The most popular types of printing are thermal printing and laser printing. Of course, they both have their advantages and disadvantages when it comes to choosing a suitable type to cater to the business needs of your company. In order to pick the right one, here is an in-depth but straightforward comparison between the two types.

Thermal Printing

To start with, thermal printers don’t use ink or toner to print. They use a special type of paper, thermal paper, that contains special chemical coating, which activates when the heat is applied form the printer. This is the first advantage of the thermal printers – there is no extra cost when it comes to buying ink or toner. Plus, the process without ink cartridges is rather simple.

Furthermore, the maintenance of the thermal printer is very easy and minimal when compared to the laser printer. There are no moving parts that should be cleaned separately, which makes the thermal printer easily maintained.

If the reason you need a printer is for printing barcodes and labels, then thermal printing is the right solution for you. Thermal printers are optimised and designed for the printing of labels, which enables printing in the office or at home and still giving them a professional look. The thermal prints are very durable, resistant to smudges, and depending on the material of the label; they can be water-resistant or heat-resistant as well. Add to this the fact that they are incredibly flexible – they can print thousands of labels at the same time.

One last thing, if you intend to print labels with adhesives, the thermal printer’s got your back- there will be no adhesive bleeding because the thermal printers operate at lower temperatures and won’t cause the adhesive to get in a liquid condition.

On the other hand, you should be aware that the significant investment in a thermal printer comes at the beginning – when you need to buy the printer, but it pays off in the long run. Also, in order to create durable prints, you will need thermal ribbons. When you are choosing the size of thermal ribbons Australia suppliers will instruct you not to make any mistakes.

Laser Printing

The laser printers operate with higher temperatures, and therefore, they are not optimised to print labels with adhesives. The reason why is because the high temperature will cause the adhesive to bleed and create an adhesive buildup inside the printer. And if the printer is not immediately cleaned, it will cause media jams. Plus, it can seriously harm the toner cartridge and the fuser roller, which will cost you much to replace.

In addition, laser printers are not capable of printing more than a few labels at a time. This could lead to other problems such as material waste or additional time and energy spent.

On the other hand, laser printers are an excellent solution for printing business forms and any documents in black or  in different colours. They work similar to photocopiers in which they project controlled streams of ions onto the surface of a print drum, and this results in a charged image. They are accessible and efficient when it comes to office document printing, and the document quality is very high. However, they are not recommended for printing labels.