Buying a replacement printer cartridge is one of the most confusing things you will ever do. Aside from their not so cheap price tags, shopping for printer cartridges can be rather baffling with all the different types of available cartridges in the market for various printers from numerous manufacturers. 

To make it easier for you to navigate the puzzling realm of printer cartridges, it is important to be familiar with the different cartridge types available and learn some advice on how to choose the best one depending on your printer type, requirements, and usage.

Difference of Toner and Ink Cartridges

Before anything else, you have to know the difference between toner and ink. Here is a quick overview of what makes these two substances unique from each other:

Toner cartridge

Toner is essentially a complex and dry powder that contains microscopic plastic particles. This is being utilized in laser printer in which the powder gets electronically heated, charged then applied on the paper through the rotating drum found within the machine. This procedure allows for efficient and fast printing, specifically for bigger print jobs. 

Ink cartridge 

Ink cartridges contain a quantity of colored or black liquid ink and are used mainly in inkjet printers. The inkjet printers get fitted with the set of powerful ink jets used for spraying the liquid ink on the specific page where necessary. The ink contains the complex combination of dyes and pigments that help in page retention and create colors that are more accurate. 

What’s the Better Option?

The long standing debate on toner vs. ink printer cartridge depends on various factors such as your general usage, quality requirements and print budget.

Text and image quality 

While laser printers usually provide faster overall performance, there is no way they can keep up with inkjet as far as image quality is concerned. Since liquid ink is used in inkjets, they blend colors better and more accurately that results to printing full-color images. But if you will only be printing documents in mostly black text, the performance and speed of laser machines offset drops in quality. 

Performance and speed 

If your main requirement when buying a new printer is speed, you have to decide between inkjet and laser since both provide excellent performance and speed based on how much money you are willing to spend. Inkjets used to be slower compared to lasers yet the latest developments from brands mean that top of the line range inkjets are now able to keep up with laser printers when it comes to print speed. 

Investing in high end inkjet or laser machine can give you about 20 sheets per minute print speed. Compare this with the 6 sheets per minute speed of more affordable inkjets and your initial purchase cost of range topping machine will prove its worth. 

Shopping for a printer cartridge doesn’t have to be complicated. As long as you know what you need and how much you are willing to shell out, you can easily find the right machine for you.