Is a color laser or an ink tank printer better for color?
An ink tank printer, for almost everyone: it prints a color page for well under two cents against published color laser figures of between 12 and 15 cents a page, and it can print photographs. A color laser wins in one case only — color you need occasionally on a printer that sits idle for months.
This comparison has a clear winner on cost and a genuine, narrow exception. Both halves are worth stating properly, because the exception is real and the cost gap is larger than most people expect.
How we decided this
We computed the ink tank side from bottle prices and manufacturer-rated yields, adding one per-page cost for each of the three color channels because that is what an ISO color page draws. For the color laser side we cite Toner Buzz’s published range rather than pricing four cartridges individually, because color toner pricing varies widely and the range is the honest representation.
We then weighed the non-cost factors separately, because a comparison decided purely on cost would miss the one thing a color laser genuinely offers.
The cost gap
| Per color page | Basis | |
|---|---|---|
| Canon MegaTank (GI-21) | ~0.8¢ | Our arithmetic, prices read 27 Sep 2026 |
| Epson EcoTank (522) | ~1.1¢ | Our arithmetic, prices read 27 Sep 2026 |
| Color laser | between 12 and 15 cents a page | Toner Buzz's published range |
Roughly a tenfold difference, and on a 5%-coverage ISO page. A color-heavy document uses much more than that, which widens the gap rather than closing it. Run your own volume.
There is a second cost too: a color laser has four cartridges to buy and track rather than four bottles you filled once. On the Brother they are separate units, which is better than a combined cartridge — but it is still four purchases.
The one thing a color laser does better
It cannot dry out. Toner is a dry powder with no solvent to evaporate and no print head to clog, so a color laser left untouched from March to August prints perfect color in August. An inkjet in the same situation may need a head clean, and in the worst case may have a blocked nozzle.
If you need color and cannot promise regular use, that property is not a nice-to-have. It is the difference between a printer that works and one that does not, and it is worth paying several cents a page for if you only print a few hundred color pages a year.
Photographs: not a contest
A color laser cannot produce a photographic print of any quality. Fused toner on glossy paper cannot deliver the tonal depth that ink absorbed into a photo coating does, and no specification changes that. If photographs are any part of your color printing, the color laser is simply not a candidate.
The ink tank side also has internal variation here: dye-based ink is better on glossy paper than pigment. See the photo printing page.
The other differences, briefly
- Crispness of colored text and line art: color laser is better, because fused toner does not spread along paper fibers. Charts and colored headings look sharper.
- Water and smudge resistance: color laser is better, though a pigment ink narrows this considerably.
- Speed: the Brother color laser is 19 pages a minute, which is slower than its mono models but faster than most inkjets on a long color document.
- Size and noise: color lasers are the bulkiest printers here, because they need a fuser and four toner assemblies.
The decision
Count the color pages you print in a year. Under about a hundred, and with long gaps between them: a color laser is a defensible purchase. Over a few hundred, or with any photographs, or with regular enough printing to keep an inkjet healthy: an ink tank printer, and the cost difference will pay for the printer.
And there is a third answer worth considering: a mono laser plus a print shop for the handful of color pages. Cheaper than either option on this page, and better output than both.