Toner vs Ink

Printing on paper using a printer at home and offices is a common phenomenon today and there are two ways of completing this printing process. One can either make use of an inkjet printer that is akin to writing on paper with an ink pen. Here, the printer places the required amount of ink on paper and then applies pressure so that the ink sticks into the paper. On the other hand, when toner is used for printing, no pressure is used as toner is not an ink but a powder that gets placed on the paper and then a laser burns the toner into the paper so that printing becomes visible. Despite similarities in the sense that both an ink and toner are used for printing on paper, there are differences galore that will be highlighted in this article.

We all are familiar with inks right from our student days though this is an age of Rollerball and ballpoint pens. Inkjet printers make use of an inkjet cartridge containing ink that gets placed on paper and with application of pressure like the pressure put by a person writing on paper, the text gets displayed. Toner is not an ink; it is a powder that is used in laser printers. In early times when printing was mainly black and white, carbon powder was used as toner. The user placed some of this powder into a reservoir into the printer when required. Today there are cartridges that keep on feeding toner powder as and when required by the printer. With the advancement of technology, toners are today available in cyan, magenta, yellow and black colors producing all colors with a combination of these 4 colors called as CMYK system. K is used to denote black as B has been reserved for blue color.

In general, an inkjet cartridge contains wet ink while a laser toner contains dry powder. A statically charged drum puts toner powder on to the paper. It is then melted through a fuser and finally baked on to the paper. Now you know why the paper is warm when it comes out of a laser printer. A laser printer has a higher yield than an inkjet printer. These printers take time to get warmed up but once ready they can work much faster than inkjet printers. Laser printers produce complete page at once in contrast to an inkjet printer where you can see the printing with your eyes. In case of an inkjet printer, wet ink is shot through a jet in the form of bubbles on to the paper with some pressure. These printers do not require time to warm up, and printing is also cheaper than laser printers.

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