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Choosing an inkjet printer
An
inkjet printer is any printer that
places extremely small droplets of
ink onto paper to create an image.
For most purposes a colour inkjet
printer is the best option, and a
good one will handle everything from
printing reports to doing justice to
images captured with a digital
camera. Inkjet printers are a little
slower in comparison to laser
printers, although some
manufacturers such as Epson have
made the process quicker. Before you
buy an inkjet printer, always
consider the price of Ink and Paper
to gain a better idea of how much
the printer will cost you in the
long run.
TYPES
OF INKJET PRINTING
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Inkjet
printer’s use one of the most
traditional printing methods around,
they're just putting liquid ink onto
paper.
The
first type is a thermal process
(based on heat) and it was invented
by both Canon and Hewlett Packard
separately. Canon calls it bubblejet
printing; HP (and everyone else that
uses it) calls it inkjet printing,
but the concept is otherwise the
same. Epson's Stylus printers use a
mechanical process called micro
piezo printing (based on
vibrations). The result - ink on
paper - is the same, but Epson is
the only printer manufacturer to do
it this way.
FEATURES
TO LOOK FOR:
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Cost
of Inkjet cartridges (see guide to ink
cartridges)
Resolution
is measured in dots per inch (DPI)
and this tells you how many drops of
ink a printer can place in a
one-inch square. Resolution is a
factor when it comes to a technique
known as half-toning. Half-toning
allows a printer to reproduce a
photograph containing thousands of
different shades using just four
colours of ink. It works by varying
the intensity and placement of the
dots of ink on the page, so that the
eye is fooled into seeing a smooth,
evenly graduated shade.
The
higher a printer's resolution, the
smaller the dots can be, and so the
better the half-toning. As well as
varying the size of the ink drops
they dispense, most inkjets can now
also place them so that they overlap
on the page, resulting in much
better prints than resolution alone
might suggest.
All
printers grant you, via your PC,
access to software controls to
adjust printer settings and keep an
eye on your print jobs. These are
intuitive and easy to use, providing
you with a graphical picture of how
to manage your inkjet printer.
You
can use them to tell how your ink
supplies are doing, to automate
routine maintenance like cleaning
the printheads, or to help you
access the inkjet cartridges when
you need to change them.
Another
useful feature is the ability to
adjust your inkjet printer for the
optimum results for each print job.
For example, you can choose the
quality of the final printout from
"draft" to
"best", and tell your
inkjet printer what kind of print
job you are doing, such as a colour
graphic on plain paper, a photograph
on glossy paper, or just text.
Most
printers now offer a USB port, so
you can just plug and play with
either a Windows PC, Apple iMac or
PowerMac. Whether your PC comes with
a USB port or not, you'll still have
to buy your own cable to connect a
printer to it, since most printers
do not come with one in the box.
Paper
used in an inkjet printer will
affect its output, and if you want
to print out text and simple colour
graphics, you can stick with cheap
photocopier paper.
Graphics
are another matter and when, for
example, you print a black border
around a coloured box, the black ink
can bleed into the coloured area,
leaving you with spidery outlines.
If you want top-quality photographic
images, you need glossy or matt
coated paper for the best results.
For
further details on how paper absorbs
ink see our article on how Inkjet
printers work. Also browse through
our guide to photographic paper for
the whole range of paper and media
available.
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Ink Cartridges
