1-8-1-2 Ink jet printer
The ink jet technology was developed after the laser printer. It is
considered “laser comparable” since the print quality is very close to that
of a laser printer. Using a concept similar to Dot matrix technology, the
ink jet printer has tiny nozzles in the print head (instead of striking pins).
Droplets of ink are injected through the nozzles directly onto the paper
and dried instantly. The average ink jet printer has about 64 nozzles and
can achieve resolutions from 300 to 1200 dpi.
An ink jet printer is faster than a Dot matrix, both for text and
graphics. Some models measure print speeds in terms of pages per minute
(ppm); some use characters per second (cps). An average ink jet prints
3ppm (or 230cps). The advantage of an ink jet printer is that it costs less
than a laser printer yet produces attractive, high-resolution text and
graphics in color and black-and-white. Where multiple sheet or bulk
printing is not needed, an ink jet printer is a good choice. One
disadvantage of ink jet printers is that consumables cost more than for
Dot matrix to produce large amounts of text or graphic printing. Color
ink cartridges are especially expensive; although the more
commonly used black ink cartridges cost less. When considering an ink
jet printer, research how many pages the ink cartridges produce on
average, and at what price.
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