While laser printers are traditionally thought to be the preferred business printer, dye-based inkjet printers are also very popular. They combine a low acquisition cost with the ability to print extremely vivid colours, allowing printed business presentations to stand out from the crowd. Simultaneously, dye-based ink technology has advanced to the point where it has rendered most of the advantages of competing pigment-based ink printing systems obsolete.

How Ink Works

Printer ink is made up of two types of ingredients: a colourant and the solvent in which it is dissolved or suspended. Colorants in dye-based inks completely dissolve in the water-based solvent fluid. When ink is applied to paper, the coloured water sinks into the page and evaporates, leaving the dye behind. Pigment-based inks, on the other hand, use a solid colourant suspended in a solvent and caked onto the paper as the solvent evaporates.

Benefits of Dye Ink

Dye-based inks offer two significant advantages. Dyes produce more vibrant colours than pigments, so a dye-based presentation slide print, for example, will be especially vibrant. In addition, the ingredients in dye-based inks are less expensive than pigments. In two important ways, dye-based ink is catching up to pigmented inks: fading resistance and smudging resistance. Modern dye-based inks can now withstand reasonable water exposure, such as being highlighted with a highlighter, and some dye-based prints can be stored for up to 300 years without fading.

Dye-Based Office Printers

Dye-based inkjet printers are available in virtually any configuration and price range. Dye-based inks are especially popular in the type of low-cost all-in-one printers that are ideal for small workgroups or single users. These printers frequently have fast enough print speeds and are small enough to fit in an existing work area. In some cases, printers are so inexpensive that they are less expensive than a set of replacement ink cartridges. This makes them affordable enough to put one on each desktop if desired.

Using Dye-Based Inks

While dye-based inks can and should be used in more demanding applications, they are almost always used for casual printing. While a laser printer is ideal for printing a sales letter on company letterhead, the inkjet next to you is ideal for generating a draught that you can review before printing your final copy. Dye-based inkjet printers are also excellent for producing quick, low-cost colour prints.

MPC3503 ( rent & purchase ) (5)
MPC3503 ( rent & purchase ) (6)
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