Laserjet Printers vs Inkjet Printers

Laserjet Printers vs Inkjet Printers for printing photography – what’s the deal? Why are we even talking about it here? Well, we’re discussing it on MarylandFilms.com because it’s very much related to printing your photography, your storyboards, and your film’s posters. Need I say more?

If you don’t know the difference, inkjet printers use ink cartridges and squirt small dots of ink onto the paper. Whereas laserjet printers use lasers, much like in Star Wars to blow up… errr… No? Okay, Laserjet printers use a technique called “xerography”, which is greek for dry writing. We’re going overly simplify this, because the technical details are way too much for this article, but Laserjet printers produce an image by the scanning of a laser beam across the printer’s photoreceptor and actually melt the toner onto the paper using heat and pressure (there, that wasn’t too painful, was it?).

I’ll be honest here – I’m very much impartial to laserjet printers. I’ve used them since 1995 and have enjoyed their speed of printing and their low-cost of operating. But it was only a few years ago that I bought into Color Laserjet printers – for years, laserjet printers were just not the greatest color printers due to accuracy/alignment issues. But for standard Black and White copy though, laserjet printers are accurate and great performers, and can print much more quickly than inkjet printers. They are perfect if you are printing many copies of your screenplay.

So how does this comparison relate to printing photography? Well, read on…

Many standard inkjet printers, even though they may claim to be able to print photography, would be best described as more of a marketing gimmick. Laserjet printers are the same – they can’t really produce what I’d call “stunning” photographs. Both would be good if you were making a newsletter, a storyboard, or something along those lines, but not for printing a photograph (I’d prefer the color laserjet printers though).

But, inkjet printers also come in the form of photo printers. If you don’t already own one, you’ve probably seen one at the store. They are designed to do one thing: print photographs. Are they worth the high price? Not sure – especially when you can go to walmart and/or upload your pics and have them printed for fairly cheap (I’d recommend shopping around until you find a place that you feel does a good job printing your photographs). But, photo printers are pretty much instant – which means that you can print out a few pics and take them to Grandma’s at the last minute… So, yes, they may very well be worth, especially if you are the forgetful type or have a hectic schedule.

Now here’s the most important thing I can tell you: If you are printing your film’s posters, do it right. The little photo printers can not print large scale posters, and the inkjet printers and laserjet printers will never look as good as a professional printing job. This is the first and only time you will get the opportunity to draw a crowd for your film! So go to a place that has the capability – you can find professional printing places that print posters online, or you can try a place like Kinkos or something. Either way, don’t mess around and print your posters with your inkjet printers or your laserjet printers – they will look cheap and the people that see them will instantly think your film is cheap too…

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