[creshal]

Lasers do have disadvantages – mainly their excessively high power consumption and their air pollution.

Modern gel inks don't dry out in my experience, and make for very efficient printers that are much less maintenance intensive than lasers. And ink is cheaper than toner unless you print several hundreds of pages a month.

[unclebucknasty]

I'm sure I'm having a brain fart and missing something obvious, but why are inkjets cheaper than laser only at lower monthly page volumes?

Seems that your savings would just continue to increase the more you print. Or is there something else that affects the inkjet price per page at higher volumes?

[jschwartzi]

It's the per-page cost. A toner cartridge will print several-thousand pages before it runs out, but most people don't print that often. The base cost on a color laser might be $300, while for an inkjet it might be $50. If you never burn through the sample cartridge that comes with the inkjet then you're ahead of laser because of amortization. However, if you manage to run out of ink more than once then laser will end up costing you less, assuming you print equal amounts with both printers.

[unclebucknasty]

Ah OK. I was thinking strictly operational costs, while this comparison includes the price of the printer and assumes other constraints. Got it. Thanks.

[pjc50]

"ink is cheaper than toner" is just not true for B&W printing.