Laser Printers Overview

From home offices to businesses, monochrome laser printers offer the best balance among price, print quality, and speed. They're almost ubiquitous in the business world, as any office with a PC almost always has a monochrome laser printer as well. Home users might choose a laser printer over an inkjet model if they print a lot of text documents. Prices for monochrome lasers have dropped to a low of around $150 for a personal printer, making them a viable alternative to inkjets. For almost the same price as an inkjet, some monochrome laser printers are faster, produce much better text quality, and are less expensive to maintain because laser toner cartridges are much less costly than inkjet cartridges.

Designed for offices where color brochures, photographs, or graphics are paramount, color laser printers are rapidly dropping in price. If you need color, you'll probably want an inkjet printer, but color laser printers are becoming increasingly more affordable. Even though color lasers use toner cartridges bearing a higher initial investment cost, you'll get striking color prints on plain paper at less cost per page. Some new color lasers are also capable of printing glossy photos, though their results usually can't match the quality of an inkjet in this area.