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AVAILABLE PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES
AVAILABLE PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES There are several types of printing technologies beyond inkjet printing that can be considered. Impact printers create an image by touching the paper. These include dot matrix printers, which use a series of small pin-prick ink dots, and character printers, which emboss the paper's surface with ink much in the way of a typewriter. Non-impact printers do not touch the paper to create the image. This group includes inkjet printers. It also includes laser printers, which use dry ink called toner, and solid ink printers, which use wax-like ink that is melted and applied to the printer paper. Other non-impact printers include dye-sublimation printers, thermal wax printers, and thermal autochrome printers. THE INTRODUCTION OF INKJET RECORDERS, INKJET TYPEWRITERS, AND INKJET PRINTERS The first manifestation of inkjet printing technology (sometimes written as "ink jet" or "ink-jet") began with the introduction of inkjet records in the mid-twentieth century. Inkjet typewriters soon followed, but it wasn't until the 1970s and 80s that printer manufacturers began really investing in inkjet printing technology and research, due to the driving belief that inkjet printers and inkjet cartridges would soon replace their dot matrix printer counterparts. Before the 1990s, both Canon and Hewlett-Packard (HP) had produced and marketed quality inkjet printers and inkjet cartridges. In the 1990s, the prices of inkjet printers and cartridges dropped low enough so as to make them affordable commodities for many households. The nozzles used in inkjet printers are extremely fine. Consequently, on earlier models, they became easily clogged. On modern inkjet printers nozzle clogging is rarely a problem. Another problem with early inkjet printing technology was a tendency for the ink to smudge immediately after printing, before the ink had dried, but this has improved during the past few years with the development of new ink compositions to accelerate the drying process. WHAT IS INKJET PRINTING? Simply put, inkjet printing is a non-impact printing method that forces ink from nozzles over paper (as well as a number of other media). Inkjet printers are very simple but produce excellent color images. The operation of an inkjet printer is really very simple: liquid ink in various colors is emitted on paper and other media to build up an image. An inkjet print head scans the page in horizontal strips, using a motor assembly to move it back and forth, as paper rolls through in vertical steps. A vertical strip of the image is printed, then the paper moves on, ready for the next strip. The term "inkjet" defines any printer that creates a printed image by firing extremely small droplets of ink onto the printer paper. Generally, the dots of ink that produce the printed image are extremely small (between 10 and 30 dots per millimeter), and positioned precisely. These printers are typically much more inexpensive than laser printers and especially color laser printers, a type of printing technology that can be quite pricey. INKJET PRINTER AND CARTRIDGE MANUFACTUERS Many manufacturers produce quality inkjet printers and inkjet cartridges today. The leading manufacturers include such names as Apple, Brother, Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard (HP), IBM, Lexmark, and Xerox. Here is a partial list of inkjet printer brands and printer models available:
To understand inkjet printers and inkjet printing, it's important to first understand the various types of inkjet printers and printer cartridges available, and then to understand that inkjet printers are unique. There are two categories of inkjet printers and inkjet cartridges with which to familiarize yourself--continuous inkjet printers and drop-on-demand inkjet printers. As the name suggests, continuous inkjet printer cartridges spray a continuous stream of ink droplets onto the paper. Continuous inkjet printers allow for drops to be generated at extremely high speeds. This type of inkjet printer and inkjet cartridge system creates photographic quality printer outputs. The downside is expense. Unlike continuous inkjet printer cartridges that spray a continuous inkjet stream, drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet printer cartridges only release ink droplets as required. Injet printer manufacturers such as Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, Canon, Olivetti, and Océ use thermal inkjet printer technology to shoot the ink out of the inkjet cartridge. In fact, most inkjet printers use thermal printing technology to transfer ink to paper. This type of printer works by forcing small droplets of ink onto print media, through nozzles: like turning a hosepipe on and off 5,000 times a second. The amount of ink propelled onto the page through the ink cartridge is determined by the driver software, which dictates which nozzles shoot droplets, and when. In terms of speed, on most inkjet printers, the print head takes about half a second to print a strip across an 8.5" page. Exactly how this works is easy to visualize. Ink is heated to create a bubble. Thermal pressure causes the bubble to burst, splashing a dot of ink onto the printer paper. Thermal inkjets require ink that is heat resistant. Specifically, tiny ink droplets are heated and expelled from the nozzles of the print head. The heat forces ink to drop to the paper. The ink dot sizes produced are very small, barely visible to the human eye. Black ink is transferred to the printer paper from a separate cartridge using a different print head. Print speed depends on how quickly the print head nozzles expel drops of ink from the print cartridge and onto the printer paper. Epson uses piezo-electric inkjet printer technology. Epson's Stylus inkjet printers use piezo-electric inkjet printing with photographic quality results. The drawback to this method of inkjet printing is cost. Thermal inkjet printing is generally less expensive, and therefore more widely used than piezo-electric inkjet printing by today's printer manufacturers. "Bubble-jet" printing was a term coined by Canon in 1977. This technology is a heat-based inkjet printing method whereby heat forces ink out of the ink cartridge and onto the page. Different types of inkjet printers form their droplets of ink in different ways. There are several technologies used by printer manufacturers, but by far the most popular technique is the bubble jet. In a bubble jet printer, tiny resistors create heat, and this heat vaporizes ink to create a bubble. The expansion that creates the bubble causes a droplet to form and eject from the print head. A typical bubble jet print head has 64 or 128 tiny nozzles, and all of them can fire a droplet simultaneously. Today's three-color printers and four-color printers make inkjet printing affordable. The new "six-color" inkjet printers are at a premium. They introduce two lighter shades of ink to the CMYK mix-light magenta and light cyan. This makes up for the inability of inkjet printers to produce small enough dot sizes to blend some subtle tones into the printed image. As inkjet printing technology continues to evolve, six-color inkjet printing will likely become obsolete. INKJET PRINTING IN COMPARISON TO LASER PRINTING Unlike laser printers, inkjet printers can print in color. Inkjet printers are also typically less expensive than laser printers, although inkjets are often more expensive to maintain. As inkjet technology continues to evolve, printer and cartridge prices continue to fall. COLOR QUALITY OF INKJET PRINTERS Print quality is always a consideration in choosing an inkjet printing system. High resolution and multiple gradations help determine the quality of the print produced. At the most basic level, binary printers use cyan, magenta, yellow, and black dots at 100 or 0%, with no intermediate choices. This is very limiting in terms of what the printer can print. Halftoning is a process by which the halftoning inkjet printer can create the appearance of many more colors in the ink than the simple CMYK color palette. Continuous tone inkjet printing allows for an unlimited amount of colors (that is, more than the human eye can realistically distinguish). Continuous tone printing is popular with dye sublimation printers. Still, mainstream printers can oftentimes produce multiple shades per dot, creating smoother halftones and a richer appearance. COSTS INVOLVED WITH INKJET PRINTER CARTRIDGES One drawback to using inkjet printers has been the cost of printer cartridges. Manufacturers design printers to accommodate only a very specific style of ink cartridge. As a result, prices on inkjet ink cartridges have been known to skyrocket. Today, retailers carry compatible, discount cartridges that are, quite often, just as good as the manufacturer's printer cartridge. Recycling of ink cartridges has also become popular. With recycled inkjet cartridges, it is essential consumers know exactly what they are getting, so that the quality of the inkjet cartridge is not a concern. INKCARTRIDGE.COM DELIVERS COMPATIBLE INKJET PRINTER CARTRIDGES FOR LESS We stand behind the print quality of the inkjet printer cartridges we sell. Chances are, we carry a printer cartridge that is compatible to your inkjet printer. Each cartridge is easy to install and works just like the inkjet ink cartridges you get from the printer manufacturer, but at a greatly reduced rate. Spend less on your inkjet printer cartridges with inkcartridge.com. |
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