I recently embarked on a project that required a lot of printing. Even though I was printing mostly in black and used the draft mode on the printer to conserve ink, I found that I was constantly running out for more ink cartridges for my ink jet printer. After I ran through four cartridges in less than a month, I asked my husband to pick up some more. Instead of purchasing four $30 ink jet cartridges, he wisely came home with a $99 (after rebate) laser printer instead. His solution to the ink consumption problem was simple but brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that?

The laser printer does not print in color, but my project didn’t require color. Both printers were easily hooked up to the computer at the same time using USB connections. I still use the ink jet when I want to print a photo or there is a web page that I want to print in color. Otherwise I use the laser printer. I have set the laser printer to be my “default” printer. So whenever I click on the print icon, the document is automatically sent to the laser printer. If I want to print using the ink jet, I simply choose Print from the File menu. Then I choose the ink jet printer from the print box that appears on the screen.

Ink jet and laser printers each use a different type of technology. The inkjet printer works by squirting small dots of ink onto a sheet of paper. Color inkjet printers can produce simple documents with just a splash of color or a full-sized reproduction of a color photograph. But it takes a lot of ink to create all of the dots needed to reproduce a document.

The technology used in a laser printer is completely different. It is similar to that of a photocopier. The image is drawn with an electrical charge on a drum inside the printer. The electronic charge attracts particles of toner in the pattern that was drawn by the laser. A drum then rolls across the paper, and the electrical charge causes the toner to jump from the drum to the paper. The images that are formed by the lasers can be quite detailed resulting in an excellent print quality. Toner is much cheaper than ink on a per page basis.

Laser printers have a few other desirable features. They are designed to handle a larger load than inkjet printers. They tend to have a higher paper capacity, which means that they hold more paper and you don’t have to be constantly adding paper. The actual amount of printing that the machine can handle is called the duty cycle and is usually stated in the number of copies per month. For example, a monthly duty cycle of 5,000 means that the printer can handle a volume of 5,000 sheets in a month's time. So a laser printer is a good choice for heavy-duty use.

If you print a lot, you too may want to consider adding a laser printer to your computer set-up. Laser printers have become much cheaper in the past few years so they are now an affordable choice for home printing. Color laser printers are also available and while their prices have recently fallen, they are not yet feasible for home use unless you do a lot of color printing.

Thanks to my hubby for his ingenious solution to my costly ink problem. Perhaps his idea will work for you, as well!