Printers are used every day in residential properties as well as large companies and office buildings. They come in various shapes and sizes, they can print using ink or toner and they come at different prices as well. With the passing of years, a lot of interesting facts about printers have been born. If you want to be amazed, here are some of the most intriguing and cool facts about printers you should know.

The toner is actually composed of teeny-tiny plastic particles

Laser printers use toner in order to create writings or images on a piece of paper. The toner is basically composed of microscopic plastic particles which are fused on the paper. These particles are called polymers and laser printers generate a lot of heat in order to melt those particles. During the printing process, the fusers of a laser printer can heat up to 400 degree Fahrenheit (or approximately 200 degree Celsius).

Laser printers are considered to be more accurate than inkjet printers

In some cases, even the oldest laser printers ever created are still used these days because they provide top quality printing features. Color laser printers can even produce amazing prints at 2400DPI (dots per inch).

Don’t attempt to remove toner spilled on your clothes with warm water

As mentioned before, heat or warmness tends to melt the particles from which toner is made and as a result, clothes which have been stained with toner will get even dirtier. The best way to remove toner from a piece of cloth is by using a small brush, followed by a thorough cleaning process with cold water. Additionally, it is very important to take action immediately, before the toner gets impregnated into the fabric and becomes even harder to get rid.

Toner creation guidelines are a secret for each printer manufacturer

While toner is created for laser printers, it is specifically calibrated according to the electromagnetic charges produced by a certain printer. In other words, all toners are unique and the formula for creating such toners is a secret for each and every printer manufacturer.

Printers were hideously expensive back in the days

Nowadays you can buy a decent printer for about $150. However, the situation was completely different back in the days when printers first appeared on the market. For example, the first commercial laser printer was produced by IBM in 1975 and its price was a whopping $17,000. Similarly, another laser printer created by HP which was intended for mass markets was priced around $3,500 back in the days. It was produced in 1984 and it was capable of achieving the "amazing" speed (at that time) of 8 pages per minute. These days, modern printers can print more than 60 pages a minute with great ease.

Laser printers consume a lot of power when they are used

This happens because the fusers need to get very hot in order to melt the plastic spheres and create text or images on a piece of paper. Just as a comparison, a laser printer can use up to 700 watts when in use. That is 3 times more power than a desktop computer. On the other hand, when a desktop computer is idle, it consumes 5 times more power than an idle laser printer.

The printer manufacturer Brother protects the Koala bears in Australia

As you probably already know, most of the components of laser printers are totally recyclable. In this case, the big printer company Brother recycles enough toner cartridges each year in order to provide each and every cute Koala bear in Australia with 3 trees.

There is such thing as edible ink

These inks are special, they are more expensive and they don’t work with every type of printer. One should buy a certain type of printer in order to use edible inks.

Toner cartridges are known enemies of the environment

In order to create one toner cartridge for a laser printer, approximately one gallon of oil is used. Also, toner cartridges can only be recycled up to 4 times. Therefore, toner cartridges are some of the most resource-consuming products each and every one of us utilizes every day.

A gallon of ink can be very expensive

Back in 2008, a gallon of ink was priced over $4,000. These days, it is estimated that the same amount of ink is priced around $4,800. Ink is very expensive because it is hard to produce it. In fact, manufacturers which sell inkjet printers hardly make any money from the actual printers. Their profits come from selling ink cartridges.

Speaking of ink and toner cartridges, if you need printing supplies at affordable rates then make sure that you explore our website and take a look at our quality products. We can also help you if you need to fix up your office printers.