Winn L. Rosch Hardware Bible, Sixth Edition

Characteristics

On paper, you may be challenged to determine what printer technology created an image. Although an old dot-matrix printout is distinctive, modern printers have converged on a uniform, high-quality level of output. That's not to say that printer technologies are interchangeable. Laser printers excel at everyday black-and-white business work, producing pages at high speed and low cost. Inkjets trade their low acquisition cost for a higher cost per page (mostly because of the absurdly high cost of ink) with the ancillary benefit of color. They are consequently the top choice for home printing.

But at a deeper level, printers differ in a number of aspects. These include printing speed, on-paper quality, color capabilities, the print ...