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[#1]

Do laser printers need ink?

[#2]

No, laser printers do not need "ink".

Instead, laser printers use a very fine powder called "toner". In laser printers that print only black text, the powder particles are of course black in color. A laser printer melts (the proper term is "fuses" ) these tiny black particles to the paper in the process of printing a page. This fine powder is stored in a toner cartridge, and it is the entire cartridge that gets replaced when the printer has consumed all the toner within the cartridge. Just a little toner goes a long way - a typical toner cartridge costing under $150 can provide enough toner to print up to 10,000 pages of black and white text - which explains why the per page operating cost of a laser printer is significantly less expensive than an inkjet printer.

Message Edited by hb on 11-04-2009 08:28 PM

[#3]

Laser printer toner does not clog over time like ink does and the page yield is a bit higher too for toner. Inkjets have better picture printing but then some lasers are very good too and cost 2 or 3 times what a typical inkjet does. I'm considering a switch to laser later on, I'm fed up with my cartridges (which are VERY expensive) clogging. So in one sense laser toner may cost a lot until you factor out how many pages it will yield versus an inkjet. In the long run I believe laser is the best option.

Now for photo printing, well, I tend to lean towards inkjet but then I have not seen the quality of color lasers. Plus good quality lasers are rather expensive. I can't see an avergae laser being able to compare in photo quality to an average inkjet.

Really depends on your printing needs.