Colonial Printing

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• faithcopeland:

  February 9, 2010 at 1:26 pm

  laser printing is cheaper if you have to mass priint out lots
  but ink jet will give you a better quality if you do small amounts of printing
  faith
  References :
• ns_comp_tech:

  February 9, 2010 at 1:40 pm

  maybe but cheap ink jets usually give better print than you describe unless you have either left it idle for an extended period of time or used a cheap clone ink/refill ink.
  Unless you are printing large graphics you will normally pay about 15 cents per page for ink etc. If you move to a laser you may reduce this to 7 cents. At a saving of 8 cents per page how many pages will you need to print to justify the cost of a laser? If you are doing photos with the printer be careful as some colour lasers suck doing photos.
  References :
• Laura H:

  February 9, 2010 at 2:29 pm

  I recommend laser for businesses. Ink for private home use. You want speed and reliability.
  Printing issues are much less common with laser, due to how the printing is implemented. Inkjets have issues with clogging and the expense with the laser may be initiate(in the beginning), but over the long term it is cheaper.
  20-30 pages per week is more fit for a laser due to price in the long run. The exception may be if you use color a lot(most businesses don’t). If this is the case, hmmm… That’s more debatable, but I still say a laser is the better option
  References :
• Adnan Sallam:

  February 9, 2010 at 3:07 pm

  go for laser.
  References :
• Keep It Simple HTML:

  February 9, 2010 at 3:13 pm

  I would purchase either a black and white laser or a color laser in case you need color later.

  With lasers you get more prints with the ink than with inkjet.
  References :
• Jon. J:

  February 9, 2010 at 3:43 pm

  If you just need to print balck and white sheets, I’d very much suggest going for a monochrome laser printer. All of them will produce clear, sharp text that won’t smear or run.

  The big problem with lasers is the cost. Initially, they cost more than an inkjet. And the consumables (the ink equivalent) are rather expensive.

  A laser printer needs the following items replaced regularly:
  Photoreceptor
  Toner
  Waste toner bottle
  Wiper blades

  On a cheaper laser printer, these are all combined into one cartridge. On an expensive laser printer, they are all separate. The toner is the "ink". The photoreceptor is where the printer directs the laser to charge it up prior to using this charge to deposit toner on the page. Some of the toner chucked at the page comes off and ends up in the waste toner bottle and the wiper blades are the bits that scoop off the waste toner.

  Now, these days you can get quite a nice monochrome laser printer for around 150 US dollars . What you need to work out is the price of consumables.

  So let’s have a look at some figures.

  Here’s a nice, cheap ($160) laser printer. HP have made laser printers for a long time and know what they’re doing, so it will work just fine.
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828104708

  Now, the consumables for that printer are all combined into one cartridge. And here’s that cartridge at an eye-watering $95. Ouch.
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828228038

  The printer will handle 7000 pages (and that’s pages of text) before you need a new cartridge. So the cost of the printer is $160 and that includes the first 7,000 pages. After that it’s $95 for every 7,000 pages after that.

  So here’s an nice inkjet printer also costing $160 dollars:
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828103313

  And the ink costs $34. But that’s for a twin pack.
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828103273

  Now, it’s pretty tricky to find information about how many pages an inkjet cartridge will print, but I did manage to find on Epson’s site (hidden well) that each cartridge will print 540 pages of black text. I would give you a link to the data, but Epson use session ID’s so the link wouldn’t work for you I’m afraid.

  So that’s $160 dollars for 540 pages. Inkjet printers often supply the printer with half empty cartridges, but I’m assuming for $160 dollars, Epson will supply a full one. And then it’s $34 for every 1080 pages (twin pack, remember?) after that.

  Right, so let’s summarise this in a sort of table. I’m including the cost of the printer as well as the cartridges.

  After 500 pages:
  Inkjet $160
  Laser $160

  After 1000 pages:
  Inkjet $194
  Laser $160

  After 2000 pages:
  Inkjet: $228
  Laser $160

  After 7000 pages:
  Inkjet: $398
  Laser: $255

  And so on.

  The laser is clearly cheaper. And if you only print 30 pages a week, the cartridge will last you for over four years. The inkjet will require seven twin packs of cartridges in that time.

  Now, this isn’t an entirely fair comparison. There are cheaper inkjets out there. But I chose a nice one, suitable for a business and I found one at the same price from the same supplier. But you can see that because the laser gets so many more pages per cartridge, it works out at a remarkable 2.3 cents per page whereas the injket costs 5.8 cents per page.

  Oh and the laser will produce prints at twice the resolution of the inkjet which makes for cleaner, sharper text. It also prints way faster too. So if you suddenly need to print 200 copies of something, the laser will be finished before the inkjet has managed the first twenty copies.

  There are downsides to such a laser printer in that it’s only monochrome. You’re not going to be able to print colour photos using it. The inkjet will do that nicely (but I only costed it for black cartridges). And if there’s a problem with a laser cartridge, you’ll be out of pocket to the tune of $95, whereas the inkjet will only lose you $17 (one cartridge out of a twin pack).

  So there you go. Get a laser. It will produce nicer, clearer, more permanent pages very quickly and it’ll take a long time before you need to replace a cartridge.

  Now, I wouldn’t rely on my arithmetic here. Do your own price comparisons. If you bought a cheap inkjet then the break even point would come a little later, but it will come and then the laser will be so much cheaper.
  References :
  Do you remember back in the early 80’s when you used to see the first computer nerd kids on TV and in magazines? Yeah, well I was one of them and still am, 30 years later.
• garbo7441:

  February 9, 2010 at 4:10 pm

  Historically, laserjets have done a better job printing text and inkjets have been better for printing graphic images/photos, etc.

  You have a range of quality in the laserjets and inkjets that you can buy these days. Of course, with quality comes cost.

  You get what you pay for.
  References :
• David:

  February 9, 2010 at 4:44 pm

  Your problems are caused by either a bad cartridge or a partially clogged printer. A good inkjet prints very clear pages. But it sounds like you don’t really need color or high resolution photos. I bought 2 Brother HL2040 laser printers for $50 each about 3 years ago. I found toner on ebay for $6 (good for about 3,000 pages) and I needed a $3 part called a reset gear in order to make the refill work. I have printed thousands of pages and never replaced anything but the toner.

  If you do want color or photos, go with a good inkjet that has a solid warranty and low cost ink. For years I have used and recommended Epson printers. The best warranty in the industry. For a year, Epson will express-ship a replacement and pick up the old one.

  Epson has also made things easier for their customers by standardizing their cartridges. Most of their printers use one of two types. The three-color plus black use T069 (CX5000 CX6000 CX7000 CX7400 CX7450 CX8400 CX9400FAX CX9475Fax NX100 NX105 NX400 Workforce 30/40/500/600 and C120) and the 5-color plus black use T078 (R260 R280 R380 RX580 RX595 and RX680). This means finding cartridges is easy.

  I get cartridges for my Epsons from http://ccs-digital.com for under $3 each which hold 50% more ink than standard cartridges.

  Right now the R280 is on sale at Epson.com for $70. You should also look at the NX or Workforce series. Avoid the Artisan. It uses proprietary cartridges which are expensive and I haven’t found any compatibles.
  References :

This site is sponsored by Data Graphics, Inc the world leader in Custom Labels, Nameplates and Industrial Printing. Serving the Industrial Printing needs of corporate, Military, and Aerospace clients worldwide for 25 years.  If you need custom labels, and you need the fast, and correct the first time, then you need Data Graphics.