Points to Consider Before Opting for Color Laser Printing

Color printing is ideal for producing documents with a combination of color text, graphics and photographs. Most of us are familiar with black laser printers which are cost effective and produce quality prints.
Black laser printers usually do monochrome (black and white) printing. However, a color laser technology uses a combination of red, blue and green colors to produce various colors.

Factors to consider before buying

Before deciding to opt for color laser printing one must assess the following factors.

Content: The first step is to evaluate what type of documents, images and reports are typically required. If one is typically printing colored text and graphics in large volumes in a shot span of time, a color laser printer would be a good choice. However, photographs on these printers are inferior compared to inkjet prints. But color laser printer is still good for charts, color table and logos.

Printing Cost: Color laser printers with a high speed are generally expensive. The prices can start from around $300 and go up depending on the printing speed and other features. These printers are larger than inkjets and take up more space. A buyer must make sure he/she has sufficient space for printer and its supplies. For people who don’t mind paying more for the printer, the toner replacement costs would still be an unavoidable recurring expense.

Maintenance Costs: Unlike monochrome laser printers the color printers have four toner drums to create different colors. Replacement of multiple toners can be expensive and time consuming too. Some manufacturers recommend users to replace all the toners simultaneously, which is an expensive affair for small office and home users. However, some manufacturers are designing color lasers to generate more black prints. Before going for color laser printer it’s important to consider toner costs.

Mixed Printing: Some laser printer manufacturers are making color printers with a higher black printing capacity to aid mixed printing. For someone who prints several black prints and occasional color outputs or vice versa and has large printing volumes, a color laser printer would be a good investment.

Assess your current printer: Those using black laser printer, which is getting old and needs a replacement can consider upgrading to color laser printer. Those who print color rarely investing in color laser printing can be expensive.

In-house printing vs. Outsourcing: The decision to choose color laser printing versus outsourcing print jobs depends on volumes and work priorities. If the volume of color documents is limited or if the frequency is occasional, hiring a local external printer makes sense.

Test/Trials: Office supply stores provide demos of printers where one can see how the printer works with text documents, graphical pages, etc. These demos can tell you about the printing speed and output quality and the ability of the printer to handle text, graphics and photographs.

The above points should help in deciding whether opting for color laser printer makes sense. For people with high-volume color printing requirements this option is worth considering.