Laser Printers from HP, Brother, Lexmark, Canon & More

About Laser Printers

Laser printers were invented in the 1970s by Gary Starkweather. In the 1960s, the Xerox Corporation held a dominating position in the photocopier market, and, Gary, who worked in Xerox's product development department, came up with the idea to use a laser beam to "draw" an image of what was to be copied right onto the drum of a copier. Over the next few years he worked with other xerox engineers to create the first laser printers, the Xerox 9700. Laser printers have been one of the two leading printer types since then, along with inkjet printers.

How Laser Printers Work

The simple version of how laser printers work should help anyone understand the process, while the full technical details might be difficult to understand even for electronics experts. Basically, the laser printer creates a print by using a laser to create areas of static electricity on a large drum. These areas of static electricity attract the toner particles to the drum in the pattern of your printed image. The drum then rolls the toner onto the paper as it passes below it on the transfer belt. Finally the toner is melted and fused to the paper with heat by the fuser unit. The printed image then emerges from your printer ready to go.

Most Popular Laser Printer Brands

There are a plethora of options when it comes to Laser Printers. Today's laser printers deliver unparalleled speed, pristine text, and reliable paper handling. The best laser printer brand for you will depend on how often you will be printing and the scale of your printing jobs. Office Crave carries laser printers from all the top brands to give our shoppers as many options as possible.

Inkjet vs Laser - Which Printer Is Superior

The biggest differences between inkjet and laser printers is that an inkjet printer uses ink while a laser printer uses toner. Inkjets are suitable for low volume printing, and are the traditional choice of home users while laser printers are ideal for high volume printing, and are mostly utilized in office settings. However, despite inkjets being more popular for home use, laser printers are also suitable and are actually often a more economical choice for home use.

Laser printers are durable and can handle heavy printing loads better than inkjet printers. Toner cartridges are long-lasting, so you will not have to worry about replacing them anytime soon. Laser cartridges contain toner powder, which means you won't have to worry about running into dried or clogged ink from the start.

Laser printers are more expensive than inkjet printers upfront, and they usually require more expensive toner cartridges. However, their overall lower cost per page and faster printing makes them a more affordable option in the long run.

Recycle Your Laser Printer Toner Cartridges

More than 40,000 tons of plastic and metal are saved from landfills every year as a result of cartridge recycling in North America. The numbers are hard to believe, but we can save 9599 kilograms of aluminum, 40 tons of plastic, and 1,000,000 liters of oil for every 100,000 used cartridges that are recycled. Unfortunately, only about 30% of all ink cartridges and 40% of all toner cartridges are currently recycled, help us improve these numbers!

Recycle your cartridges in store: many big brand office supplies stores will accept your empty cartridges in their retail locations. Just ask the customer service counter and they will direct you to the recycling bin for ink and toner cartridges.

Mail in your empty cartridges: many manufacturers offer in a mail address for you to send empty cartridges directly back to them. If sustainability is your goal, this is probably the best option as empty cartridges can be refilled instead of recycled, saving even more resources.

Laser Printer FAQs