laser printer

[nickyfraggle]

Hello,

I am entering the new and wonderful world of laser printers...and I have no idea where to start!

From looking around, I seem to need toners of different colours. I was looking at the Konica Minolta Magicolor 2500W. I want to be able to print off flyers as well as normal letter printing at a decent quality.

Toners seem to be SO expensive. How many do I need, and roughly how often will I need to replace them. It seems I need 3 of them at £59.00 each...that's more than the printer is worth!! I thought lasers were supposed to be cheaper?

Any suggestions on printers I might have a look at?

Thanks!!

Nicola

[Spookster]

I'm not sure how you figured laser printers are suppose to be cheaper. They are some of the most expensive printers around but they can produce very high quality prints. I wouldn't get one for personal use as they are expensive but for a business that needs to print high quality graphics/photos and documents then it would be worth the money.

[firepages]

lasers are cheaper ... in the long run , you get far more pages from your toners than you ever do from an inkjet cartridge .. how much depends on the model.

Buyer beware, many colour laser printers come with `starter` toner kits which can have as little as 1/3 of the toner that a full cartridge comes with.... thats part of why they seem so cheap these days.

+ there are many models of cannon/lexmark/hp inkjets that cost more to refill than the retail cost of the printer itself, so its not just lasers ;)

[Spookster]

lasers are cheaper ... in the long run


Yeah maybe if you get that 5 finger discount on it. ;)

A color laser printer can cost anywhere from $400 - $2000+ just for the printer. A decent inkjet printer costs less than $100. So unless you are doing some serious printing I can't see a laserjet printer being cheaper in the long run.

[oracleguy]

Yeah maybe if you get that 5 finger discount on it. ;)

A color laser printer can cost anywhere from $400 - $2000+ just for the printer. A decent inkjet printer costs less than $100. So unless you are doing some serious printing I can't see a laserjet printer being cheaper in the long run.

True but a color laser can print off some really nice images though and fairly fast. But it is the cost to quality ratio that you are going for that matters.

Typically though you see more black and white lasers for personal use since with only 1 toner cartridge, it costs less to refill and the printers themselves are cheaper.

[Spookster]

True but a color laser can print off some really nice images though and fairly fast. But it is the cost to quality ratio that you are going for that matters.

Typically though you see more black and white lasers for personal use since with only 1 toner cartridge, it costs less to refill and the printers themselves are cheaper.

Yes that was the point I made earlier that if you need high quality prints then a color laser printer is the way to go but generally it is mostly businesses that have that need. For personal use to print out the occasional color document or photo it would be very expensive. I can't see many people on average buying black and white only laser printers for personal use unless all they need it for is to print out black and white documents. Businesses would have more of a need to do that than the average person at home.

[Troy297]

Also I do know that the laser printers toners do dry up faster than the normal catridges for the inkjet printers. You need to use your laser printer around once every 2 weeks or they will dry up on you....?

[nickyfraggle]

Wow!

I've definitely sparked off a discussion here! Thanks for all your help!

I run a small business. Most of our printing is simple, black and white and doesn't need to be of a high quality.

The only reason I'm considering a laser, is because I've recently been quoted a rediculous amount for printing off colour flyers. I thought if I got a decent printer, I could do them myself at a suitable quality.

Someone had told me they were less expensive to run than an inkjet...which only seems to be true if you're printing off high volumes...

Thanks,

Nicola

[Karen S. Garvin]

The toner in a laser printer is a powder, so it is already "dry" and won't dry up like an ink-jet nozzle. However, if you let your printer sit for a long time without printing, the toner powder can clump up (think salt shaker in humid weather). Just remove the toner cartridge from the printer and shake it up a bit, then put it back in the printer.

As far as costs are concerned, laser printers are usually more expensive than ink jet printers to start with, but you need to consider the costs of the consumables in your budget. If you're going to print so much that you run through an ink jet cartridge in a week or two, an ink jet can be very expensive when you cost it out over a year's time. Here is an article at Small Business Computing.com (http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/testdrive/article.php/3521141) that might be very helpful in your buying decision. :)

As for "printing off color flyers" -- well, four-color process printing is expensive when you do it on a small scale because there are a lot of steps and processes involved. If you are so inclined, try to find a quick print shop that owns a digital press. These are souped-up laser printers, very high quality -- but without the costs involved in making press plates and doing color separations. This might be more within your budget, without you having to get into the expense of buying a printer that you might not use very often. If you are doing brochures, you can also get a print shop to do the folding for you. Just remember that the more work someone does to a project, the more it will cost. Honestly, sometimes trying to save a few dollars on a project isn't worth the cost. I speak from experience... :p