Ink or toner printer for work

I'm calling BS on this one. I lived through the printer wars where companies moved from impact printers to laser and other technologies.

Inkjet and laser print quality is more than just laser and ink. Paper matters too.

If you want to get into higher quality printing then you move to offset printing. I've yet to find any office or consumer printer get to that quality. It's not called for in most cases. But you have some that want it.

If you really care about image quality (say if you're printing fine art photos), Inkjet is better. For almost all office environments where most printing is black text with the odd image that's not going to be hung on a gallery wall, Laser is more convenient and faster.

I can't remember the last time that 'paint' (ps. it's ink - there's a clue in the name) dried up in an inkjet printer. You'd have to leave it unused for a very long time for that to even stand a chance of happening. Unless you actually mean 'runs out of ink' in which case there's no difference there between the two types as lasers 'run out of toner' as well, neither will print without food.

As has already been mentioned, quality comes down to more than the printer itself (and most printer models are pretty much the same with regards to quality these days, the differentiators tend to be speed of print and other extras with regard to paper handling etc - unless you are looking at printers designed purely for photographic work, for example, which will be tweaked for this usage.) The inks you use make a difference, and some cheap third party inks aren't as good as the OEM ones - just to confuse matters not all OEM inks are equal either; some have better longevity than others for example. The paper is probably the biggest difference the end user can influence: use crappy, lightweight, cheap paper and the results will not be as good as heavier, more expensive and better paper. This is especially apt when printing mixed text and image sheets.

If you are an average office, with average office needs, then the speed of duplex printing you get from a laser (which doesn't have to pause while the ink dries enough to print the reverse sheet) will probably be the clincher. The difference in quality between a decent colour laser and a decent colour inkjet for average output is negligible.

One final point, you need to look closely at the costs of consumables before making a purchase decision as these can hit your budget hard if you are not careful in your choice. With inkjets you are only really looking at ink and paper, and OEMs tend to hit you hard on ink as that's where the profit is. Some inkjets may require multiple cartridges, one black and four for colour, so bear that in mind as well. With lasers you are looking at toner and the drum, neither are cheap (but you tend to get a lot more pages out of them than even the most frugal of inkjets) and some will let you refill the toner (cheaper) while others have an all-in-one toner/drum (more expensive but less maintenance/servicing required as you are replacing the guts of the printer every time).

Hope that gives you food for thought. Now go and do your research by studying printer reviews online, and there are plenty of them, in order to narrow down your choices based on purchase price, consumables cost, print quality and reliability. Good luck.

I see that the moderator here is too wicked ...! Do not even give the guys give auxiliary links ... Guys, write your links to the PM and thank you for the answers.

However, I want to express to him the same gratitude for such a broad response. The ink in the printer is withered because it was about 15 years old. He was from the samples of the old generations