Ink Cartridges Or Toner Cartridges - What is the Difference?

Most people and lots of businesses are faced with maintaining their computer systems with the latest technology. A large expense in this arena is replacing ink or toner cartridges for all the printers on the network. If you're like me, you've wondered what is the difference between toner and ink cartridges. Read on to find out.

Ink Cartridges

Using ink cartridges can be thought of as simply using a pen and paper.

The printer ink cartridge contains ink in the liquid form and the printer applies pressure to put the ink on the paper. The cartridges provides ink from one of the ink wells contain in the cartridge through fine holes as called for by the print job. Many manufacturers include electronic contacts and a chip that allows communication between the cartridge and the printer. Usually these ink cartridges use water based ink but some can still use an oil based ink.

In general ink cartridges and inkjet printers can be purchased at a lower price. On average, a color ink cartridge printed document will cost between 5 and 10 cents to print. Of course, ink cartridges are easily replaced, compact and readily available.

Toner Cartridges

Toner is dry, carbon based mixture that uses a polymer that adheres the substance to the paper. If you've never seen toner is just looks like a fine dust. Printing technology uses a laser to actually burn the toner to the paper. So it's the heat that melts the toner mixture and as they cool they are attached to the document. Another factor at work in the process that helps the toner attach to the paper is static electricity.

Each manufacturer has their own recipe or composition for their toner. How fine the particles are in these mixtures is the key element in determining resolution. Obviously if you want the best resolution buy the toner with the finest particles. Another factor is uniformity of particle size. For the best color image results toner particles must be of a uniform size. Many places now offer refilled toner cartridges. In general printers that use toner cartridges are selected for long life, speed and efficiency. If you print a large number of documents toner cartridges are definitely the more economical choice.

Follow the links below to find more information about ink and toner cartridges.

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