The
laser printer type has been around for over 25 years, although the technology has advanced significantly during that time. Laser printers work by projecting an image of the item to be printed onto an electrically charged drum, which electrostatically picks up dry ink (toner) particles onto the charged areas, and then fuses them to the paper using a warm roller.

You can find both black and white and laser colour printer models, and the speed and crispness of picture will vary between models.
Inkjet types of printer work to create an image by sending a very precisely controlled stream of tiny ink drops onto the paper. Today's
inkjet printer models produce crisp images, both for text and pictures. There are many general purpose and photo specific inkjet models of printer on the market, and different manufacturers use very slightly different techniques, so always ask to see a printout from the specific printer model you are interested in.
Inkjet printers are generally slower at printing than laser printers, although the finished product can be very high quality, so inkjet printers are usually more suited to home environments where they will not be printing numerous images on a daily basis.
If you are looking to use a printer to print digital photos from a digital camera, you may want to look at a dedicated photo printer. These may be inkjet printers, but more often use a technique called dye-sublimation, which produces a picture by transferring ink in a continuous strip from a ribbon on to the paper using heat to lay each colour separately, finishing up with a clear laminate overlap on top. This printer produces a clear, natural looking photo that is dry when it emerges from the printer.
Finally, it is possible to buy multifunctional or all-in-one printer models, which offer multiple printer capabilities in one machine, usually a printer, scanner, photocopier, and fax together. These printer types will appeal to small and home business users particularly, as they are very space efficient.