LaserJet still cheaper alternative

JAKARTA (JP): When visiting a company or a government office that has already adopted desktop computing as their standard productivity tool, what will you see? Chances are you will see a PC on every desk connected with Ethernet cable to the organization's network. You will also see that almost every single one of those PCs is connected to a desktop printer, which is most likely an inkjet printer. This has of course been great news for inkjet printer makers Canon, Epson, HP and Lexmark.

Why an inkjet printer? Certainly most of us buy inkjet printers because it is cheap. You can get an inkjet printer for as low as US$62.22 from Wetmarket.com. On the other hand, the cheapest laser printer, as quoted by the same B2C website, will set you back by $291.72. That is almost five times an inkjet printer!

And, in the user's point of view, there are plenty of reasons for buying an inkjet printer rather than a laser printer. With an inkjet printer, one can print colors. Only very expensive laser printers such as the $6,350 LaserJet 8550 can give high quality color prints.

On the one hand it is true that being able to print colors has many benefits. For example, if you had five people working on the same financial report, each person could use a different color. So when the report is completed, you will know who contributed the most. This would have been harder to ascertain if you had used a black and white printer.

On the other hand, the ink for inkjet printers costs much more than the toner for laser printers. None of the printer manufacturers is really open about this, but it is a well-known fact that consumables such as ink and toners make up a good portion of their revenue. That, if you want to know, is exactly the reason why manufacturers can sell inkjet printers at such low prices nowadays. They may lose on the margin for their printers, but they will gain in the sales of the ink and toners that you will definitely need. And, that is also the reason why we have so many third-party vendors of ink and toner products -- not to mention the unscrupulous people who produce counterfeited products.

Back to the inkjet versus laser, remember too that low-end and very cheap inkjet printers usually come with one or two cartridges. What happens if you print a lot of black and suddenly the black ink runs dry? You will have to replace the cartridge although there may be some color ink left in it. That is why it is important to always choose an inkjet printer with separate color cartridges -- if you do need to print colors.

However, the bottom line is that the cost of printing, per page, is lower with a laser printer than an inkjet printer. Figures vary considerably from one printer model to another, and from one printer manufacturer to another, but the industry as a whole agrees that the cost of printing is far cheaper with a laser printer.

What if you print a lot of black text documents at home, but your children want to have colors for their home assignments? If your budget allows, you should have both a mid-range inkjet and a low-end laser printer like HP LaserJet 6L or LaserJet 1100. Save the inkjet only for color printing. With new printers now generally using the USB rather than the parallel port, the setup will not be complicated at all.

And, in the office, given the large volume of printing in black text, in the long run it will be cost-efficient to go with laser printers -- especially if you can share them. (Zatni Arbi)