Inkjet printing
Inkjet printers were an progression of dot-matrix printers. Inplace of metal needles, more tiny guns are used to fire dots of ink to the paper. The characters, inkjet printers are made by dots, just same like in dot-matrix printer, though the dots are very tiny that is simply cannot see.
As we see the dot matrix printers, inkjets make their print with a pattern of dots. The main difference is that where a dot-matrix uses maybe 64 metal needles to make 64 dots per character, but inkjets fire thousands of dots to make much higher print quality. An average inkjet can print 600 dots per inch (dpi), that is about ten times better than the crudest dot-matrix. A nice photo-quality inkjet can print at nearly 5000 dpi.
The inkjet nozzles build up a whole page of text or graphics from millions of separate dots. Controlled by your computer, the ink cartridge scans from left to right across the page and back again, depositing ink as it goes. Each time it reaches the end of a line, the paper advances forward slightly so the next line can be printed.
Ribbon Cartridges
Ink ribbons are mostly used in dot matrix printes, as well as cash registers. Different than other types of printers thus come with liquid ink, these types of inking solutions for dot matrix and cash register printers have ink evenly coated on a round in a circle of ribbon.Everytime the entries are made there is pressure applied over the ribbons onto the paper and the text is printed on to paper. In early time uses of ribbons date back to the time when typewriters were used. Typewriters were commonly used and the ink particles would fuse with the paper as the keys would be pressed.
Ribbon cartridges contain ink that resembles the consistency of crayon or wax. During the printing process, heat-sensitive paper is inserted into the machine and then squeezed between the printer’s thermal head and platen roller. The paper comes into contact with the ink in the ribbon cartridge with the use of a spring on the printer head itself.
Heat is essential to the thermal transfer printing process, and thus, when heat is applied onto the paper and the ink, the ink in the ribbon cartridge melts and sticks to the paper. Thus is how thermal transfer printing works.
