Inkjet Printers
inkjet is one of the most popular printing
technologies today. The relative low cost of the printers and
multi-purpose printing abilities make it a good choice for small
businesses and home offices.
Inkjets use quick-drying, water-based inks and a printhead with a
series of small nozzles that spray ink on the surface of the paper. The
printhead assembly is driven by a belt-fed motor that moves the print
head across the paper.
Inkjets were originally manufactured to print in
monochrome (black and white) only. However, the
printhead has since been expanded and the nozzles increased to
accommodate cyan, magenta, and yellow. This combination of colors
(called CMYK) allows for printing images with
nearly the same quality as a photo development lab using certain types
of coated paper. When coupled with crisp and highly readable text print
quality, inkjet printers are a sound all-in-one choice for monochrome
or color printing needs.
Inkjet Consumables
Inkjet printers tend to be low-cost and scale slightly upward
based on print quality, extra features, and abilities to print on
larger formats than the standard legal or letter paper sizes. While
the one-time cost of purchasing an inkjet is lower than other printer
types, there is the factor of inkjet consumables that must be
considered. Because demand for inkjets is large and spans the
computing spectrum from home to enterprise, the procurement of
consumables can be costly. Note that with most CMYK inkjet printers,
separate ink cartridges for each color must be purchased, although
some use one cartridge for CMY and another cartridge for K
(black).
Some inkjet manufacturers also require you to use specially
treated paper for printing high-quality images and documents. Such
paper uses a moderate to high gloss coating formulated to absorb
colored inks, which prevents clumping (the
tendency for water-based inks to collect in certain areas where colors
blend, causing muddiness or dried ink blots) or
banding (where the print output has
striped pattern's of extraneous lines on the
printed page. Consult the printer manufacturer manual about
recommended papers.
