When shopping for printers for your business, the first decision you must make is what type of printer to purchase. Printers use various inks to create documents, and each type of ink has advantages and disadvantages. Understanding the advantages of each type of ink can assist you in making the best decision for your company’s requirements.
Liquid Ink
Inkjet printers produce text and images by spraying microscopic droplets of ink onto the paper, where it soaks in. Inkjet ink is typically available in two forms. Although dye-based inks are less expensive, they produce images that fade over time or when exposed to ultraviolet light. Pigment-based inks are more expensive, but they deposit small particles of colour on the paper’s surface and are less prone to fading. Ink-based printers produce more vibrant colours than other types of printers and are ideal for printing photos and graphics.
Toner
Laser and LED printers use toner, a dry form of ink made up of tiny pigment particles. When you print a document, the printer charges a spinning drum with intense light, which attracts the toner particles in the page image. The drum then uses heat to fuse the toner to the paper, embedding the particles into the surface. Although laser and LED printers are faster than inkjets, they cannot produce the same colour quality as liquid ink models.
Solid Ink
Another type of printer employs “solid ink,” which consists of pigment particles embedded in wax, much like a crayon. A heated print head is used in these devices to melt the wax and deposit it on the paper, forming the image in multiple layers. Solid ink is non-toxic and produces the least amount of waste because it is formed into solid sticks that you simply insert into the receptacles of your printer. One disadvantage of solid ink is that the pigment and wax leave a visible texture on the page, which you can accidentally scrape off when handling the document.
Ribbons
To deliver pigment to the page, impact and dot matrix printers employ an inked ribbon system. These printer cartridges contain a long fabric ribbon wound on wheels and passing through an ink reservoir. When installed, the ribbon sits between the print head and the page. The character’s head strikes the page through the ribbon, leaving an ink impression in the shape of the character. Due to the amount of ribbon wound inside, ink ribbon cartridges can be bulky, and they are typically available in monochrome or red-and-black varieties, limiting the colour palette available.
