When it comes to laser printers, some may wonder what is a laser printer used for? We all know what a laser printer is, how they work, and what’s inside them but what they are used for can be a variety of purposes.
The primary purpose of a laser printer is for printing a large volume of pages per month. It doesn’t mean they aren’t used for small volumes of printing or other printing needs such as printing labels, stickers, pictures or checks. It just means their fundamental use is based on printing 5,000-50,000 pages per month.
For example, some printers are built specifically for large sizes of paper. These printers can use inkjet or laser technology depending on whether quality or volume is the desired use. Since paper size is their primary consideration it surpasses the other traits.
If you need a printer for color quality there are inkjet printers designed especially for photographic quality. Laser printers have excellent quality for text, great quality for color charts & graphs, and good quality for photos. Not terrible photo quality, just photographic quality isn’t what they are primarily designed for.
Laser Printer Evolution
When laser printers were initially built their main competition was dot matrix printers. Both were used for printing lots of paper. Both were fast and durable.
Laser printers have much better text quality than dot matrix printers. They could also do graphics and halftones, albeit in black & white.
Laser printers quickly replaced dot matrix printers in many offices since they made versatile computer peripheral devices. They were used for printing forms, reports, contracts, letters, and records.
As laser printers added features like MICR toner and color, they found more uses at the office. Once they came down in price small offices and homes began using them.
They still aren’t as cheap as some inkjet printers but they do make good printers for home use. Like inkjet printers they are used for printing on heat transfer vinyl (HTV). Unlike inkjet printers, laser printers can use waterproof paper.
Laser printers are not only good for printing large volumes of paper, they are good for printing checks, labels, color charts and graphs.
FAQ
Laser printers can print text, graphics, and photos. They print on plain paper, labels, transparencies, waterproof paper, index cards, envelopes, and checks.
To print large volumes of paper.
The Copier Guy, aka Dave. I’ve worked on scanners, printers, copiers, and faxes over 26 years. When I’m not fixing them I’m writing about them. Although, I’m probably better at fixing them. I have certificates from Canon, Xerox. Ricoh, Kyocera, Lexmark, HP, and Konica Minolta. My experience includes other brands as well as several types of processes. If it uses paper I’ve probably worked on one.
