By Dennis Walthers

As the world rapidly evolves to printing everything in color, it is important to understand the key differences in leading office color printing technology. There are three primary types of technology now in use. There is Inkjet, Laser, and Solid Ink technology.

Most of us are familiar with inkjet printers. Inkjet printers use multiple color ink tanks to place very fine droplets of ink in a precise manner to create a beautiful color document. Even today’s inexpensive color inkjets that sell for less than $100 can produce lab quality color photos. This is really incredible considering that color inkjets did not reach the market until the mid 90’s and only in the past few years have (manufactures) produced printers capable of providing a quality image. It is hard to beat an inkjet printer for personal use. As long as your print volume does not require multiple hundreds of color prints each month, you can probably get by with a quality inkjet printer. The latest multifunction devices in the market from (manufactures) like Canon, Epson, Lexmark and HP offer great flexibility for not only printing, but also color copies, scanning, faxing, and producing beautiful color photos.

So what is the downside to using inkjet? There are quit a few shortcomings of inkjet technology. First and foremost is cost per page. It has been said that the ink contained in the color inkjet cartridges is the most valuable liquid known to man. If you have purchased inkjet cartridges from your local office supply store you have experienced first hand the high cost of these ink tanks. Why is it so expensive? This is clearly the primary source of profit for the printer manufactures. If you look at earnings reports of the major printer companies, you will see that 100% of their profit is derived from the sell of consumables. Everything else they do is subsidized by profits from ink. The reason the inkjet printers are inexpensive is that the manufactures are subsidizing the cost of the hardware with future profits derived from the sell of ink. You can minimize your expense by using compatible inkjet cartridges from FreePrinters.com http://www.FreePrinters.com/store

Secondly, inkjet printers are slow. Yes, speed does continue to improve, but for the most part these printers are not known for their speed. Most of them do have higher speed settings but you sacrifice the quality of print.

What do you do with the empty ink tanks? Refill them? Too much hassle and to messy.

Toss it in the trash? Not the best thing for the environment. These are not made of biodegradable material.

Lastly, inkjet printers are not designed to stand up to the rigors of high volume printing. Most of these printers have a duty cycle of around 1,000 prints per month. The duty cycle is a measure of when you can expect to have some type of repair to the printer. In this case it would likely be the replacement of a print head. In some cases you may find it easier to replace the printer. For comparison, the duty cycle of some of the higher end laser and solid ink printers is 65,000 or more prints per month.

In summary, inkjet technology is a great solution as a personal printer with a lower volume printing demand.

This brings us to laser technology. Laser technology originally created for black and white printing has evolved in recent years to provide beautiful color prints at high speed.

Laser is still today’s most efficient method of printing in black in white. Laser offers high speed, and crisp text. However, when you move into color laser printers something very interesting begins to happen. You basically have to build four color laser printers in one box. To produce color images, you need to combine Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and black toner. The color laser printer does this by using 4 different color toner cartridges and fusing the colors to the page with intense heat.

Color lasers offer the benefits of beautiful printing quality at high speed in excess of 24 pages per minute. They absolutely blow away inkjet in terms of speed and the ability to print in volume. Most color lasers have a duty cycle in excess of 65,000 pages per month. They also provide the ability to print in larger formats like 11 X 17.

So is there a downside to color laser? Yes, there are a few things you should be aware of when considering a color laser printer.

First, the initial cost of the hardware is high. These costs have been coming down and will continue to do so. Interestingly enough, the printer manufacturers are duplicating the formula used with inkjets. Subsidize the cost of the hardware with future profits derived from toner. This translates to a shockingly high cost on the individual toner cartridges. One set of toner can cost $750 to $1,500 depending on the printer. The yield on one set of toner will range from about 5,000 pages to 14,000 pages at 5% coverage. But wait there’s more. Not only will you need to replace toner, but you will also need to replace the imaging unit or photo conductor, as well as oil rollers, drums and fusers. Bottom line, they are not expensive to acquire and use.

Secondly, waste – what do you do with all the empty toner cartridges? You can fill the landfills or potentially find someone who will take these to be recycled. In either case it’s a hassle.

Cost per page – This is something you will need to consider on a printer by printer basis.

Expect a cost per page of around .25 cents per page for a page with 20% coverage. Be sure and consider ALL the supplies that will need to be replaced.

The Latest Technology that is changing the landscape of color printing.

Now let’s talk about the latest innovations in a color printing technology that is coming into it’s own. Solid Ink technology, invented by Xerox® is making it’s mark in a major way since the introduction of the Xerox® Phaser® 8400™ and Xerox® Workcenter C2424™ multifunction printer.

What is solid ink? Solid ink is a waxed based ink that is made into specially shaped cubes of ink that can be fed through the printer. The solid ink is actually melted and applied to the page and instantly cooled to form vivid color images that rival other technology. First, the printers are fast! At 24 pages per minute, the Phaser® 8400™ and C2424™ set the mark for other printers.

Next, these printers can handle the volume. The Phaser® 8400™ and C2424™ are rated to print up to 85,000 pages per month. This is a serious color printer designed for high volume printing.

They are inexpensive to use. Using Media Sciences compatible solid ink allows you to print color pages at an incredible .15 cents per page at 20% coverage. You save on all your color printing. FreePrinters.com works directly with Media Sciences to bring you the guaranteed lowest price on Solid Ink. http://www.freeprinters.com/store

• No Waste – Once the Solid ink stick is used up there is nothing to throw away.
• No Mess – The ink sticks are easy to handle and will not create a mess like ink cartridges or toner. Best of all, you only replace the individual color needed. No more wasting ink when you are low on just one color.

The only other thing you need to replace on this printer is the maintenance kit which is replaced every 30,000 pages for less than $150 for the high capacity kit. This means a low overall maintenance cost and a breeze to take care of.

The print quality of the Phaser® 8400™ is unsurpassed. It can print beautiful photos, brochures, and flyers. The Phaser® 8400DP™ includes networking and duplex printing.

Now FreePrinters.com brings you the Xerox® Phaser® 8400™ printer for Free! That’s right-Free! Check out the program at http://www.FreePrinters.com . Your only obligation in this program is to purchase solid ink that you would need to have anyway. Besides a free printer, you will save 35% off the list price for these supplies. It gets even better! During the two-year program, your printer is covered by Free on-site service! We will fix or replace your printer at no charge to you at your place of business. At the end of two years, the printer is yours to keep. Visit us on line at www.FreePrinters.com or call us at (877) 437-3377. (877) 4 FREEPRINTER.

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