Before you decide which type of label you need you are going to have to take a look at your printer and establish what type that is; inkjet or laser printer.

Inkjet printers squirt small, high pressure jets of ink onto the paper when printing (hence the name “inkjet”) and this must then be allowed to dry – when you print a heavy ink piece off, particularly a photo or other image, you will feel the paper is heavy and wet and the image printed will smudge easily if you don’t handle it properly.

A laser printer uses a laser which creates an electrically charged image on a rotating drum and which is then used with the toner to create an image or text on the paper using heat to melt or fuse the ink with it.

There are pro’s and con’s to using both types of printer but here is a brief summary:

Inkjet Pro’s and Con’s

The advantages for using an ink jet printer for your custom ink jet labels are:

  • Vivid colors are created with inkjets
  • Most inkjet printers are easily within everyone’s budget and they are very affordable
  • Very suitable for occasional use at home or in the business
  • Can create photo quality images

But here are the downsides:

  • Frequent ink cartridge replacement will drive up the regular operating cost
  • High maintenance costs relative to laser printers
  • Print slowly compared to a laser

In the other corner we have the laser printer labels and the advantages here are:

  • Lower operating costs
  • Toner cartridges have a longer life than inkjet cartridges
  • Sharp text quality
  • Fast printing speeds

But the downsides are:

  • Usually much more expensive to buy upfront
  • Occasionally, images and photographs are not so clearly printed
  • Toner cartridges can be much more expensive than inkjet cartridges

Occasional home or business use favors using an inkjet printer and especially if you are printing images and photo reproduction whereas if you are looking for a regular use, high volume capability then you are better off investing in the laser printer.

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