We all print photos either at home or using a photo printing service. A few stop to appreciate the technology that allows photos to be so accurately printed on standard to special paper.
Printers today are ubiquitous you can find printers everywhere at home in the office and point of sale and more. Printers are used for different purposes from simple black and white digital printing to super large color rich street posters. Different technologies are different for different printing types.
Over the years printing technologies advanced allowing cheaper and smaller printers to deliver better and faster printing results. Printing first appeared in the fourteen hundreds with the invention of the printing press. The printing press revolutionized the printing process and allowed for the first time for mass printing of books and documents. The printing press was a bulky mechanical device that eventually led to today small cheap and efficient home and office printers.
A technology from the 1990s called dye sublimation was perfected in the last years allowing high resolution yet fast printing of color rich photos using small inexpensive printers. Dye sublimation works by transferring heat to a special three color component coated with special chemicals that turn into gas that bonds to the printing material surface. Dye sublimation creates high quality high resolution photo digital prints.
Another well known and very well branded printing technology is the laser printer. Laser printers are mostly used for black and white printing although color laser printers are available on the market. Laser printers are very popular at offices and homes for printing a large number of black and white documents. They are fast produce high resolution prints and have a long life span. Laser printers today are available in home versions that are very small and cost less the two hundred dollars. Laser printers utilize a laser to heat up ink on a special cartridge that is then pressed against the printing paper surface.
One of the most popular printing technologies at homes today is the inkjet digital prints technology. Inkjet printers are extremely cheap costing as low as fifty dollars. Although the low price tag they produce high quality black and white or color prints at a relatively fast pace. Most inkjet printers use two ink cartridges one for black and one for the three prime printing colors. Printing is achieved through a process where electrical current controls the release and bonding of ink on the printing paper. The drawback of inkjet digital prints is the cost of the ink cartridges. As opposed to laser printers that can run quite long on one ink cartridge inkjet are usually inefficient when it comes to ink consumption.
When choosing a printer it is useful to understand the underlying technology. Understanding the underlying technology can allow you to better choose the printer that would produce the best digital prints for you. Take into consideration cost printing speed black and white versus color and printer physical size. Evaluate different printers and decide which one and which technology works best for your digital prints needs.
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