LED vs laser printers: What should your business choose?

Purchasing a printer can be a difficult decision for any business, especially when taking into account potential costs, customization, and longevity.

There are three primary types of printer used in business, including inkjet, laser, and light-emitting diode (LED) options, each of which has their own distinct advantages.

Inkjet printers, for example, were typically limited to personal home use while laser printers were reserved largely for enterprises. That’s all changed over the last decade, however, and advances in inkjet printer designs mean they now boast equally fast speeds and durability.

Overall, LED and laser printers tend to remain a more common feature in your office setting, but pricing means they’re now approaching parity with inkjets. Even smaller companies or businesses run from home are flocking to these printers, for example, and our advice for small to medium-sized businesses is that they’re now a viable option.

Naturally, both these types of printer come with their own drawbacks. There’s no such thing as the ‘perfect’ office equipment. With that in mind, it’s important to know the differences – albeit often minor – when making an informed purchase decision to ensure you’re getting the best bang for your buck.

Are laser printers best?

Laser printers boast a reputation as the go-to choice in office environments for several reasons.

In terms of the written word and pulling together simple graphics, laser printers are the go-to for most businesses. The lasers used produce sharp, crisp results – and at a high speed. This makes a laser printer perfect for businesses that require slick, professional looking prints in rapid fashion.

Laser printers are also cheaper to run than their inkjet counterparts. The reason for this is that rather than using ink cartridges, laser printers use powdered toner, which is typically cheaper to buy in bulk.

These printers work by beaming patterns onto a positively-charged drum, leaving behind a negative charge in the shape of what is being printed. This attracts the toner, which sticks to the drum that is then rolled over the paper itself.

The initial investment required for a laser printer is higher compared to an inlet, but that cost disparity is narrowing. Notably, if you’re in an office environment where hundreds of sheets are printed each week, you could find that initial outlay is paid back within a relatively short period of time due to savings on ink.

Combine that with our best practice guide on reducing print costs, and a laser printer becomes a very shrewd investment.

It’s worth noting that size can be an issue with laser printers, largely due to the drum and laser setup. If you’re short on space in your office, you’re best advised to seek out a more compact printer.

Bulky sizes aren’t the only notable downside here, either. These options traditionally struggle to reproduce photographs at as high a resolution as inkjet printers.

Are LED printers best?

LED printers function in a similar manner to laser printers, relying on a drum and mirror while combining intense light to produce a copy of what the user is printing.

The main difference here, however, is that instead of a laser being used to beam designs, an array of LEDs within the printer is used. This essentially blinks the image or text that’s being printed onto a positively-charged drum, again creating a negative charge that attracts the toner.

There are fewer moving parts in this type of printer, meaning they’re very quiet and perfect for an office environment with limited space. As an additional bonus, the fewer moving parts means the likelihood of internal components breaking is reduced, ultimately saving time, money, and effort on printer troubleshooting.

There are downsides to LED printers, however. Like its laser-based counterpart, it uses a significant amount of energy to produce the light and heat necessary to charge the drum and heat the paper.

This could end up costing you more in energy bills than an inkjet printer. Compared to a laser printer, there are advantages due to the fact that LED efficiency is greater than laser printers. Regardless, it’s still a key consideration when it comes to choosing between the three leading options.

Quality can be a problem too, in our experience. On some occasions there can be small differences in power usage or construction quality between individual LEDs within the internal array. What this means is that LED printers can distribute light less evenly across the drum compared to laser printers.

The end result here is prints that change in resolution, albeit slightly, or vary in color accuracy.

Which produces higher quality prints?

Print quality is, naturally, a key consideration when choosing a printer. Early LED printers, for example, faced resolution issues whereby the quality of prints simply could not compete with pages printed using a laser option.

This isn’t the case anymore, however. The technology has caught up considerably in recent years to the point where copy produced on each of these devices is indistinguishable.

Top of the range laser and LED printers are both capable of rendering images at up to 1,200 dots per inch (DPI).

This is what makes it a very difficult decision when choosing between an LED or laser printer: there’s no clear winner in terms of image quality. From a customization and flexibility perspective, however, LEDs use a fixed drum, meaning they cannot vary in resolution.

Conversely, laser printers have resolutions that can be changed based on your individual needs. If it’s flexibility that you’re seeking, even on a minute level, then our recommendation is to choose a laser printer on this occasion.

Paper quality is also a consideration here. Ultimately, the quality of paper you’re using has a tangible impact on the quality of prints. Both of these devices work best with heat-resistant paper and there are a range of options here for businesses.

Similarly, paper also comes in a range of grams per square meter (GSM) and so anything above a certain thickness is likely incompatible with either.

Is an LED printer better than a laser printer?

As we’ve previously noted, both these devices go toe-to-toe across a range of variables so it’s hard to pick a clear cut winner.

Both favor businesses that are in the habit of printing en-masse and looking for faster speed and lower running costs compared to inkjet devices.

In terms of shelf life, LEDs do edge out their laser counterparts as a result of those moving parts in the latter. If it’s detail you’re looking for, laser printers could be the best option due to resolution flexibility.