Inkjet All In One Printers

An inkjet printer refers to a specific type of printer and how the ink is placed on the paper. With advancements in technology the quality of the printing produced by inkjet technology has increased and the cost of inkjet all in one printers has come down at the same time.

Inkjet All In One Technology

There are two different types of technology available by inkjet printers but the technology used on nearly all inkjet all in one printers is known as the DOD (deposit on demand).

This technology is used by most manufacturers including Hewlett Packard Printers Canon and Lexmark.

These printer heads use a heater contained in the printer cartridge (sometimes referred to as the ink cartridge) in combination with a number of extremely small chambers. The technology is complicated but basically the deposit a small dot on the page, the ink cartridge has a small current that passes through it and that causes a increase in pressure which causes the ink to vaporize and be placed on the paper.

Inkjet all in one printers use water based inks so if there is a likelihood that the ink may contact water, you need to protect it so it does not run. People using inkjet printers to print shipping labels will cover the labels with clear shipping tape to protect the shipping address.

For that reason a lot of high volume shippers will use laser printers instead of inkjet for printing their shipping labels.

But since most people are not concerned with water, the inkjet type of printer is, by far, the most popular type of printer sold today.

We will make a quick mention of heat transfer printers too. This type of printer uses a special paper that reacts to heat. The printer head heats very small parts of the paper to make characters legible. The problem is that if the paper is subjected to intense heat, it will turn black. If you have ever left an old ATM receipt in the sun then you know what I mean.

Inkjet All In One Printer Printheads

One of the things that makes the inkjet all in one printer so good is the fact that every time you change the ink cartridge, you are also replacing the print head too. That means the print head never wears out so the print quality remains high throughout the life of the printer.

The downside is that this type of ink cartridge is more expensive than other types. Some HP competitors have seized on the cost of the HP ink cartridges and begun intenst advertising campaigns railing against the high printer ink cost. What they don't say is that the cost not from the ink but from the fact that you are getting a new print head with every ink cartridge change.

Using another type of printer may save you money on the ink cartridges but if you have to replace the entire printer because the printhead wears out of become defective, then over the long haul, you really haven't saved any money at all.