The laser printer and the inkjet printer have significant differences in their mechanisms and technology behind them. Their capacities and limitations are dependent on their individual characteristics.



The contemporary inkjet printer uses three technologies that vary from printer to printer. They are the thermal technology found in the thermal inkjet printer, the piezoelectric technology found in the piezoelectric inkjet printer (also known as piezo inkjet printer) and the continuous technology found in the continuous inkjet printer.

The thermal inkjet printer uses photolithography. The print cartridges are heated electrically to print. Heat runs through the current until steam forms and cause bubbles.

This bubble propels a droplet of ink onto the paper. The ink's surface tension and condensation lead to the contraction of the vapor bubble. Ink further travels through a narrow tube to an ink reservoir. This process enables the thermal inkjet printer to form an image commonly called printed copy.

The continuous inkjet printer is one of the oldest technologies used in inkjet printers. The continuous printer uses a pump with high pressure. This high-pressure pump pushes the liquid ink from the reservoir through the gun body and then through the microscopic nozzle. This process creates a continuous stream of the droplets of ink via the Plateau-Rayleigh instability.

The piezoelectric inkjet printer uses a piezoelectric technology. Droplets of ink produce the printed copy.

Piezoelectric inkjet printer supports broad variety of inks compared to the thermal inkjet printer as well as to the continuous inkjet printer. The piezoelectric inkjet printer also provides the fastest printing rates, the highest volume of outcome, and the lowest costs of printing. In fact, the newest release of piezoelectric inkjet printer can produce one hundred twenty full-color pages per minute (120 full-color pages / minute). However, this speed of the newest piezoelectric inkjet printer is slower compared to the laser printers released in the market.

The laser printer uses laser beam and dry ink called toner to produce printed copies. The laser beam projects an image of the page to be printed onto the electrically charge rotating drum coated with selenium. The photoconductivity removes the charge from the areas exposed to the light. Then, the toner particles are electrostatically picked up by the charged areas of the drum.

After that, the drum prints the image onto the paper by heat and direct contact. This procedure fuses the ink to the paper. The laser printer can print much faster than the piezoelectric inkjet printer, considered the fastest in the inkjet group. The fastest laser printer can print twelve thousand monochrome pages per hour (12000 monochrome pages / hr) and six hundred full-color pages per hour (600 full-color pages / hr).

In terms of prices, the laser printers are more expensive than any inkjet printers. However, the dry ink or toner or cartridge used by the laser printer has longer life compared to the liquid ink or cartridge that is used by the inkjet printers. That is why ink replacement in laser printer is cheaper than in inkjet printer.

In terms of maintenance, the cartridge of the laser printer normally includes the photoreceptor or the photoconductor unit, the toner, the waste toner bottles, and the various wiper blades. Conversely, most inkjet cartridges often require replacements for just a short period of use.

The inkjet printer with fixed print heads also requires replacement of the whole unit if the print heads are damaged. For inkjet printers using replaceable print heads, the replacement of ink cartridge is more expensive than the replacement of the regular ink cartridge.