Tiny droplets, big flexibility

Inkjet printers

The everyday home printer: affordable to buy, good at color, happy with photos and documents alike.

Upfront cost: Low
Running cost: High
Speed: Medium
Color: Yes

Independent guide — not affiliated with any manufacturer. For warranty or official support, contact the maker of your printer.

Overview

An inkjet printer builds a page out of microscopic drops of liquid ink fired from a printhead that sweeps back and forth across the paper. Because it places color drop by drop, it handles everything from a school worksheet to a glossy photo on the same machine.

Inkjets are usually the cheapest printers to buy, and that is exactly why their running costs deserve attention. Ink is used in small cartridges, and a printer that sits unused for weeks can dry out its nozzles. For light, mixed home printing they remain the most flexible choice.

How it works

Diagram is illustrative, not to scale.

The page feeds in

Rollers pull one sheet from the tray and hold it flat under the printhead.
The carriage sweeps

The printhead rides on a belt-driven carriage that moves across the width of the page, one band at a time.
Nozzles fire droplets

Hundreds of nozzles release drops measured in picoliters, using either a tiny heater that makes a vapor bubble or a vibrating crystal that squeezes ink out.
Colors blend on paper

Cyan, magenta, yellow and black dots overlap in dense patterns, and your eye reads them as smooth color. The paper steps forward and the next band begins.

Pros and cons

Advantages and drawbacks of inkjet printers
Pros	Cons
Low purchase price	Ink cartridges make cost per page relatively high
Excellent color and photo quality	Nozzles can dry out if the printer is rarely used
Prints on many paper types, including glossy and card	Slower than laser for long text documents
Compact and quiet for home use	Water-based dye ink can smudge when wet

Best for

Mixed home printing

Homework, forms, the occasional photo or craft project.
Low monthly volume

A few dozen pages a month, where a low purchase price matters most.
Color on a budget

Anyone who wants color without paying laser-printer prices.

What it costs to run

Inkjet running costs are driven by the price of cartridges compared with how many pages each one prints. Standard cartridges are often small, so the cost per page tends to be higher than an ink-tank or laser printer, especially for color.

Ink is also used for cleaning cycles that keep the nozzles healthy. Printing something small every week or so usually wastes less ink than letting the printer sit and then running repeated cleanings.

Higher-capacity cartridges, when your model accepts them, generally lower the cost per page. Compare yields printed on the box rather than the cartridge price alone.

Prices and page yields vary by model and change over time, so we do not quote figures here. Our guide to calculating cost per page shows how to compare any two printers yourself.