Types of Laser Printers – How to Pick the Right One?

Laser printers are advanced technology printers that perform faster than inkjet printers. These printers come in various types depending on personal or commercial use.

In this article, we have listed down all the types of laser printers available in the market. We even discussed the significance of each type, its key features, and their benefits.

The comparative analysis and other necessary information related to the laser printer types should help you decide the right device for your needs.

Let us get started with the discussion.

Before that, we will learn about laser printers and how they work.

What is a Laser Printer?

Laser printers are essentially for commercial and office needs for printing a large number of text documents.

Design

Laser printers come specially designed for heavy-duty printing tasks. It features a paper tray that has the ability to handle and support different media of various sizes, types, and weights.

Characteristic Features

Unlike other printer types, laser printers involve fewer ink costs. These printers are even compatible with multiple connectivity methods like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity options.

While some laser printer models specialize in monochromatic printing, a few others can handle both black and white and colour printing.

Laser printers are available in different size options, including small and large, depending on the print type needs.

Cost

Laser printers are a little expensive than inkjet printers. Since they specialize in printing large quantities of paper, you can save on the toner cartridges.

Advantages

• Laser printers are cost-effective than inkjet printers in the long run.
• They help in increasing productivity.
• Laser printers have a high print speed.
• They have a higher paper capacity and can print a large number of papers in very little time.
• You can expand your laser printer with paper trays, finishers, etc.
• These can help in growing your business.

Disadvantages

• Laser printers require shorter warm-up periods.
• They have a larger footprint.
• They can emit small carbons due to the high voltage usage.

How Does a Laser Printer Work?

A laser printer consists of many internal parts and components that are crucial for producing the final output. These include the below:

1. Toner cartridges
2. Image drum
3. Transfer roller
4. Fuser unit
5. Laser
6. Mirrors

Let us learn about the working process of the laser printer

Step-by-Step Process of Laser Printer Working

• As the first step, you will have to select the print option on your laptop, computer, mobile, or tablet. The moment you do, it will send the information to the printer memory. This is where the data gets stored.
• After the printer receives the information, the warm-up period starts. You may have to wait during this warm-up time. What usually happens in this period is that the wire heats up and further prepares itself to send the positive charge to the image drum.
• While the drum unit starts rolling, it will receive a positive charge throughout the surface. A few models of laser printers contain four drums for black, yellow, magenta and cyan, respectively.
• This is when the laser gets activated. It starts to beam against an array of mirrors and gets reflected across the drums’ surface. As a result, it imprints the shape with the help of a negative charge.
• The drums have the toner cartridge and hopper that lie next to them. These components play their part here by slowly starting to release positive charged carbon toner particles onto the image drum, while it keeps turning. The toner attracts the negative charge areas of the drum but does not touch the positive charged areas.
• The transfer roller plays its role here by allowing the paper to roll through the device. While doing so, it simultaneously gives a positive charge to it. While the papers pass the drum, it attracts the negative charged toner in the shape of your print.
• The hot roller, also known as the fuser, melts the toner on the paper. As a result, it prints your page.

What Are The Types of Laser Printers?

Laser printers are basically available in two types, based on their output and usage. They are:

1. Colour Laser Printers
2. Monochromatic Laser Printers

Let us discuss about each type in detail below:

1. Colour Laser Printers

As the name says, these types of laser printers are exclusively for printing documents with great colour details.

Design

The colour laser printers are specially designed to deliver quality photos in documents. They can make the graphics or illustrations in your presentations look great and stand out with vibrant colours.

 Characteristic Features

Unlike other printers, colour laser printers use four separate toner cartridges for delivering the best quality outputs. These cartridges include cyan, magenta, black and yellow colours.

The colour laser printers can handle black and colour printing duties.

Ease Of Use

The colour laser printers are easy to use.

Cost

The colour laser printers are cost-effective. However, considering the fact that you may have to replace the expensive cartridges, you may expect higher operational costs.

2. Monochrome Laser Printers

Unlike the colour laser prints, monochrome laser printers exclusively serve the purpose of printing documents in black and white only.

Design

The monochrome laser printers are specially for delivering the best quality output for text-based documents. If you want your text documents to look clear and specific, these printers are the best bet.

Characteristic Features

While the colour laser printers use four toner cartridges, the monochrome laser printers use only black toner to get the best quality output.

The monochrome laser printers can efficiently handle black and white printing duties. The other significant feature of these devices is that they can print at faster speeds.

Ease Of Use

The monochrome laser printers are easy to use.

Cost

The monochrome laser printers are very affordable. Moreover, because of the single cartridge replacement, they tend to have low operational costs than the colour laser printers.

Monochrome Laser Printer vs. Colour Laser Printer

Below is a comparative analysis of both monochrome and colour laser printers. This table will provide a complete understanding of both types and help you decide which one to choose.

Let us discuss about other parameters of both monochrome and colour laser printers. These will help you gain complete insights into which one is the best device for your printing needs.

1) Printer Cost

Let us get started with the printer cost.

The monochrome laser printers are comparatively less expensive and affordable than their coloured counterparts. Moreover, they have low operational costs than the latter.

On the other hand, the colour laser printers have a high upfront cost. The high-end models of these printers can cost you up to 10 times that of the monochrome laser printers.

The starting price of a good quality colour laser printer is around Rs.40,000 and may range up to Rs. 1,00,000, depending on the features.

You can mostly find high-end colour laser printers in corporate offices that require presentations in colour format.

2) Cost Per Page

Let us talk about the cost per page factor.

Since the monochrome laser printers use only a single toner cartridge, i.e., black, the cost per page is less.

Contrary to the above, the colour laser printers use four cartridges, i.e., cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. That means it uses more than a single toner to produces a coloured print. And hence, it has significantly more cost per page.

Moreover, you need to replace the cartridges regularly. This will further add to the cost and increases the cost per page of the printer even more.

3) Physical Characteristics

Let us talk about the physical characteristics.

Monochrome laser printers are lightweight, compact, and portable. You can take the advantage of its size and weight, and thereby, carry it from one place to another or between the rooms.

Unlike the above, the colour laser printers are big, heavy, and bulky in size. Moreover, they are slower than their black-and-white counterparts. If you are planning to use a colour laser printer, you need to have some additional materials, which further increase the overall weight of the machine.

4) Speed

Speed is the most crucial factor that many of them look for. This is a key feature that comes with a price. If you want to have a monochrome laser printer that has all the necessary features, including resolution, networking, and speed comes, you may have to shell extra bucks on it.

Let us now talk about the colour laser printer. If you want to have the same output as the black and white counterparts, you require additional engineering for optimizing a more complex process.

The monochrome models apply a single toner to the page using individual drums. On the other hand, the colour devices transfer all the four toners to the page with a single drum. The work needed to be done for the colour laser printer to achieve the same output is more when compared to the monochrome devices. That said, at the same price, you can have a monochrome laser printer that outpaces a colour laser printer.

Conclusion:

I hope this article explained to you the various types of laser printers and the significance of each type. The information provided should help you gain complete insights into the laser printer types and what to expect from them.

With this guide as a reference, you can purchase the right printer that perfectly suits your printing needs. Let us know in the comments if you were able to make an informed decision through this write-up. Please share this information with your friends and help them know the best about the laser printer types.

If you have any questions or need more information on the laser printer types, do not hesitate to let us know. Our team will answer all your queries at the earliest and provide you with everything you need.

Please feel free to share your inputs on this article and let us know if you have any points to add. We would love to learn from you.

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