Inkjets are the most common flavor of home printer, and they work by boiling ink until it disperses through a series of tiny holes. You didn’t expect this? Neither do I! Pretty exciting stuff.
Inkjet printers come in two flavors, either with prefilled cartridges or built-in tanks. The latter is rapidly becoming more popular due to better pricing, greater convenience and a huge reduction in wasted plastic. If you are buying a new printer in 2025 you should opt for an ink tank if not a laser printer. They take a little more work to install and maintain, as you have to place the tanks on top, and they must remain in one place on a flat surface to avoid leakage. I can’t imagine many situations where a printer would be constantly moving and leaning, but it is something to consider.
You thought inkjets were cool? Laser printers work by blasting a tube filled with dry plastic particles, then fusing them into the paper with heat. Their upfront costs are higher, but the cost per page is much lower overall. While a $20 ink cartridge can print 200 pages, a $60 toner cartridge can print 2000 pages. They print much faster than inkjet printers, and you don’t have to worry about them drying out. Plus, the pages come out of the printer nice and hot, and you really can’t put a price on that.
There are also thermal printers, which are commonly used for receipts or shipping labels. Instead of filling the printer with ink and depositing it on a surface, they apply heat in precise patterns to special paper, allowing you to print text and images in lower resolution and usually in one color. If you print shipping labels or simple stickers at home, these can save you a lot of time and ink costs, but they have more limitations.
Laser printers are my preferred type, as long as your paper type and budget can support them, but most home users will be happy with an ink tank printer.
<a href