Almost in all offices, printers are part of the equipments required for smooth running of duties. But the distance between inkjet and laser printers has lessened considerably, to the point where it is sometimes difficult to decide between the two.

Most individuals will continue to go with inkjets for they are less expensive, and nearly all of them are colour-capable. In addition, the quality of text that inkjets now product means that a small or home business can use one without fearing that documents will look unclear.

According to Rajay Kumar, an office appliances seller, laser printers are still confined to black printing, there are more and more color lasers out there, but their cost is still prohibitive for individuals and small businesses. They do produce high quality text at much faster speeds.

However, when you do the math on printing, inkjets may well cost you a whole lot more than you realize. What the manufacturers of these printers don’t fully explain to consumers is the true cost of ownership of a low-cost color printer.

The general rule of thumb is that the cheaper the printer, the more expensive the disposable costs for refills and so on. While the printers are almost given away, the refills bring in a fortune for the big-printer, original-equipment manufacturers. There are costs of ink cartridge procurement.

For example, a Canon i320 Color Bubble Jet Printer’s cost for the hardware can be as little as Frw75,000, depending on discounts and where you buy it. The average cost of the ink from Canon is low but the yield from that is a measly 170 pages. Even if you print very little, the cost quickly adds up.

Seven pages a day times 300 days equals 2100 pages, which can each an ink bill per year. If you own the printer for three years, the cost of cartridges may come to or about 13 times the printer’s original cost.

Not only do the cost that conspires against ink jets but they typically print pages as fast as laser printers. It is quite common to be flooded with cartridge-error messages when the cartridges are perfectly fine, or have the machine suddenly go crazy and spit out nonsense in an endless stream.

The printers are also set up in a way that makes it difficult to minimise the amount of ink they use. It appears they are designed to make you use more ink than you need to with no way to default to "draft quality”.

Printing speed: In comparison to ink jets, laser printers are quieter, faster and remarkably hassle free. But it’s the math that makes them stand out. To bring the costs of laser printing down further, you can purchase inexpensive replacement or remanufactured ink cartridges.

With so much money being poured into ink cartridges, it’s no surprise that hundreds of companies have sprung up offering refill kits for ink jets and replacement/remanufactured cartridges for ink jets and laser printers. They work for some people, but many find them too much trouble as they blacken hands.

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