Colour laser printers are becoming much more cost effective for small businesses and home office workers. Is the time right to upgrade your printer?
Since computer became widespread in the late 80’s and early 90’s laser printers have always held the top positions for quality and speed of print. Unfortunately this came at a high price and the majority of printers sold have always been low cost inkjet printers.
Inkjets, although printing much slower, did have the advantage of being able to produce colour images and even photographic quality prints. The low initial cost however, was outweighed by the high cost of ink especially if you were printing large colourful pictures.
Laser printers traditionally have the opposite issues; cost per page is low but initial purchase price is almost ten times that of an inkjet! Colour versions of laser printers were so specialised and high end they were only found in commercial print shops.
Recently the colour laser printer has made the leap to mainstream computing and the purchase price has fallen to reflect higher production quantities and economies of scale. This is great news for end users with the cheapest colour laser printers not much more expensive than a quality inkjet printer.
The latest colour laser models are now capable of printing, scanning and faxing – does anyone still use a fax machine? More usefully they can operate as a standalone photocopier or even print an email sent from anywhere in the World!