To get the best print results, use laser products with laser printers and inkjet products with inkjet printers.
Do I have a laser or inkjet printer?
One easy way to determine whether your home printer is an inkjet or laser is to look at the cartridges inside the printer. Laser printers will have long cylinder toner cartridges while inkjet printers will have wet ink cartridges in CMYK colors.
But if you are still unsure, we recommend contacting the printer manufacturer directly or looking up your printer make and model on the manufacturer's website. This will give you the most accurate information on your printer.
Can I use a laser printer with an inkjet label, or vis versa?
Avery does not recommend using a laser printer on inkjet products. Reasons as to why we do not recommend this are:
- Laser printers use more heat than inkjet printers. Inkjet products are not meant to withstand the heat from a laser printer.
- The heat from a laser printer applied to an inkjet card product could damage a card product by causing the card to wilt.
- The heat from a laser printer applied to an inkjet product could damage an adhesive label product by weakening the adhesive; therefore, the adhesive will not adhere to the surface applied.
- The heat from a laser printer applied to an adhesive product can cause the color of the label to change.
- If the adhesive on an inkjet product becomes weak as it goes through the printer, there is a possibility the labels will separate from the matrix and cause the printer to jam.
Vice versa, Avery does not recommend using an inkjet printer to print laser products.
- Inkjet printers use a wet application as opposed to heat like laser printers. Laser products are not meant to grab wet ink applications.
- Can cause smearing from the ink of the inkjet printer as the product does not fully hold the ink if it is a laser product.
How to tell if an Avery label is laser, inkjet, or both
Here's how you can differentiate an Avery laser product from an Avery inkjet product.
Laser products will have a pink bar that says Laser, usually near the bottom right of the package. Avery laser products work with both color and monochrome (black only) printers.
Inkjet products will have a blue bar that says Inkjet.
We also carry products that work for both inkjet and laser printers. The packages will have both Laser and Inkjet bars.
