Which printer should you buy for studying: laser, inkjet or refillable ink tank?

The short answer, and the question to ask first

For most students, a monochrome laser printer. But before that, there is one question almost nobody asks: do you really need to buy one?

A laser multifunction printer costs around 190 €. Printing at home costs half a cent per page. At a print shop, black-and-white printing costs between 5 and 10 cents. At those prices, buying a printer does not pay for itself until you have printed between 2.000 and 4.200 pages, depending on what your university print shop charges.

If you regularly print notes for entire subjects, civil service exam syllabuses or lengthy projects, you will exceed that threshold in one school year, and buying is clearly worthwhile. If you print one assignment a month, it is not. This guide will help you determine which situation applies to you before spending the money.

Buying a printer or using a print shop: the full calculation

The break-even point depends on just two figures: the cost of the printer and the print shop's price. The third-party compatible consumable has such a low cost per page that it barely affects the result.

Three situations tip the balance in favour of buying, and it is worth knowing what they are.

You print at odd hours. The value of having a printer at home at two in the morning before a deadline does not appear in any table, and for many people it is enough to justify the purchase on its own.

You will be studying for several years. The threshold is based on total pages, not pages per year. Spread those 3.000 pages over a four-year degree, and the target becomes perfectly achievable.

You share the printer. In a three-person flat, the print volume triples and the cost of the machine is split three ways. This is where buying pays off fastest.

The three options and the cost per page for each one

Monochrome laser printers, cartridge-based inkjet printers and refillable ink tank printers solve different problems, and the difference in cost per page between them is eightfold.

The table explains why the short answer is a monochrome laser printer for studying: it is not the cheapest per page, but it offers the best balance of printer price, cost per page and performance under a student's real usage pattern, which means printing text in bursts and leaving the printer idle for weeks at a time.

A laser printer left idle for a month will still work when you switch it on. An inkjet printer left idle for a month may cost you a cleaning cycle and part of the cartridge.

Why monochrome laser wins for study notes

Because toner is a powder and does not dry out. That detail may sound technical, but it makes all the difference for a student.

A student's printing pattern is irregular: nothing for three weeks, then suddenly 200 pages the day before an exam. That is the worst possible pattern for an inkjet printer, because the printheads dry out between uses and every restart consumes ink in cleaning cycles. This does not happen with a laser printer: toner is a powder that is fused onto the paper using heat, and a printer left idle for two months prints just as well when you switch it on.

There are also two practical advantages. Text comes out sharper and does not smudge if the paper gets wet or if you highlight over it with a marker. And a toner cartridge with a 3.000-page yield will last one or two full school years at student printing volumes, so you can stop thinking about the consumable.

The honest downside: a monochrome laser printer cannot compete for colour or photo printing. If you are studying design, architecture or fine art and need to print good-quality images, this is not the printer for you. And if you only need colour occasionally, it is more cost-effective to have those specific jobs printed elsewhere than to buy a colour laser printer and use it twice per term.

Refillable ink tank printers: when they really pay off

When you print a lot and need colour. At 0,051 cents per page, it is the cheapest technology in the range, eight times cheaper than an ink cartridge, but the printer costs considerably more upfront and you need to recoup that difference.

At typical student printing volumes, it takes time to recoup the cost. The calculation changes if you print in colour regularly, share the printer with several people or plan to keep using it after your studies. In those cases, it is a very sound purchase and the bottles last for years.

If you are considering this option, you will find a detailed comparison of the three main product families in EcoTank vs MegaTank vs Smart Tank, including which model suits each type of user.

An inherited printer: how to tell whether it is worth keeping

It is almost always worth keeping, and it is the cheapest option available. A printer that someone at home no longer uses costs you nothing upfront, so only the consumable matters.

Before accepting it, check three things. First, which cartridge it uses and how much it costs: look up the model code and divide the price by the page yield. If it works out at more than 1,5 cents per page, the printer will be expensive to run even if it is free. Second, if it is an inkjet printer, whether it starts: switch it on and print a test page before taking it home, because an inkjet printer stored for two years may have dried-out printheads with no practical fix. Third, if it is a laser printer, what condition the imaging drum is in: print a page with a grey fill and check for streaks or marks repeated at regular intervals.

If the printer passes all three tests, you have a free printer and only need to replace the consumable. That is hard to beat.

Shared flat or student accommodation

In a shared flat, the printer belongs to whoever plugs it in, and that is where the problems begin. It is worth agreeing on two things before buying one together: who replaces the consumable and what happens to the printer when someone moves out.

The arrangement that works best is simple: one person buys it and the others pay for the consumable based on usage. Since it is so cheap, the amount is almost symbolic. A toner cartridge costing 12,98 € with a yield of 3.000 pages, shared between three people, is not worth arguing over.

In student accommodation, with limited space and the accommodation's own rules to consider, the campus print shop usually wins. Check the price per page before deciding: below 5 cents, and with low print volumes, buying your own printer is rarely worthwhile.