Just to straighten out the terminology right now, ink jet printers need ink cartridges and laser printers require toner, a powder that gets fused onto the paper with heat. So, it is ink versus toner when you are choosing.

Ink jet printers are sold at or below cost because the manufacturers have figured out that once a consumer has an ink jet printer, the consumer has to buy ink again and again and that is where the money is made.

Every manufacturer will tell you in the handbook that only the manufacturers ink is good enough for that printer and you better not buy ink from some other or “dubious” source. Hey, the manufacturer is loosing money if you do that. Bad boy, bad girl!

If you bought into and fell for the “manufacturer ink is the only right ink” mantra, you gave in to the manufacturer's marketing campaign, that shamed you into only buying “original” ink. Honestly, did you, or do you, think that only the manufacturer's ink is the right ink for your ink jet printer?

As people caught on to the scheme that ink jet printer manufacturers sold their printers for cost or below and that ink cartridges where the money maker, ink cartridge re-manufacturers and ink cartridge re-filling-kit manufacturers boomed on the market. Quickly, many consumers bought kits and got their hands and desks dirty with ink. What a mess. Syringes, paper towels … what are you doing? Meth lab? Ink lab? Why?

Ooooooh, you are trying to save money, I get it.

So, where is laser printing cheaper than ink jet printing? Everywhere!!! You can buy a color laser printer for under $100 these days. Again, it is the same principle as with ink jet printers. The manufacturers will sell the laser printers below cost to you, because you, the consumer, will have to buy the toner again and again and again.

I hope you got the drift. CONSUMER, yes, YOU!

The toner will be expensive. But, wait, toner re-manufacturers have popped up all around you. You now can get re-manufactured toner and laser printer components just as easily as ink jet re-manufactured kits.

Broken down in to dollars and cents it looks like this:

Each page (one side) you print on a color inkjet printer will cost you minimally three times and up to 30 times as much as a page printed on a color laser jet printer, that's a fact. By simple math, any laser printer is cheaper in the long run before a year is over; some have a better return on investment than others. No matter what, within a single year you have turned the high expense into a low expense.