Laser Printers Information: Printer Technology Comparisons
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Now we all know what a laser printer is and how it works, let's compare it to other popular printing technologies out there.
LED Printers
LED (or light emitting diode) printers are similar to that of laser printers: they both use the power of light to draw an image onto the revolving drum by manipulating the electrical charge on it either with a negative or a positive electrical charge. The toner then adheres onto the drawn electrostatic image, and is then transferred onto the printing surface. These two printers are also called toner-based printers because of the way they manipulate the toner to form the printed image on paper; this is also similar to the way photocopy printers produce copied images.
The main difference between a laser printer and an LED printer is the type of light they use. For laser printers, it is a laser beam that bounces off a number of mirrors and runs its light across the width of the rotating drum; for LED printers, it is an array of LEDs that stay above the drum. Depending on the image of what is to be printed out, the LEDs beam light and produce pixels onto the drum.
LED printers are supposedly better than laser printer because they have no moving parts and have smaller dot sizes, thereby resulting in efficiency and lower manufacturing and maintenance costs. A detailed resource regarding the difference between these two technologies and why LED printer company OKI (Okidata) believes it is superior is available at CompuDirect.net.
Caution: LED printers are often classified as or alongside laser printers and can easily be mistaken for such. They are often referred to as laser-class printers. So make sure you know what exactly you are buying beforehand!
Inkjet Printers
Perhaps the most popular type of printer out there for its cost, inkjets use microscopic nozzles that transfer liquid ink onto the printing paper in the form of very tiny dots. Thermal inkjet printers are the most common while other types include continuous inkjets and piezoelectric inkjets (the technology used by Epson).
Inkjet printers usually have a number of color ink cartridges, as well as a black ink cartridge. Compared to toners, they need to be replaced more often. A common phenomenon when using inkjet printers and the wrong type of paper is ink bleeding: this occurs when ink that is transferred on paper was not properly absorbed, or was not dried up when the ink "moved".
Other Types of Printers
- Thermal Transfer Printers
- Dye-Sublimation Printers
- Solid Ink Printers
- Dot-Matrix Printers
- Letter-Quality Printers
- Line Printers
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