History
The first ink jet printer was made by HP printers with the HP Thinkjet in 1984and in 1988 the company introduced the first DeskJet. Few people know that the first invention of the inkjet was by Lord Kelvin in 1860’s. It was only in the 20th century the invention was attempted commercially and the technology was first extensively developed in the 1950’s. Starting in the late 1970’s, inkjet printers that could reproduce digital images generated by computers were developed almost simultaneously by Epson, Hewlett Packard and Cannon. These aforesaid three companies and Brother now dominate most of the inkjet sales market.
Advantages of Inkjet printers
Inkjet printers are better at printing photos and colour images. Inkjet printers have a number of advantages.
In comparison to the dot-matrix and daisy wheel printer they are quitter in operation. They print finer, smoother and more detailed higher resolution pictures. Inkjet printers with photographic quality are commercially available.
Unlike other technologies like laser printing, thermal wax and dye sublimation inkjet printers have the advantage of practically no warm up time and cost lower per page of printing specially black and white. There are now industrial inkjet printers that can print at very high speeds, in a wide variety of formats, or for a wide range of applications like signage, textiles, ceramics and 3-D printing into biomedical applications and conductive circuitry. With such a wide variety of range in the market one should approach an experienced supplier like 123ink.ca for your right choice of printer.
Disadvantages of the inkjet printers
Many have encountered the problem when the inkjet printer shows empty and refuses to print when actually there is ink in the cartridge. One is forced to change the cartridge. The very narrow inkjet nozzles get clogged easily and the ink consumed in the cleaning process performed by the printer is a significant waste of ink. The cleaning process by solvents is prone to damage and change of the head itself that is prohibitively expensive. The basic disadvantages are the high cost of cartridges due to their being proprietary in nature.
Inkjets use solvent based inks which have a much shorter expiry date in comparison to the toner that has an indefinite expiry date. If not used regularly the inkjet cartridge tends to clog. The cleaning of the head is bothersome and one tends to end up changing the cartridge itself. Many inkjet printers come with permanently installed heads that cannot be replaced economically resulting in scrapping of the printer itself.
Inkjet printers are popular
Inkjet printers are better at printing photographic material and add to their low entry price they are a popular choice among both the office and home usage. Inkjet printers also have several additional features built into them like copying, scanning and faxing that make them attractive in the market.
