# Let's talk printers: laser vs inkjet for home user **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 19, 2016, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-printers-laser-vs-inkjet-for-home-user/766358 "2016-09-19T16:24:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-printers-laser-vs-inkjet-for-home-user/766358/41 "2016-09-20T23:55:32Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I’m not arguing for inkjet printers. It’s just that based on what I’ve seen at work, the replacement cartridges for the color laser printers are astonishingly expensive. As a raw price point yes On a per page basis no. I have an HP 1312n Color All in one in my shop that is going on 8 years and an hp1200 laser that is probably pushing 20 years. Toner carts for the 1312 are about $80 each, and it takes 4, but I go through 4-5 black for any given Cyan/Magenta/Yellow. So a black, every 4-5 months, colors, about once in 14-18 mo… We print about 800-1000 pages/mo ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-printers-laser-vs-inkjet-for-home-user/766358/42 "2016-09-21T00:12:01Z")
Inkjet refills are pretty spendy for the number of pages you get out of them. To me, a small laser is a no-brainer. That said: We have an ancient HP color inkjet that we still use occasionally - it was not new when we moved here 14 years ago. Then we got an HP inkjet all-in-one and it was a piece of junk - almost never connected to the wireless, the fax quit working after a few months, it seemed like we had to put new cartridges in it every other month (that certainly added up to FAR more than the cost of the printer itself). We wound up trashing it and getting a laser all-in-one - for our needs, a better choice than a compact laser as we do a fair bit of scanning. We’ve had to put new toner cartridges in it perhaps twice, after about 5 years of owning it. Much better choice all around. I thought about getting a color laser printer - that would affect the cost of course (ours is monochrome) but we decided the inkjet was good enough for the rare times we need to print in color. > [@JRDelerious](#): > > Does it dim the lights in half the house when it spools up? Or do I have a ground problem in mine Heh - ours does. I seriously thought about running a separate electrical circuit to the thing. It’s an annoyance. I actually started a thread here about that when we first got the printer, worried we were about to burn the house down. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-printers-laser-vs-inkjet-for-home-user/766358/43 "2016-09-21T02:08:51Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I thought about getting a color laser printer - that would affect the cost of course (ours is monochrome) but we decided the inkjet was good enough for the rare times we need to print in color. How does that go though, given that in my experience if you only use them occasionally, you will usually need a new set of cartridges for the printer to work if it’s been idle for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-printers-laser-vs-inkjet-for-home-user/766358/44 "2016-09-21T05:45:13Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Color laser costs less per page than color inkjet. For up-front costs, I bought a terrific color laser multi-function for \< $300. The printer-only equivalent was less than $200. > > Unless you have extreme specialist needs (like pigment-based precision-calibrated photo printing), laser beats inkjet almost every way. As the reviews said when we bought our color laser “pictures are recognisable”. 🙂 You may also have seen the criticism that “fine lines are sometimes lost”, but I peronally believe that was actually a problem with PostScript drivers, not the print technology. It was never an issue for text printing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-printers-laser-vs-inkjet-for-home-user/766358.md?page=2)