Should I Use A Line Printer Or Laser Printer For A Printing Job?

The battle of the printers – which printer is stronger, the laser or the line?

The line printer and laser printer can be used interchangeably in most situations so they are often compared and debated on in terms of which one was better. It’s the IOS vs. Android of the printer world. And, with the line printer and laser printer debut there are no mass amounts of fans for each side. Nor, do you see people parading down the street showing off their new printer.

The advantages to a line printer can be categorized into three main areas – environment, cost, and of course performance .

First, the cost. This is where it gets a little tricky. At first look, the laser printer looks to be the better option in the cost department because the initial price of the laser printers is normally lower then a line printer.

What a lot of people don’t take into account is the maintenance and consumable cost as well. When you do look at those costs you find that laser printer consumables (printer toner and maintenance kits) tend to be more expensive. This means the more production you have the more consumables you use, thus the more you will save by using a line printer. There is also the cost of loss of productivity but we will go over that in a bit.

In regards to the environmental factor, with a line printeryou will have the option to use paper with a high recycled content. With that being said, it also makes the paper very easy to recycle after use, which will in turn reduce the waste of use. With laser you also have the added disadvantage of using toners, which in some cases can contain ozone damaging materials.

Of course we can’t forget production. The line printer excels over the laser printer in most cases. The laser printer does have a slight quality advantage to the line printer , but the quality of the line printer is far from poor.

The line printer excels at performing in hot/cold and humid/dry extremes, and it also is more rugged and more resistant to contaminants, such as dust or airborne oil. Additional benefits include its unlimited page volume (in which the laser printer is limited), plus it’s more energy efficient.

To sum it all up, here are the reasons for line printersover laser printers:

• Works Better In Most Environments
• Cost Savings For Higher Production
• Better Performance In Hot/Cold and Humid/Dry Extremes

See The Newest Printronix Line Printer Technologies >>

There you have it, looks as if we have a clear winner - the line printer. However, you will see the laser printer stopping his bickering of “no you can’t” and summit to saying “yes you can.” As always, you can talk to one of our Printer & Barcode Technology Specialists by calling (800) 643-2664

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