Inkjet, laser or ink tank: which printer suits how you print

Three kinds of printer

Inkjet with cartridges. The printer sprays liquid ink through tiny nozzles onto the paper. The ink sits in separate cartridges that you replace when they run out. Examples are the Canon PIXMA TS7650i, the Epson Expression Home XP-2205 and the HP OfficeJet Pro 9120b.

Ink tank. Still an inkjet, but with refillable tanks that you top up from bottles. Epson calls this EcoTank, Canon MegaTank and HP Smart Tank. HP puts "up to 3 years of printing with the included ink" in the product name of the HP Smart Tank 5105, and EcoTank printers such as the Epson EcoTank ET-2950 also come with bottles of ink in the box. Such a promise in years is based on a fixed number of pages a month; how long it lasts for you depends on what you print.

Laser. A laser printer uses toner, a dry powder that is fused onto the paper with heat. Because toner is a dry powder and does not dry up the way ink does, a laser printer can sit idle for weeks and then print as normal. A black and white laser such as the Brother HL-L2400DWE or the HP LaserJet Pro 3002dw prints only black and is built for text.

How much and how often do you print?

That is the key question. An inkjet that stands unused for a long time can end up with dried nozzles. The printer then cleans them itself, and that cleaning uses ink; Canon, Epson and HP say so in their manuals. If you print only a few times a month, toner avoids the problem.

If you print a lot, say homework for a whole family or forms for a small business, the makers offer the ink tank as their answer: the bottles hold more ink than a cartridge. Canon puts "low printing costs" in the name of the MAXIFY GX1051. Our guide cost per page explains how to compare printing costs yourself.

Colour or black only

If you want to print photos, charts or colourful school projects, choose an inkjet or an ink tank. A colour laser prints colour too, like the HP Color LaserJet Pro 4202dw or the Canon i-SENSYS MF667Cdw, but it takes four toner cartridges and is bigger. Inkjet printers are made for photos on photo paper; a laser printer does not print on inkjet photo paper.

If you print only text, a black and white laser is the simplest: one toner cartridge and nothing else.

Print only, or scan and copy too

An all-in-one (also called a multifunction printer) has a scanner on top, so it copies as well. Most inkjets and ink tanks for the home are all-in-ones. With laser printers you more often get the choice: the Brother HL-L2400DWE only prints, the Brother DCP-L2660DW also scans and copies. If you scan stacks of paper, look for a document feeder (ADF), which the Epson EcoTank ET-3950 has in its name.

You find every model with a scanner under all-in-one printers, and printers without one under inkjet printers and laser printers.

Letters in the model name

With HP and Brother you often see letters after the number that say what a printer does. In the models in our catalogue a "d" usually stands for double-sided printing (duplex), a "w" for wifi, an "n" for a wired network connection and an "f" for fax. The HP LaserJet Pro 3002dw, for example, prints double-sided and wirelessly. It is a habit, not an official rule from HP or Brother: if in doubt, check the model's specifications. Canon and Epson put this in the product description, for example "Dubbelzijdig" (double-sided) for the Canon PIXMA MegaTank G3590.

Ink subscriptions

HP offers Instant Ink and Epson offers ReadyPrint: the printer reports when ink is running low and new cartridges are sent to your home. You then pay a monthly fee for a set number of pages. The product names say "Geschikt voor Instant Ink" or "Geschikt voor ReadyPrint" (suitable for), as with the HP OfficeJet Pro 8125e and the Epson Workforce WF-2950DWF. A subscription is an option, not a requirement; read the maker's terms.