No office is complete without some sort of printing technology. For some it is a photocopier which doubles as a printer, while for others it is a printer on every desk or series of them hooked into a network. Regardless, every company needs the ability to quickly and accurately print the documents it needs. For many small offices, the choice must be made between a variety of printing and printer ink styles and the two most common are inkjet printing and laser printing. Inkjet printers tend to be less expensive, but often print more slowly and are less accurate with extremely technical or detailed documents. Laser printers, meanwhile, tend to be larger and have a greater number of complex parts which can be damaged or misaligned. The main difference in how the two operate, however, is the type of printer ink cartridge used.



An inkjet printer typically uses a small cartridge that most of us have come to associate with a printer. It has a small nozzle at one end, and will lock into a holder or clip inside the printer. When a document is printed, the cartridge moves back and forth across its surface, spraying tiny dots of ink. Taken together, these dots make up the image. They are often smaller than a human hair and many printers support up to 1440×720 dots per inch, or DPI. This makes the dots almost invisible to the human eye. Ink in an inkjet cartridge is liquid, and will dry out if left open and unused for too long. Originally, inkjet printers could suffer from the problem of wet pages when they were printed, but technology has advanced to the point where only minimal ink is used, resulting in a smooth and dry sheet when it exits the printer.



Laser printers, meanwhile, use what are known as toner cartridges. These are actually a form of printer ink cartridges, but are used in a very different manner from those in inkjets. Toner is essentially dry ink, which is electro-statically charged and then attracted to oppositely-charged portions of the paper to be printed, resulting in the image desired. This means that laser toner printer ink cannot dry out, as it has no moisture to begin with. It also means that the image is actually fused by heat to the paper itself, rather than being sprayed on. This limits any smearing of the image, but also means that toner is able to fuse to other materials, such as skin or clothing. Cold water will remove toner, but hot water will make it set. Although these two types of ink operate under different principles, both are extremely popular in office applications as they are reliable and accurate.

Printers are machines that take information from a computer screen and put it onto a piece of paper. This can be text, say from a typed document, or graphics, like images from a digital camera. Originally, this was all that could be printed, but now, anything seen on a computer screen can be printed, allowing users to make newspapers, wedding invitations or even mixed-media paintings. Of course, like a pen needs ink to write, a printer needs something to put on the paper, and in the printer’s case it’s either printer ink or toner.

Toner is a black powder that bonds to paper when heated, so pages printed from these printers come out warm. Photocopy machines commonly use this process as well. You may have noticed warm photocopies in the past. Printers that use toner are called laser printers. Here, a laser draws an image onto a printing drum. This drum attracts toner from a cartridge and rolls the toner onto a piece of paper. These printers tend to be more expensive than printers that use ink, however, the cost per page printed is significantly less in this method. This is the advantage of using toner. When these printers run out of toner, the cartridge is replaced with a new one, and the old cartridge is sent in for recycling. Refilling a toner cartridge is generally not done. In the past, toner was refilled by pouring the powder directly into the machine, but it was very mess and most printers use cartridges now. Due to their cost-effectiveness, laser printers using toner are generally used in businesses that create a large number of documents.

Printers that use ink are called ink-jet printers. Here, an ink cartridge moves from side to side and shoots out ink onto the paper. These write text or draw a picture line by line. Usually, these printers have one ink cartridge for black ink, and another for magenta, yellow and cyan (or blue) ink, allowing full color printing. When the cartridges run out of ink, they need to be replaced or refilled with printer ink. However, some manufacturers do not recommend refilling used cartridges. Ink-jet printers are generally good for home use, excelling in printing out digital pictures. Though ink-jet printers are very inexpensive, the cost of printer ink can add up quickly if high volume printing is required.

To summarize, there are two types of printers – ink-jet printers that use ink cartridges, and laser printers, which use toner cartridges. Knowing which type of printer you have will tell you what you need to purchase. Or, just write down the make and model of your printer, bring it to an office supply store, and they will bring you what you need.

Toner is used in ink jet printers and copy machines in order to form the images that are created on the paper. It’s a powdery substance made from carbon and other polymers based on the specific ingredients determined by each individual manufacturer. In newer printers and copiers, toner is extracted from a cartridge that is inserted into the machine and applied to the paper as directed by the processing unit. For older machines, the powder is manually transferred from the packaging container into a reservoir in the unit. The powder is then extracted from the reservoir through the printer ink jet machine and ultimately ends up on the paper in the form of the desired images.

Sensors on the printer can determine when a toner cartridge needs to be replaced or when the reservoir needs to be refilled. The printer will not function properly without a sufficient amount of ink to complete the job. It’s very simple to replace a toner cartridge. Generally, when the machine indicates that the powder is running low, it’s possible to prolong the life of the printer ink cartridge by removing it from the machine, gently shaking it to gather the powder inside, and placing it back into the cartridge housing. For the older machines, refilling the reservoir is the only way to allow the printer to function again.

The combination of carbon and the other polymers is mostly harmless; however, when dumping the powder from the packaging into an older machine, the powder can linger in the air and can be ingested through normal breathing. While there are generally no immediate effects, prolonged exposure can lead to potential respiratory disease, which is why it’s necessary to handle the toner with care.

When replacing the ink in any machine, it’s a good idea to be cautious, to avoid banging the cartridges against anything, and to move slowly. It can stain clothing and skin if it’s not washed off in a moderate time-frame after making contact. Use cold water to remove ink from skin. For clothing, wash articles in a washing machine using the cold cycle. Warmer water will cause the powder to bond to the clothing.

To discard of the toner cartridges, it’s important to recycle and keep the packaging separate from regular waste. Many manufacturers will offer a discount or rebate on a refill if the used cartridge is returned or exchanged when purchasing a new one.

Toner is currently the most widely used form of printing words and images in both color and black ink from processor to paper. Industrial sized toner cartridges are made for businesses, larger printing, and copying machines while smaller units are made for personal and home use.