Inkjet Printers

Inkjet Printers

Printers have certainly come a long way. Since the creation of the character and dot matrix printers, the inkjet version is yet the best and economical way to suite your common printing needs.

Dot matrix printers are equipped with tiny wires touched to an inked ribbon to form characters. Character printers on the other hand used a bar or ball of which surfaces are embossed with all the characters you now see on any keyboard. These characters made contact with the ribbon, which also makes contact with the paper.
Today, innovative technology has changed the way images and texts are placed on paper and other media. Inkjet printers have seen the most significant technological advancement. They produce wide-format output, from architectural drawings and blueprints to banners, posters, point-of-sale displays, transit shelter ads, and billboards.
Inkjet printers are an inexpensive choice for all but the hardcore graphic arts requirements. They are also inexpensive and produce good color output.

Normally, inkjet printing forms images by spraying tiny droplets of liquid ink onto paper. Small size and precision placement of the dots of ink produce very near photo-quality images.

Inkjet printers, mainly those with six or more ink colors, lead the pack for photographic image quality. Inkjet printers fall into two categories: dye and pigment-based.

- Dyes are chemicals that come dissolved, usually in water. Inks that are Dye-based can be less expensive than pigment inks and tend to have larger color gamut’s, but they are chemically stable and less lightfast.

Dyes can interact chemically with the coatings on papers; you need to make sure the paper you are using is compatible with your inks. Most dye-based inkjet prints are prone to rapid, erratic chemical fading caused by oxidation from the air being polluted. It tends to be most horrible in standard glossy or semi gloss papers but lasts longer in gloss and pearl surfaces.

- Pigments are tiny particles that are suspended in the solvent, they mostly not dissolved. Pigment inks are more expensive than dye inks, but are much more lightfast and chemically stable.

Early pigment inks had poorer color gamuts than dye inks but recent pigment inks are competitive. As early pigment inks tend to clog printer nozzles, but with newer pigment ink, there is definitely an improvement.