Ink-jet V Laser?

[karel]

As I do quite a lot of printing a week with the book. I was wondering if it was worth investing in a laser printer. Are they cheaper in the long run for mass printing. At the moment I am paying around £11 a cartridge that does around 500 sheets.

Anyone used both? I just need the most cost effective, but don't want to splash out if there is no or little difference.

Paul

[racefan20]

Laser is much cheaper in the long run than ink, but the printers and toner cost more initially. If I had a need to print a lot, I'd invest in a laser printer. (This somes from several years experience as a manager for a major office supplies retailer, as well as using various printers in the places I've worked.)

[Collectors-info]

Ditto with Race, you will get about 3000 sheets per toner at about £30-40.00 & 6000 sheets per full cartridge at about £50-60.00. A lot of the all in one machine’s I have found to be really good, & you can get some good prices on the net.
I have three printers hooked up. The laser for quality B&W printing. A cheapy ink jet for the very occasional colour print out (Rare). And a dot matrix that I use for invoicing. The dot matrix is by far the fastest & most reliable machine I have ever had, but only good enough for printing invoice quality text.
Have a look at some of the machines that are about a year or so old, as you will only be paying top prices for the new style models. You can also see if there has been any problems with an old one. Cant do this with a new one.

Good luck.

Oh! I assume you are talking black & white.

[karel]

Thank you both for your opinion on this. Time to invest by the look of things.

The reason I came to the conclusion it maybe better to swap was because I was told ink jets are so cheap because the company's make all their money on the cartridges, so I wondered if this maybe not the case with laser printers.

O.k I think ebay maybe a good place to start looking. I do a little colour printing, covers etc...so I will keep the inkjet for this and a back up.

Paul

[aconstas1]

There are a few ink printers that work a little differently that may help you save money too. For example i have an epson stylus R320 listed on ebay. This printer is designed for photo quality prints. The unique part about this printer is that it has 1 black cartridge and 5 color cartriges. This allows you to only have to replace or refill only one small cartrige at a time when the ink goes out, instead of having to replace an entire cartrige when just one color goes out as with most printers. This option saves people a lot of wasted money on ink cartriges.

[bill2006]

Kodak just announced a new line of (more expensive) printers but with significantly less expensive ink cartridges.

"Kodak just introduced a line of home inkjet printers....Kodak's main weapon in this new war is cheaper ink. ....other makers have sold the printers for relatively little, then made most or all of their money on the ink cartridges. So, Kodak decided to reverse that business model. Its three new printers start at $149.99, not sub-$100 bargain prices. But its black ink cartridges cost just $9.99, and the color ones -- which combine five color inks -- just $14.99. And these are standard-capacity cartridges, not small or starter versions.

[aconstas1]

Kodak just announced a new line of (more expensive) printers but with significantly less expensive ink cartridges.

"Kodak just introduced a line of home inkjet printers....Kodak's main weapon in this new war is cheaper ink. ....other makers have sold the printers for relatively little, then made most or all of their money on the ink cartridges. So, Kodak decided to reverse that business model. Its three new printers start at $149.99, not sub-$100 bargain prices. But its black ink cartridges cost just $9.99, and the color ones -- which combine five color inks -- just $14.99. And these are standard-capacity cartridges, not small or starter versions.

Nice! I'm sure they'll do very well with sales.