Inkjet or Laser? What's the difference?

I thought I would just write a quick little piece on different printer types so you are not overloaded with jargon when you print your bits and pieces - or when you try and purchase a printer. 

Just so you know - Our printables will work in either printer type!

Basically there are two main types of printer you will see when you are looking to buy one. Laser and Inkjet.

Laser Printers

A laser printer can be a monochrome laser (only printing in black and white) OR a colour one. The 'print' or image is applied using ink toner with heat. Typically, these printers are the ones you'll find in offices and schools etc and are generally used for higher volume printing. 

Inkjet Printers

Inkjet printers can also come in monochrome or colour options, and are generally used at home. They use ink from cartridges that spray tiny little droplets of ink onto the paper. If you are printing a very bright and dense design, then the paper might feel "wet" and you may need to leave it to dry a little. Most of our designs are made with this in mind - and therefore wont use as much ink, so you save some money!

There are other printing types that you will hear of - offset, digital, screen and letterpress (and more) - as well as treatments that can be applied like foil, embossing/debossing, thermography, lamination and more. These are more technical - and again - with most of our designs, you wont need to know these techniques.

Foil is so very popular, and there is a way you can DIY foil - and I will write about this in a future post!

I hope that sheds a little light - very basic I know - however I hope it helps some of you decipher what is what in the printing world.