Types of color printers

While there are several types of color printers available today, color laser printers are by far the most popular for businesses. Here’s a rundown of the major types.

Color laser printers
Laser printers use a laser beam to produce electric charges on a rotating drum, which transfers toner onto paper through a combination of heat and pressure.

You can find the right color laser printer for almost any office, from low-end models capable of around 30,000 pages per month to high-powered printers that handle 200,000 pages per month or more. They generally create very sharp graphics, and the pages they print are relatively safe to handle without fear of smudging. Operating costs – an important consideration when choosing a printer for a busy office – are also much lower than other types of printing.

Over 2 million color laser printers were sold in 2007, according to Lyra Research, and that number is only going to increase as prices continue to drop – in fact, sales are expected to increase by 20% annually in the years ahead. Unless your color printing needs are very minimal, a color laser printer is probably the best choice.

Inkjets
Inkjet printers spray ionized liquid ink onto paper, one narrow strip at a time. These printers make up the bulk of the home printer market, but they’re rarely a good deal for business use. The primary reason is the ongoing cost.

Inkjet printer manufacturers use a similar profit strategy to disposable razor companies: they sell the printers at an enticingly low cost and make their profits from replacement ink cartridges. At 15 to 50 cents per page, the cost of inkjet printing can be seven to 25 times that of laser printing at a more reasonable two to eight cents per page. (Read more in the Pricing section)

Inkjets do have their niche applications, however. When using special photo paper, inkjets can print very high-quality photographs, better than most color laser printers. They are also an inexpensive way to add color to your office documents, if you don’t plan to use them too often. However, they can’t handle the volume most businesses require: few are rated for more than 5,000 pages per month.

Other types of color printers
Inkjet and laser are by far the two most common types of color printers, but there are several other varieties you may encounter.

Solid ink printers use blocks of colored wax instead of liquid ink or toner. Inside the printer, the wax is melted, then sprayed onto paper where it quickly hardens. These blocks are easy to handle – there’s no mess or cartridge to recycle.

Solid ink printers are better at printing on a wide variety of paper than laser printers. In addition, the cost per page is fairly competitive with color lasers, quality is generally good, and because they have very few moving parts, solid ink printers tend to be reliable even at high print volumes.

The major drawback comes from the fact that the resulting printed pages are wax-based. There is a real risk that pages left in a hot environment (in a car, or on a heater) will melt enough to stick together or smudge. Images can also be scratched off the page.

Dye sublimation produces near-photograph quality output by using heat to transfer dye directly from a ribbon to paper. It used to be found only in extremely high-end printers for graphic design firms, but now it’s a popular choice for inexpensive home photo printers, as well as instant photo kiosks. Per-page costs are sky high – $2 per page is common – but the print quality makes them worthwhile in select applications.