use?

Laser and inkjet printers are the two categories of printers that most home users choose. If
you're looking for an inexpensive printer to print documents and photos, then an inkjet
printer can be a good choice. You might consider an all-in-one version if you want the
convenience of making copies, scanning pages and possibly sending faxes with one unit. If
you mostly print black-and-white documents and have a very high print volume, you might
prefer a laser printer for its speed and lower cost per page printed. However, a color laser
printer is likely not economical for regular home users.

Advantages & Disadvantages of

Printers
Computer printers are a common sight in homes and offices. They often come as part of a
computer bundle that includes a mouse, keyboard and monitor. Computer printers also
come in several varieties, including simple inexpensive models and high-end versions with
many features. Having a printer has definite advantages, but also carries certain
drawbacks.
Inkjet printers use replaceable ink cartridges.

Convenience

The primary advantage of a computer printer is convenience. Printing documents at home

can save time and money compared to visiting a commercial printer or office supply store.
It is also a good way to manage documents and paperwork by producing hard copies to use
as backups or by printing documents or letters that need to be mailed out.

Initial Cost

The first disadvantage of printers comes from the initial cost. For users who only print
documents occasionally, establishing a good relationship with a local print shop may be a
good idea, and a more cost-effective option than investing several hundred dollars in a
home printer. While some basic models are very affordable, the sky is the limit with color
laser printers and high-quality photo printers, representing a substantial investment.

Long-Term Cost

Printers continue to cost money after they are purchased. Users will need to provide a
constant supply of paper, which can be especially expensive for photo printers that
produce images on high-quality, glossy photo paper. Ink and toner, for inkjet and laser
printers, respectively, are also expensive and need to be replaced with use. Finally, any
printer may require occasional maintenance or repairs, leading to even greater cost.

Waste

Having a printer connected to a computer is a way of encouraging waste. Users may be

more likely to print hard copies of documents that they could easily read online or off of the
computer's monitor. Excess printing wastes electricity, ink and paper, and can add up to a
substantial cost over time. When only essential documents get sent out for printing, and
only after extensive proofreading, there is much less waste.

Features

Another significant advantage of a printer is the long list of features certain models include.
Besides printing documents and photos, some printers can also scan, fax and make copies.
This means that a computer printer may actually replace several different machines,
reducing clutter and streamlining a home office.