Printing toner and printing cartridges are commonly confused products when it comes to printing supplies. When it comes down to making sure that you are getting the right supplies for your printing needs, it is very important that you understand which cartridges are compatible with your printer. A number of people mistake these ink and toner cartridges as being something interchangeable. The good news is that it is possible to see some characteristics that can really separate the two:
A toner cartridge: printing toner is what’s required for the xerographic printing process or laser printing process. Laser printing processes don’t just press the toner directly onto the paper, instead a laser actually draws a template in electrostatic images onto a metal drum that inside the printer. The drum has a photosensitive material that produces a negative or positive charge. The laser can alter that charge in spots throughout the sensor and then the drum is coded by the magnetically charged toner particles. The particles will only adhere to areas that the laser has affected. When the paper is passed by, it can also be magnetically charged and draw the toner to it. The user inside the printer will then warm up the toner and melt plastic particles inside of it to bond it to the paper.
An ink cartridge however simply involves microscopic ink nozzles that are responsible for permanently dyeing the paper with droplets of ink.
Printing toner is often a bit more expensive than ink cartridges but it often produces a much more defined in permanent image. As the bulk of office printers usually use toner cartridges for their quality, finding a quality toner cartridge for replacement will be essential for keeping a printer up and running.
