Ink vs. Toner: What's the Difference?
You know how frustrating it is when your printer stops working in the middle of the day.
When you have a project due, or marketing materials that need to get out to customers and clients, you want a printer and printer cartridges that you can rely on to get the job done.
Do you know enough about the options for printer cartridges to make a good investment for your company?
You might be wondering:
- What’s the difference between toner and ink?
- Is there a difference between the cost of toner and ink?
Most businesses use laser printers, which use a specialized process involving an electrical charge to apply color to a page. For this process, a toner cartridge (rather than an ink cartridge) is used for this process.
Toner is not a liquid, but rather a powder that can hold the electrical charge. Inkjet printers apply color and text to the page using liquid ink. The cartridge in this case is an ink cartridge, which is airtight. Inkjet printers are often less expensive than laser printer and are the predominant type of printer purchased for home use.
Is there a difference in cost between toner and ink?
Laser printers and their cartridges can cost more, but it’s important to consider the long-term cost savings. Toner cartridges can usually print more pages than an ink cartridge, so they have a lower cost per page.
Printing in color or black and white can also save money for your business in the long run (read more about that here)!
A sampling of our toner prices can be found here. Need some help? We’re happy to help you navigate the world of printer cartridges. Send us an email or call today!
Here’s what our customers have to say…
I have worked with Michigan Computer Supplies for about two and a half years. They supply us with 5-10 toner cartridges each month for about 17 printers, of which some are large volume printers. We use both their refurbished and original manufactured toner depending on the device. I believe the refurbished cartridges work just as good as the originals. We also order Zebra printers and labels, Ethernet cables, bar code scanning devices and more. You name it. They have it. Occasionally we have also purchased printer devices and have had items repaired by them as well. I typically call once a week because we go through so much toner. When I call to let them know that we are getting low on supplies they are very efficient with their response time. Kyle delivers new toner by the next day and removes the old cartridges and recycles them. In addition, Jessica often mentions other cost saving measures such as quantity price breaks or recommends a compatible refurbished cartridge to save money. They try to give their customers the most bang for their buck! They are a great group of people to work with. They are very customer oriented and go above and beyond expectations. We recently had a specialized fax machine stop working that would cost $2,000 to replace. I spoke with Chris and he did some research and within 30 minutes called back with a suggestion of another device that would fit our needs for only $ 400.00! They really care about their customers.
- B. Gibson
