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Getting The Best Deal On Printer Ink: Toner Or Inkjet Makes A Difference
A lot of people use the term "toner cartridge" to refer to either the cartridges for a laser printer or an inkjet printer. Toner cartridges are really only used in laser printers, however - inkjet printers use "ink" not "toner".
Now you might be wondering what's the difference...
Compared to printer ink, toner is a little different - instead of a wet ink it's actually a very fine, dry powder. Rather than spraying the ink onto the page the way an inkjet does, a laser printer basically "bakes" the dry toner onto the page.
You don't really need to know the technical differences between inkjet and laser printer toner cartridges, but if you're looking for a replacement toner you do need to keep in mind that there is a difference.
One of the biggest advantages of a laser printer over an inkjet is the cost of the toner compared to ink. Laser printers generally cost much less to operate - as much as ten times less.
The other great thing about a laser printer is that the toner cartridge usually lasts much longer than the average inkjet. This is both because a single cartridge prints a lot more pages and because they won't dry out if you don't use them for a while.
If you've ever dealt with replacing an ink cartridge on an inkjet printer, you know how much it can cost. A laser printer toner will usually cost more money to buy but because it lasts a lot longer, you actually spend less per page printed.
Even so, there are ways to save money when buying toner cartridges. You can buy a cheap laser print toner cartridge for many brands and models of lasers. These discount cartridges are sometimes recycled from the original manufacturer's toners - cleaned up, refilled and tested - and sometimes they're manufactured by other laser toner cartridge producers, to work the same as the originals.
These cheap toner cartridges aren't available for every brand and model, however. The printer manufacturers make far more money on the toners they sell you than they do on the printer itself, so they are not very happy when these cheaper versions can be used, which takes them out of the loop (and your money out of their pocket!)
Practically every new model of printer uses a new type of toner - whether from HP, Epson, Samsung, IBM, Minolta or any of the other laser printer companies.
There are two sides to the story behind this. On one hand, as the printer companies make their printers better and add new features and capabilities, the toners have to change to support them. On the other hand, if they constantly change their cartridges, it makes it much harder for the discount toner companies to keep up.
All is not lost, however. A lot of the discount cartridges you can buy are actually remanufactured from the original manufacturer's toners - ones that have been used and are sent for recycling.
What this means to you is even if you have a brand new printer and can't get a cheap version of the toner, it's quite likely you will be able to find them in a few months. Once the toner recycling companies get a good enough supply of a new cartridge, they'll start selling them (as long as there isn't some new trick to stop them from being refurbished, that is!)
So, the bottom line is with a little patience, whether you're looking for Canon, Minolta or HP printer ink (or almost any other brand), it will probably be available somewhere else for less money before too long.
