I just wonder for a technical explanation about why at same quality level (Best, for example), inkjet printing speed is always slower than that of laser one?
Can inkjet be made to print as fast as laser at the same quality setting?
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Sign up to join this communityI just wonder for a technical explanation about why at same quality level (Best, for example), inkjet printing speed is always slower than that of laser one?
Can inkjet be made to print as fast as laser at the same quality setting?
Most ink-jets print a line at a time, with print-head shuttling back and forth the width of the platen. Laser printers use a rotating mirror to scan the width of a page... much faster.
Of course, one could design an ink-jet printer with a full-width, non-scanning, print head, but that is contrary to the concept of a low-cost printer, and any defect in one nozzle would require replacement of the whole head.
A laser printer has at least one rotating drum (common color lasers has three) which gets a full page's content in one go.
See the explanation of the transfer process here.
Current inkjet printers does use a "spray-gun" type of ink transfer, which means the spray-gun (nozzles) has to move over the paper in a similar fashion to when you use a spray-gun. Unless the printer has a 'spray gun' large enough for (covering) the width of a page, or an entire page, the speed will always be slower.
More on inkjet technology here