Printer owners often ask whether to buy a toner cartridge or an ink cartridge for the printers. The answer is simple as the toner cartridges are intended for laser printers whereas ink cartridges are intended for inkjet printers. However, it is recommended to know more about the function of ink and toner cartridges to make a better selection of printer and cartridge.

Use of Ink and Toner Cartridges

Whether to buy an inkjet printer or a laser printer will largely depend on the user need and application. However, the selection of toner/ink cartridges will have a bearing on the cost of operation of the printer. Without going into the dilemma of deciding whether an inkjet printer is better over a laser printer, it is important to understand the difference between ink and toner cartridges.

Working Mechanism of Inkjet Printer with Ink Cartridges

Inkjet printer technology works on a simple principle. In such a printer, the sealed inkjet cartridges are installed in a printer head. The printer head has minute ink nozzles for dispersing ink for printing on paper.

The printhead starts moving back and forth over the material for printing as it receives a command for printing. While moving, the tiny nozzles start dispersing ink as per the required text or image to be created, on the paper. The technologies for working may vary from one inkjet printer to another and the variation is mainly related to the way of dispersing ink on the paper.

In thermal printers, the technology for dispersing ink works based on heat. Further in piezoelectric printers, the dispersion of ink from the nozzles is based on electric charges and vibrations.

Working Mechanism of Laser Printer with Toner Cartridges

The working methods of laser printers with toner cartridges remain a little more complex compared to inkjet printers. The technology used in laser printers is comparatively newer than inkjet printers and it brings in a lot of new technological features. Contrary to inkjet printers, toner is not put on the paper directly in laser printers, and instead, the toner is put onto the paper through a revolving metal drum.

The highly photosensitive revolving metal drum carries a single charge only, which is either negative or positive. As the print command is received, an image is drawn on the revolving metal drum by the laser printer that is an electrostatic image. The charge is transferred to a particular region of the drum so that the image gets an opposite charge to the charge in the other part of the drum.

The toner has the same charge as the drum and gets attracted to the opposite charge created, whereas the toners fall away from the remaining part having the same charge. The paper having opposite magnetic charge gets attracted to the toner and the print formation takes place. Further, the fuses melts the toner at this point that makes the words or the image permanent.

With an understanding of the toner and inkjet cartridges, you can make a better decision for the selection of cartridges and even selection of printer including the handheld printers.