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118-407: The StyleWriter was the first of Apple's line of inkjet serial printers, targeted mainly towards consumers. The feed mechanism was removable, and paper could be fed through manually in a virtually straight line. The codenames for the model were "Franklin", "Mighty Mouse", "Salsa", "Tabasco". The StyleWriter II replaced the original. This model, based on a Canon engine that printed at 360 DPI, had twice

236-456: A double-blind test, reviewers generally preferred the output produced using third-party ink over OEM ink. In general, OEM inks have undergone significant system reliability testing with the cartridge and print-head materials, whereas R&D efforts on third-party ink material compatibility are likely to be significantly less. Some inkjet manufacturers have tried to prevent cartridges being refilled using various schemes including fitting chips to

354-467: A network and can print at speeds of 45 to around 100 ppm. The Xerox 9700 could achieve 120 ppm. An ID Card printer is used for printing plastic ID cards. These can now be customised with important features such as holographic overlays, HoloKotes and watermarks. This is either a direct to card printer (the more feasible option) or a retransfer printer. A virtual printer is a piece of computer software whose user interface and API resembles that of

472-457: A typewriter ), or, less commonly, hits the back of the paper, pressing the paper against the ink ribbon (the IBM 1403 for example). All but the dot matrix printer rely on the use of fully formed characters , letterforms that represent each of the characters that the printer was capable of printing. In addition, most of these printers were limited to monochrome, or sometimes two-color, printing in

590-406: A typewriter . A hammer strikes a wheel with petals, the "daisy wheel", each petal containing a letter form at its tip. The letter form strikes a ribbon of ink , depositing the ink on the page and thus printing a character. By rotating the daisy wheel, different characters are selected for printing. These printers were also referred to as letter-quality printers because they could produce text which

708-489: A xerographic printing process but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser beam across the printer's photoreceptor . Another toner-based printer is the LED printer which uses an array of LEDs instead of a laser to cause toner adhesion to the print drum. Inkjet printers operate by propelling variably sized droplets of liquid ink onto almost any sized page. They are

826-582: A 2:1 ratio, 9.6% vs 5.1% of all computer peripherals. The concept of inkjet printing originated in the 20th century, and the technology was first extensively developed in the early 1950s. While working at Canon in Japan, Ichiro Endo suggested the idea for a "bubble jet" printer, while around the same time Jon Vaught at Hewlett-Packard (HP) was developing a similar idea. In the late 1970s, inkjet printers that could reproduce digital images generated by computers were developed, mainly by Epson , HP and Canon. In

944-415: A brochure. As of the 2020s, 3D printing has become a widespread hobby due to the abundance of cheap 3D printer kits, with the most common process being Fused deposition modeling . Personal printers are mainly designed to support individual users, and may be connected to only a single computer. These printers are designed for low-volume, short-turnaround print jobs , requiring minimal setup time to produce

1062-407: A chemical coated paper, which is charged by the print head according to the image of the document. The paper is passed near a pool of liquid ink with the opposite charge. The charged areas of the paper attract the ink and thus form the image. This process was developed from the process of electrostatic copying . Color reproduction is very accurate, and because there is no heating the scale distortion

1180-445: A cheque must be printed using MICR toner or ink. Banks and other clearing houses employ automation equipment that relies on the magnetic flux from these specially printed characters to function properly. The following printing technologies are routinely found in modern printers: A laser printer rapidly produces high quality text and graphics. As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers (MFPs), laser printers employ

1298-444: A company does not already have a local (or network) printer that has the features they need, then the web-based option is a perhaps a more affordable solution. The web-based solution is good for small businesses that do not anticipate a lot of rapid growth, or organizations who either can not afford a card printer, or do not have the resources to learn how to set up and use one. Generally speaking, desktop-based solutions involve software,

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1416-591: A considerable amount of ink, and will drive printing costs higher especially if the printer is unused for long periods. If an inkjet head becomes clogged, third-party ink solvents/head cleaners and replacement heads are available in some cases. The cost of such items may be less expensive compared to a transfer unit for a laser printer, but the laser printer unit has a much longer lifetime between required maintenance. Many inkjet printer models now have permanently installed heads, which cannot be economically replaced if they become irreversibly clogged, resulting in scrapping of

1534-645: A considerable increase in durability and a greater degree of counterfeit prevention. Some card printers come with an option to print both sides at the same time, which cuts down the time taken to print and less margin of error. In such printers one side of id card is printed and then the card is flipped in the flip station and other side is printed. Alongside the traditional uses in time attendance and access control (in particular with photo personalization), countless other applications have been found for plastic cards, e.g. for personalized customer and members' cards, for sports ticketing and in local public transport systems for

1652-425: A continuous inkjet ink (CIJ) in the 1971 patent US3596285A states " The preferred ink is characterized by viscosity and surface tension characteristics such that the liquid will be maintained over span under the force with which it is moving in bridge or stream. Implicit in such requirement is that the pressure applied to the ink in formation of said stream is sufficient to form a jet and to impart enough energy to carry

1770-469: A damaged or clogged print head is only a minor problem: the user can simply buy a new cartridge. Hewlett-Packard has traditionally favored the disposable print head, as did Canon in its early models. This type of construction can also be seen as an effort by printer manufacturers to stem third party ink cartridge assembly replacements, as these would-be suppliers do not have the ability to manufacture specialized print heads. An intermediate method does exist:

1888-449: A database (or spreadsheet) and can be installed on a single computer or network. Alongside the basic function of printing cards, card printers can also read and encode magnetic stripes as well as contact and contact free RFID chip cards ( smart cards ). Thus card printers enable the encoding of plastic cards both visually and logically. Plastic cards can also be laminated after printing. Plastic cards are laminated after printing to achieve

2006-471: A detailed description of many of the technologies used. Several different computer printers were simply computer-controllable versions of existing electric typewriters. The Friden Flexowriter and IBM Selectric-based printers were the most-common examples. The Flexowriter printed with a conventional typebar mechanism while the Selectric used IBM's well-known "golf ball" printing mechanism. In either case,

2124-478: A disposable ink tank connected to a disposable head, which is replaced infrequently (perhaps every tenth ink tank or so). Most high-volume Hewlett-Packard inkjet printers use this setup, with the disposable print heads used on lower volume models. A similar approach is used by Kodak , where the printhead intended for permanent use is nevertheless inexpensive and can be replaced by the user. Canon now uses (in most models) replaceable print heads which are designed to last

2242-443: A hard copy of a given document. They are generally slow devices ranging from 6 to around 25 pages per minute (ppm), and the cost per page is relatively high. However, this is offset by the on-demand convenience. Some printers can print documents stored on memory cards or from digital cameras and scanners . Networked or shared printers are "designed for high-volume, high-speed printing". They are usually shared by many users on

2360-532: A layer of ink on paper. A card printer is an electronic desktop printer with single card feeders which print and personalize plastic cards . In this respect they differ from, for example, label printers which have a continuous supply feed. Card dimensions are usually 85.60 × 53.98 mm, standardized under ISO/IEC 7810 as ID-1. This format is also used in EC-cards , telephone cards , credit cards , driver's licenses and health insurance cards . This

2478-416: A mechanism to reapply moisture to the printhead. Typically there is no separate supply of pure ink-free solvent available to do this job, and so instead the ink itself is used to remoisten the printhead. The printer attempts to fire all nozzles at once, and as the ink sprays out, some of it wicks across the printhead to the dry channels and partially softens the hardened ink. After spraying, a rubber wiper blade

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2596-457: A more affordable product. It uses the same Canon engine as the BJC-4000 and features a 360-dpi resolution, a dual ink cartridge system (1 Black and 1 Cyan-Magenta-Yellow colors) that can be replaced by an alternative high capacity black ink that allows printing twice as fast when only black & white is needed. Its initial Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price was US$ 525. In mid-1995, it saw

2714-554: A period during the early home computer era when a range of printers were manufactured under many brands such as the Commodore VIC-1525 using the Seikosha Uni-Hammer system. This used a single solenoid with an oblique striker that would be actuated 7 times for each column of 7 vertical pixels while the head was moving at a constant speed. The angle of the striker would align the dots vertically even though

2832-593: A printer driver, but which is not connected with a physical computer printer. A virtual printer can be used to create a file which is an image of the data which would be printed, for archival purposes or as input to another program, for example to create a PDF or to transmit to another system or user. A barcode printer is a computer peripheral for printing barcode labels or tags that can be attached to, or printed directly on, physical objects. Barcode printers are commonly used to label cartons before shipment, or to label retail items with UPCs or EANs . A 3D printer

2950-468: A printer on their network that is capable of printing identification cards. If a business already owns an ID card printer, then a desktop-based badge maker is probably suitable for their needs. Typically, large organizations who have high employee turnover will have their own printer. A desktop-based badge maker is also required if a company needs their IDs make instantly. An example of this is the private construction site that has restricted access. However, if

3068-402: A single horizontal series of pixels across the page), referring to the configuration of the print head. In the 1970s and '80s, dot matrix printers were one of the more common types of printers used for general use, such as for home and small office use. Such printers normally had either 9 or 24 pins on the print head (early 7 pin printers also existed, which did not print descenders ). There was

3186-501: A single typeface at one time, although bolding and underlining of text could be done by "overstriking", that is, printing two or more impressions either in the same character position or slightly offset. Impact printers varieties include typewriter-derived printers, teletypewriter-derived printers, daisywheel printers, dot matrix printers, and line printers. Dot-matrix printers remain in common use in businesses where multi-part forms are printed. An overview of impact printing contains

3304-467: A software update to bringing new features, as well as a significant price drop. The Color StyleWriter 2400 is notable for its compatibility with the Apple Pippin console gaming system. The codename for the model was "Aurora". The Color StyleWriter 2200 was a color inkjet printer manufactured and sold by Apple in 1995. The codename for this model was " Calamari ". The 2200, the color successor of

3422-418: A stream into droplets. Optimal drop sizes of 0.004 inches (0.10 mm) require an inkjet nozzle size of about 0.003 inches (0.076 mm). Fluids with surface tension may be water based, wax or oil based and even melted metal alloys. Most drops can be electrically charged. There are two main technologies in use in contemporary inkjet printers: continuous (CIJ) and drop-on-demand (DOD). Continuous inkjet means

3540-408: A variety of industrial applications ranging from signage, textiles, optical media, ceramics and 3-D printing into biomedical applications and conductive circuitry. Leading companies and innovators in hardware include HP, Epson, Canon, Konica Minolta, FujiFilm, EFi, Durst, Brother, Roland, Mimaki, Mutoh and many others worldwide. Many "intelligent" ink cartridges contain a microchip that communicates

3658-403: Is Zink (a portmanteau of "zero ink"). The following technologies are either obsolete, or limited to special applications though most were, at one time, in widespread use. Impact printers rely on a forcible impact to transfer ink to the media. The impact printer uses a print head that either hits the surface of the ink ribbon, pressing the ink ribbon against the paper (similar to the action of

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3776-406: Is a device for making a three-dimensional object from a 3D model or other electronic data source through additive processes in which successive layers of material (including plastics, metals, food, cement, wood, and other materials) are laid down under computer control. It is called a printer by analogy with an inkjet printer which produces a two-dimensional document by a similar process of depositing

3894-561: Is commonly known as the bank card format. Card printers are controlled by corresponding printer drivers or by means of a specific programming language. Generally card printers are designed with laminating, striping, and punching functions, and use desktop or web-based software. The hardware features of a card printer differentiate a card printer from the more traditional printers, as ID cards are usually made of PVC plastic and require laminating and punching. Different card printers can accept different card thickness and dimensions. The principle

4012-492: Is generally shorter (although UV-resistant inks are available) than those produced with solvent-based inkjets; however, so-called "archival inks" have been produced for use in aqueous-based machines which offer extended life. In addition to smearing, gradual fading of many inks can be a problem over time. Print lifetime is highly dependent on the quality and formulation of the ink. The earliest inkjet printers, intended for home and small office applications, used dye-based inks. Even

4130-403: Is ink drying on the printhead's nozzles, causing the pigments and dyes to dry out and form a solid block of hardened mass that plugs the microscopic ink passageways. Most printers attempt to prevent this drying from occurring by covering the printhead nozzles with a rubber cap when the printer is not in use. Abrupt power losses, or unplugging the printer before it has capped the printhead, can cause

4248-482: Is its use of separate ink cartridges for each of three colors (cyan, magenta, yellow) plus black. In contrast, other Color StyleWriters used a combined color cartridge plus a black cartridge. The codenames for the model were "Fantasia" and "Logo". The Color StyleWriter 2400 is a color inkjet printer manufactured and sold by Apple. It was introduced in late 1994 to supplement the Color StyleWriter Pro as

4366-606: Is less than ±0.1%. (All laser printers have an accuracy of ±1%.) Worldwide, most survey offices used this printer before color inkjet plotters become popular. Liquid ink electrostatic printers were mostly available in 36 to 54 inches (910 to 1,370 mm) width and also 6 color printing. These were also used to print large billboards. It was first introduced by Versatec, which was later bought by Xerox . 3M also used to make these printers. Pen-based plotters were an alternate printing technology once common in engineering and architectural firms. Pen-based plotters rely on contact with

4484-404: Is now possible to buy inexpensive devices to reliably reset such cartridges to report themselves as full, so that they may be refilled many times. The very narrow inkjet nozzles are prone to clogging. The ink consumed in cleaning them—either during cleaning invoked by the user, or in many cases, performed automatically by the printer on a routine schedule—can account for a significant proportion of

4602-474: Is often forgotten is resistance to alteration: liquid ink , such as from an inkjet head or fabric ribbon, becomes absorbed by the paper fibers, so documents printed with liquid ink are more difficult to alter than documents printed with toner or solid inks, which do not penetrate below the paper surface. Cheques can be printed with liquid ink or on special cheque paper with toner anchorage so that alterations may be detected. The machine-readable lower portion of

4720-408: Is swept across the printhead to spread the moisture evenly across the printhead, and all jets are again fired to dislodge any ink clumps blocking the channels. Some printers use a supplemental air-suction pump, using the rubber capping station to suck ink through a severely clogged cartridge. The suction pump mechanism is frequently driven by the page feed stepper motor : it is connected to the end of

4838-506: Is the same for practically all card printers: the plastic card is passed through a thermal print head at the same time as a color ribbon. The color from the ribbon is transferred onto the card through the heat given out from the print head. The standard performance for card printing is 300 dpi (300 dots per inch, equivalent to 11.8 dots per mm). There are different printing processes, which vary in their detail: Broadly speaking there are three main types of card printers, differing mainly by

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4956-566: Is very bad for printer ink cartridges. The user should prevent the printer becoming too hot or too chilly as the cartridges can dry up. For lasting printer efficiency, the user should ensure the area has a regular and steady temperature level. Inkjets use solvent-based inks which have much shorter expiration dates compared to laser toner, which has an indefinite shelf life. Inkjet printers tend to clog if not used regularly, whereas laser printers are much more tolerant of intermittent use. Inkjet printers require periodical head cleaning, which consumes

5074-438: Is water-soluble, care must be taken with inkjet-printed documents to avoid even the smallest drop of moisture, which can cause severe "blurring" or "running". In extreme cases, even sweaty fingertips during hot humid weather could cause low-quality inks to smear. Similarly, water-based highlighter markers can blur inkjet-printed documents and discolor the highlighter's tip. The lifetime of inkjet prints produced using aqueous inks

5192-526: The 'ink' can now also comprise solder paste in PCB assembly , or living cells, for creating biosensors and for tissue engineering . Images produced on inkjet printers are sometimes sold under trade names such as Digigraph , Iris prints , giclée , and Cromalin . Inkjet-printed fine art reproductions are commonly sold under such trade names to imply a higher-quality product and avoid association with everyday printing. Fluid surface tension naturally pulls

5310-401: The 1990s and into the 2000s has largely displaced the need for printing as a means of moving documents, and a wide variety of reliable storage systems means that a "physical backup" is of little benefit today. Starting around 2010, 3D printing became an area of intense interest, allowing the creation of physical objects with the same sort of effort as an early laser printer required to produce

5428-592: The 2400, the 2500 was compatible with the Apple Pippin console gaming system. Apple offered LocalTalk and EtherTalk networking upgrades in the form of external print server devices. Also offered was a "PhotoGrade" kit, which included a special monobloc (heads and ink in one unit) cartridge with lighter photo-oriented inks and coated paper. The Color StyleWriter 4100, 4500, and 6500 were color inkjet printers manufactured and sold by Apple in 1997. These models were all rebadged Deskjet . The codenames were "Cabo" for

5546-428: The 4100 and "Baja" for the 4500. Inkjet printer Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensive consumer models to expensive professional machines. By 2019, laser printers outsold inkjet printers by nearly

5664-475: The Officejet Pro 8620 and HP's Pagewide series. The disposable head philosophy uses a print head which is supplied as a part of a replaceable ink cartridge . Every time a cartridge is exhausted, the entire cartridge and print head are replaced with a new one. This adds to the cost of consumables and makes it more difficult to manufacture a high-precision head at a reasonable cost, but also means that

5782-673: The Pixelmaster color printer with solid ink using Thermojet technology. This technology consists of a tubular single nozzle acoustical wave drop generator invented originally by Steven Zoltan in 1972 with a glass nozzle and improved by the Howtek inkjet engineer in 1984 with a Tefzel molded nozzle to remove unwanted fluid frequencies. The emerging ink jet material deposition market also uses inkjet technologies, typically printheads using piezoelectric crystals, to deposit materials directly on substrates. The technology has been extended and

5900-544: The Portable StyleWriter came only with a Parallel port, but was sold with a cable adapter allowing connection to a Macintosh serial port. The Color StyleWriter Pro was a color inkjet printer manufactured and sold by Apple in 1994. It was based on the Canon BJC-600 series of Bubble Jet printers, with which it shares ink cartridge compatibility. Its distinguishing feature among Color StyleWriter printers

6018-570: The Portable StyleWriter was aimed at mobile professionals, as it could be powered by a battery and only weighed 3.1 lbs. Its dark grey case design matched the PowerBook series at the time of the release. This was the second and last printer Apple made in this color range. The 2200 was smaller and more rounded, matching the PowerBook 1400 and 5300 series. The Color StyleWriter 1500 was an entry-level Canon-engine color inkjet printer manufactured and sold by Apple in 1996. The Color StyleWriter 2500

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6136-455: The X- and Y-axes, by a mechanism, and the selected letter form was struck by a hammer. Others used a type cylinder in a similar way as the Selectric typewriters used their type ball. In either case, the letter form then struck a ribbon to print the letterform. Most teleprinters operated at ten characters per second although a few achieved 15 CPS. Daisy wheel printers operate in much the same fashion as

6254-480: The advantage of practically no warm up time, and often lower cost per page. However, low-cost laser printers can have lower per-page costs, at least for black-and-white printing, and possibly for color. For some inkjet printers, monochrome ink sets are available either from the printer manufacturer or from third-party suppliers. These allow the inkjet printer to compete with the silver-based photographic papers traditionally used in black-and-white photography, and provide

6372-719: The best dye-based inks are not as durable as pigment-based inks, which are now available for many inkjet printers. Many inkjet printers now utilize pigment based inks which are highly water resistant: at least the black ink is often pigment-based. Resin or silicone protected photopaper is widely available at low cost, introducing complete water and mechanical rub resistance for dye and pigment inks. The photopaper itself must be designed for pigment or for dye inks, as pigment particles are too large to be able to penetrate through dye-only photopaper protection layer. The highest-quality inkjet prints are often called " giclée " prints, to distinguish them from less-durable and lower-cost prints. However,

6490-521: The carrier fluid. Desktop inkjet printers, as used in offices and homes, tend to use aqueous ink based on a mixture of water, glycol and dyes or pigments . These inks are inexpensive to manufacture but difficult to control on the surface of media, often requiring specially coated media. HP inks contain sulfonated polyazo black dye (commonly used for dyeing leather ), nitrates and other compounds. Aqueous inks are mainly used in printers with thermal inkjet heads, as these heads require water to perform

6608-438: The cartridge is empty. The frequent cleaning conducted by some printers can consume quite a bit of ink and has a great impact on cost-per-page determinations. Clogged nozzles can be detected by printing a standard test pattern on the page. Some software workaround methods are known for rerouting printing information from a clogged nozzle to a working nozzle. Ink cartridges have been the traditional method for delivering ink to

6726-688: The cartridges that log how much the cartridge has printed and prevent the operation of a refilled cartridge. The warranty on a printer may not apply if the printer is damaged by the use of non-approved supplies. In the US the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act is a federal law which states that warrantors cannot require that only brand name parts and supplies be used with their products, as some printer manufacturers imply. However, this would not apply if non-approved items cause damage. Inkjet documents can have poor to excellent archival durability, depending on

6844-538: The chip claims the cartridge is empty, although a researcher who over-rode the system found that in one case he could print up to 38% more good quality pages, even though the chip stated that the cartridge was empty. Third-party ink suppliers sell ink cartridges at significant discounts (at least 10–30% off OEM cartridge prices, sometimes up to 95%, typically averaging around 50%), and also bulk ink and cartridge self-refill kits at even lower prices. Many vendors' "intelligent" ink cartridges have been reverse-engineered . It

6962-410: The development of new systems specifically for computer use. In the 1980s there were daisy wheel systems similar to typewriters, line printers that produced similar output but at much higher speed, and dot-matrix systems that could mix text and graphics but produced relatively low-quality output. The plotter was used for those requiring high-quality line art like blueprints . The introduction of

7080-401: The end of the twentieth century. Line printers print an entire line of text at a time. Four principal designs exist. In each case, to print a line, precisely timed hammers strike against the back of the paper at the exact moment that the correct character to be printed is passing in front of the paper. The paper presses forward against a ribbon which then presses against the character form and

7198-522: The entire printer. On the other hand, inkjet printer designs which use a disposable printhead usually cost significantly more per page than printers using permanent heads. By contrast, laser printers do not have printheads to clog or replace frequently, and usually can produce many more pages between maintenance intervals. Inkjet printers have traditionally produced better quality output than color laser printers when printing photographic material. Both technologies have improved dramatically over time, although

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7316-408: The estimated ink level to the printer; this may cause the printer to display an error message, or incorrectly inform the user that the ink cartridge is empty. In some cases, these messages can be ignored, but some inkjet printers will refuse to print with a cartridge that declares itself empty, to prevent consumers from refilling cartridges. For example, Epson embeds a chip which prevents printing when

7434-459: The exhausted print heads. Compared to earlier consumer-oriented color printers, inkjet printers have a number of advantages. They are quieter in operation than impact dot matrix or daisywheel printers . They can print finer, smoother details through higher resolution. Consumer inkjet printers with photographic print quality are widely available. In comparison to technologies like thermal wax , dye sublimation , and laser printing , inkjets have

7552-436: The flow is pressurized and in a continuous stream. Drop-on-demand means the fluid is expelled from the jet nozzle one drop at a time. This can be done with a mechanical means with a push or some electrical method. A large electrical charge can pull drops out of a nozzle, sound waves can push fluid from a nozzle or a chamber volume expansion can expel a drop. Continuous streaming was investigated first many years ago. Drop-on-demand

7670-526: The frequency of drops. DOD may use a single nozzle or thousands of nozzles. One DOD process uses software that directs the heads to apply between zero and eight droplets of ink per dot, only where needed. Inkjet fluid materials have expanded to include pastes, epoxies, hot-melt inks, biological fluids, etc. DOD is very popular and has an interesting history. Mechanical DOD came first, followed by electrical methods including piezoelectric devices and then thermal or heat expansion methods. The earliest reference to

7788-437: The head had moved one dot spacing in the time. The vertical dot position was controlled by a synchronized longitudinally ribbed platen behind the paper that rotated rapidly with a rib moving vertically seven dot spacings in the time it took to print one pixel column. 24-pin print heads were able to print at a higher quality and started to offer additional type styles and were marketed as Near Letter Quality by some vendors. Once

7906-541: The highest-quality giclée prints favored by artists use what is essentially a high-quality specialized type of inkjet printer. Printer (computing) In computing , a printer is a peripheral machine which makes a durable representation of graphics or text, usually on paper . While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Different types of printers include 3D printers, inkjet printers, laser printers, and thermal printers. The first computer printer designed

8024-468: The impression of the character form is printed onto the paper. Each system could have slight timing issues, which could cause minor misalignment of the resulting printed characters. For drum or typebar printers, this appeared as vertical misalignment, with characters being printed slightly above or below the rest of the line. In chain or bar printers, the misalignment was horizontal, with printed characters being crowded closer together or farther apart. This

8142-434: The ink tank. The channel is long and narrow to reduce moisture evaporation through the vent tube, but some evaporation still occurs and eventually the ink cartridge dries up from the inside out. To combat this problem, which is especially acute with professional fast-drying solvent inks, many wide-format printer cartridge designs contain the ink in an airtight, collapsible bag that requires no vent. The bag merely shrinks until

8260-447: The ink used in the machine. Inkjet printing head nozzles can be cleaned using specialized solvents, or by soaking in warm distilled water for short periods of time (for water-soluble inks.) The high cost of OEM ink cartridges and the intentional obstacles to refilling them have been addressed by the growth of third-party ink suppliers. Many printer manufacturers discourage customers from using third-party inks, stating that they can damage

8378-571: The ink-expelling function. While aqueous inks often provide the broadest color gamut and most vivid color, most are not waterproof without specialized coating or lamination after printing. Most dye -based inks, while usually the least expensive, are subject to rapid fading when exposed to light or ozone. Pigment -based aqueous inks are typically more costly but provide much better long-term durability and ultraviolet resistance. Inks marketed as " archival quality " are usually pigment-based. Some professional wide format printers use aqueous inks, but

8496-488: The jet as a continuous liquid mass notwithstanding the defective forces which are or may be applied. Furthermore, the color of the ink and the color of the carrier should be such that good optical contrast is formed there between the following printing. The preferred ink is a " hot-melt ink ". That is to say it will assume a solid phase at the temperature of the carrier and liquid phase at some higher temperature. The range of commercially available ink compositions which could meet

8614-476: The later 1950s, heated wax inks became popular with CIJ technologies. In 1971, Johannes F. Gottwald patent US3596285A, Liquid Metal Recorder used molten metal ink with a magnetic flux field to fabricate formed symbols for signage. This may have been the first 3D metal object printed using magnetic core memory as data to produce each symbol. There are many ways to produce a drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet. Common methods include thermal DOD and piezoelectric DOD to speed up

8732-405: The letter form then struck a ribbon which was pressed against the paper, printing one character at a time. The maximum speed of the Selectric printer (the faster of the two) was 15.5 characters per second. The common teleprinter could easily be interfaced with the computer and became very popular except for those computers manufactured by IBM . Some models used a "typebox" that was positioned, in

8850-498: The life of the printer, but can be replaced by the user should they become clogged. Additive manufacturing 3D printheads have very long operating "print times" and failures will occur from internal clogs, orifice damage from bumping obstacles on the print table, calibration failures from overstressed piezoelectric bond life failures and other unexpected causes. Replacement printheads are on spare parts lists for most long use-life 3D printers. The primary cause of inkjet printing problems

8968-402: The life of the printer. The idea is that because the head need not be replaced every time the ink runs out, consumable costs can be made lower and the head itself can be more precise than a cheap disposable one, typically requiring no calibration. On the other hand, if a fixed head is damaged, obtaining a replacement head can become expensive, if removing and replacing the head is even possible. If

9086-615: The liquid ink on a rotating, oil coated drum. The paper then passes over the print drum, at which time the image is immediately transferred, or transfixed, to the page. Solid ink printers are most commonly used as color office printers and are excellent at printing on transparencies and other non-porous media. Solid ink is also called phase-change or hot-melt ink and was first used by Data Products and Howtek, Inc., in 1984. Solid ink printers can produce excellent results with text and images. Some solid ink printers have evolved to print 3D models, for example, Visual Impact Corporation of Windham, NH

9204-591: The low-cost laser printer in 1984, with the first HP LaserJet , and the addition of PostScript in next year's Apple LaserWriter set off a revolution in printing known as desktop publishing . Laser printers using PostScript mixed text and graphics, like dot-matrix printers, but at quality levels formerly available only from commercial typesetting systems. By 1990, most simple printing tasks like fliers and brochures were now created on personal computers and then laser printed; expensive offset printing systems were being dumped as scrap. The HP Deskjet of 1988 offered

9322-413: The majority in professional use today employ a much wider range of inks, most of which require piezo inkjet heads and extensive maintenance. There are two main design philosophies in inkjet head design: fixed-head and disposable head . Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. The fixed-head philosophy provides an inbuilt print head (often referred to as a gaiter-head ) that is designed to last for

9440-519: The memory of its predecessor and double the printing speed. The enclosure was restyled in Apple's "neoclassical" design language of the time. The codename for the model was "Speedracer" The StyleWriter 1200 was the third of Apple's line of inkjet serial printers, released after the StyleWriter II. Based on the same Canon engine, this model had faster printing speed than its predecessor, but used

9558-400: The method used to print onto the card. They are: Different ID Card Printers use different encoding techniques to facilitate disparate business environments and to support security initiatives. Known encoding techniques are: There are basically two categories of card printer software: desktop-based, and web-based (online). The biggest difference between the two is whether or not a customer has

9676-463: The most common type of computer printer used by consumers. Solid ink printers, also known as phase-change ink or hot-melt ink printers, are a type of thermal transfer printer , graphics sheet printer or 3D printer . They use solid sticks, crayons, pearls or granular ink materials. Common inks are CMYK -colored ink, similar in consistency to candle wax, which are melted and fed into a piezo crystal operated print-head. A Thermal transfer printhead jets

9794-426: The operator to manually clean the print heads and capping mechanism and to replace the wiper blades and other parts used in the automated cleaning processes. The volume of ink used in these printers often leads to "overspray" and therefore buildup of dried ink in many places that automated processes are not capable of cleaning. The ink consumed in the cleaning process needs to be collected to prevent ink from leaking in

9912-464: The other hand, the mechanical components of line printers operate with tight tolerances and require regular preventive maintenance (PM) to produce a top quality print. They are virtually never used with personal computers and have now been replaced by high-speed laser printers . The legacy of line printers lives on in many operating systems , which use the abbreviations "lp", "lpr", or "LPT" to refer to printers. Liquid ink electrostatic printers use

10030-639: The paper (but not impact, per se) and special purpose pens that are mechanically run over the paper to create text and images. Since the pens output continuous lines, they were able to produce technical drawings of higher resolution than was achievable with dot-matrix technology. Some plotters used roll-fed paper, and therefore had a minimal restriction on the size of the output in one dimension. These plotters were capable of producing quite sizable drawings. A number of other sorts of printers are important for historical reasons, or for special purpose uses. Printers can be connected to computers in many ways: directly by

10148-484: The patent US2566443 invented by Rune Elmqvist dated September 4, 1951. In CIJ technology, a high-pressure pump directs liquid ink from a reservoir through a gunbody and a microscopic nozzle (usually .003 inch diameter), creating a continuous stream of ink droplets via the Plateau-Rayleigh instability . A piezoelectric crystal may be used to create an acoustic wave as it vibrates within the gunbody and causes

10266-399: The pressure of the print head to be applied to a stack of two or more forms to print multi-part documents such as sales invoices and credit card receipts using continuous stationery with carbonless copy paper . It also has security advantages as ink impressed into a paper matrix by force is harder to erase invisibly. Dot-matrix printers were being superseded even as receipt printers after

10384-511: The price of inkjet printers dropped to the point where they were competitive with dot matrix printers, dot matrix printers began to fall out of favour for general use. Some dot matrix printers, such as the NEC P6300, can be upgraded to print in color. This is achieved through the use of a four-color ribbon mounted on a mechanism (provided in an upgrade kit that replaces the standard black ribbon mechanism after installation) that raises and lowers

10502-507: The print heads due to not being the same formulation as the OEM inks, cause leaks, and produce inferior-quality output (e.g., of incorrect color gamut). Consumer Reports has noted that some third-party cartridges may contain less ink than OEM cartridges, and thus yield no cost savings, while Wilhelm Imaging Research claims that with third-party inks the lifetime of prints may be considerably reduced. However, an April 2007 review showed that, in

10620-402: The printer's head cannot be removed, the printer itself will then need to be replaced. Fixed head designs are available in consumer products, but are more likely to be found on industrial high-end printers and large format printers . In the consumer space, fixed-head printers are manufactured primarily by Epson and Canon; however, many more recent Hewlett-Packard models use a fixed head, such as

10738-477: The printer. Some larger professional printers using solvent inks may employ a replaceable plastic receptacle to contain waste ink and solvent, which must be emptied or replaced when full. There is a second type of ink drying that most printers are unable to prevent. For ink to spray from the cartridge, air must enter to displace the removed ink. The air enters via an extremely long, thin labyrinth tube, up to 10 cm (3.9 in) long, wrapping back and forth across

10856-483: The printer. The collection area is called the spittoon , and in Hewlett-Packard printers this is an open plastic tray underneath the cleaning/wiping station. In Epson printers, there is typically a large absorption pad in a pan underneath the paper feed platen. For printers that are several years old, it is common for the dried ink in the spittoon to form a pile that can stack up and touch the printheads, jamming

10974-430: The printhead to be left in an uncapped state. Even when the head is capped, this seal is not perfect, and over a period of several weeks the moisture (or other solvent) can still seep out, causing the ink to dry and harden. Once ink begins to collect and harden, the drop volume can be affected, drop trajectory can change, or the nozzle can completely fail to jet ink. To combat this drying, nearly all inkjet printers include

11092-505: The printhead. Continuous ink system (CISS) inkjet printers connect the printhead either to high-capacity ink tanks or packs, or replenish the built-in cartridges via external tanks connected via tubes, typically a retrofit configuration . Supertank printers –a subset of CISS printers–have high-capacity integrated ink tanks or ink packs, and are manually refilled via ink bottles. When supertank ink systems are paired with disposable printhead technology, replaceable cartridges are used to replace

11210-462: The printing business to Xerox in 2001. A dye-sublimation printer (or dye-sub printer) is a printer that employs a printing process that uses heat to transfer dye to a medium such as a plastic card , paper, or canvas . The process is usually to lay one color at a time using a ribbon that has color panels. Dye-sub printers are intended primarily for high-quality color applications, including color photography; and are less well-suited for text. While once

11328-463: The production of season tickets, for the production of school and college identity cards as well as for the production of national ID cards. The choice of print technology has a great effect on the cost of the printer and cost of operation, speed, quality and permanence of documents, and noise. Some printer technologies do not work with certain types of physical media, such as carbon paper or transparencies . A second aspect of printer technology that

11446-530: The province of high-end print shops, dye-sublimation printers are now increasingly used as dedicated consumer photo printers. Thermal printers work by selectively heating regions of special heat-sensitive paper. Monochrome thermal printers are used in cash registers, ATMs , gasoline dispensers and some older inexpensive fax machines. Colors can be achieved with special papers and different temperatures and heating rates for different colors; these colored sheets are not required in black-and-white output. One example

11564-411: The quality of the inks and paper used. If low-quality paper is used, it can yellow and degrade due to residual acid in the untreated pulp; in the worst case, old prints can literally crumble into small particles when handled. High-quality inkjet prints on acid-free paper can last as long as typewritten or handwritten documents on the same paper. Because the ink used in many low-cost consumer inkjets

11682-421: The receptor material (substrate), or allowed to continue on deflected to a collection gutter for re-use. The more highly charged droplets are deflected to a greater degree. Only a small fraction of the droplets is used to print, the majority being recycled. CIJ is one of the oldest (1951) ink jet technologies in use and is fairly mature. Drop-on-demand was not invented until later. The major advantages of CIJ are

11800-417: The requirement of the invention are not known at the present time. However, satisfactory printing according to the invention has been achieved with a conductive metal alloy as ink. It is extremely hard at room temperature and adheres well to the surface of the carrier. The basic problem with inkjet inks is the conflicting requirements for a coloring agent that will stay on the surface versus rapid bleed through

11918-526: The ribbons as needed. Color graphics are generally printed in four passes at standard resolution, thus slowing down printing considerably. As a result, color graphics can take up to four times longer to print than standard monochrome graphics, or up to 8-16 times as long at high resolution mode. Dot matrix printers are still commonly used in low-cost, low-quality applications such as cash registers , or in demanding, very high volume applications like invoice printing. Impact printing, unlike laser printing, allows

12036-419: The same advantages as a laser printer in terms of flexibility, but produced somewhat lower-quality output (depending on the paper) from much less-expensive mechanisms. Inkjet systems rapidly displaced dot-matrix and daisy-wheel printers from the market. By the 2000s, high-quality printers of this sort had fallen under the $ 100 price point and became commonplace. The rapid improvement of internet email through

12154-400: The same ink cartridge. The Portable StyleWriter was a portable inkjet printer manufactured in 1993 and was designed to match the PowerBook 100 Series portable computer. It was powered by a Nickel–cadmium battery or an external AC adapter. It sacrificed ergonomics, printing speed and grayscale for portability. An optional automatic sheet feeder was also available. Unlike most Apple printers,

12272-438: The same range of tones: neutral, "warm" or "cold". When switching between full-color and monochrome ink sets, it is necessary to flush out the old ink from the print head with a cleaning cartridge . Special software or at least a modified device driver are usually required, to deal with the different color mapping . Some types of industrial inkjet printers are now capable of printing at very high speeds, in wide formats, or for

12390-403: The shaft. The pump only engages when the shaft turns backwards, hence the rollers reversing while head cleaning. Due to the built-in head design, the suction pump is also needed to prime the ink channels inside a new printer, and to reprime the channels between ink tank changes. Professional solvent- and UV-curable ink wide-format inkjet printers generally include a "manual clean" mode that allows

12508-723: The stream of liquid to break into droplets at regular intervals: 64,000 to 165,000 irregular-sized ink droplets per second may be achieved. The ink droplets are subjected to an electrostatic field created by a charging electrode or by a magnetic flux field as they form; the field varies according to the degree of drop deflection desired. This results in a controlled deflection by electrostatic charge on each droplet. Charged droplets may be separated by one or more uncharged "guard droplets" to minimize electrostatic repulsion between neighboring droplets. The droplets pass through another electrostatic or magnetic field and are directed (deflected) by electrostatic deflection plates or flux field to print on

12626-418: The substrate and dry quickly. The ink system requires active solvent regulation to counter solvent evaporation during the time of flight (time between nozzle ejection and gutter recycling), and from the venting process whereby air that is drawn into the gutter along with the unused drops is vented from the reservoir. Viscosity is monitored and a solvent (or solvent blend) is added to counteract solvent loss. In

12744-426: The use of the term is no guarantee of quality, and the inks and paper used must be carefully investigated before an archivist can rely on their long-term durability. To increase the durability of inkjet printer prints, more attention is needed for the inkjet ink cartridge. One way to treat ink cartridges on an inkjet printer is to maintain the temperature of the printer itself. Excessive variation in space temperature

12862-425: The very high velocity (≈20 m/s) of the ink droplets, which allows for a relatively long distance between print head and substrate, and the very high drop ejection frequency, allowing for very high speed printing. Another advantage is freedom from nozzle clogging as the jet is always in use, therefore allowing volatile solvents such as ketones and alcohols to be employed, giving the ink the ability to "bite" into

12980-410: The wax tends to repel inks from pens , and are difficult to feed through automatic document feeders , but these traits have been significantly reduced in later models. This type of thermal transfer printer is only available from one manufacturer, Xerox , manufactured as part of their Xerox Phaser office printer line. Previously, solid ink printers were manufactured by Tektronix , but Tektronix sold

13098-450: The worldwide consumer market, four manufacturers account for the majority of inkjet printer sales: Canon, HP, Epson and Brother . In 1982, Robert Howard came up with the idea to produce a small color printing system that used piezos to spit drops of ink. He formed the company, R.H. (Robert Howard) Research (named Howtek, Inc. in Feb 1984), and developed the revolutionary technology that led to

13216-411: Was a mechanically driven apparatus by Charles Babbage for his difference engine in the 19th century; however, his mechanical printer design was not built until 2000. The first patented printing mechanism for applying a marking medium to a recording medium or more particularly an electrostatic inking apparatus and a method for electrostatically depositing ink on controlled areas of a receiving medium,

13334-484: Was a performance color inkjet printer manufactured and sold by Apple in 1996. It was based on a Canon -developed Bubble Jet printer, but was repackaged with a new housing, firmware, and Apple's proprietary 8-pin mini-DIN serial port. The printer is similar in appearance and functionality to the StyleWriter 2400, but featured faster printing speeds: 5 PPM black, 0.66 color, vs the 2400's 3 PPM black, 0.3 color. As with

13452-603: Was as clear and crisp as a typewriter. The fastest letter-quality printers printed at 30 characters per second. The term dot matrix printer is used for impact printers that use a matrix of small pins to transfer ink to the page. The advantage of dot matrix over other impact printers is that they can produce graphical images in addition to text; however the text is generally of poorer quality than impact printers that use letterforms ( type ). Dot-matrix printers can be broadly divided into two major classes: Dot matrix printers can either be character -based or line-based (that is,

13570-738: Was in 1962 by C. R. Winston, Teletype Corporation, using continuous inkjet printing. The ink was a red stamp-pad ink manufactured by Phillips Process Company of Rochester, NY under the name Clear Print. This patent (US3060429) led to the Teletype Inktronic Printer product delivered to customers in late 1966. The first compact, lightweight digital printer was the EP-101 , invented by Japanese company Epson and released in 1968, according to Epson. The first commercial printers generally used mechanisms from electric typewriters and Teletype machines. The demand for higher speed led to

13688-427: Was much less noticeable to human vision than vertical misalignment, where characters seemed to bounce up and down in the line, so they were considered as higher quality print. Line printers are the fastest of all impact printers and are used for bulk printing in large computer centres. A line printer can print at 1100 lines per minute or faster, frequently printing pages more rapidly than many current laser printers. On

13806-424: Was only discovered in the 1920s. The continuous inkjet (CIJ) method is used commercially for marking and coding of products and packages. In 1867, Lord Kelvin patented the syphon recorder , which recorded telegraph signals as a continuous trace on paper using an ink jet nozzle deflected by a magnetic coil. The first commercial devices (medical strip chart recorders ) were introduced in 1951 by Siemens . using

13924-424: Was started by retired Howtek employee, Richard Helinski whose 3D patents US4721635 and then US5136515 was licensed to Sanders Prototype, Inc., later named Solidscape, Inc. Acquisition and operating costs are similar to laser printers . Drawbacks of the technology include high energy consumption and long warm-up times from a cold state. Also, some users complain that the resulting prints are difficult to write on, as

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