Inkjet printer
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[[Image:Epson-inkjet-printer.jpg|thumb|205px|An [[Epson]] inkjet printer]]
{{History of printing}}
'''Inkjet printers''' operate by propelling variably-sized droplets of liquid or molten material ([[ink]]) onto almost any medium. They are the most common type of [[computer printer]] for the general consumer{{Fact|date=November 2007}} due to their low cost, high quality of output, capability of printing in vivid color, and ease of use.
Like most modern technologies, the present-day inkjet has built on the progress made by many earlier versions. Among many contributors, [[Epson]], [[Hewlett-Packard]] and [[Canon Inc.|Canon]] can claim a substantial share of the credit for the development of the modern inkjet. In the worldwide consumer market, four manufacturers account for the majority of inkjet printer sales: Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Epson, and [[Lexmark]].
The emerging [[ink jet material deposition]] market also uses ink jet technologies, typically [[piezoelectric]] jets, to deposit materials directly on substrates.
==Technologies==
There are three main technologies in use in contemporary inkjet printers: thermal, piezoelectric, and continuous.
===Thermal inkjets===
Most consumer inkjet printers ([[Lexmark]], [[Hewlett-Packard]], and [[Canon (company)|Canon]]) use print cartridges with a series of tiny electrically heated chambers constructed by [[photolithography]]. To produce an image, the printer runs a pulse of current through the heating elements causing a steam explosion in the chamber to form a bubble, which propels a droplet of ink onto the paper (hence Canon's tradename of ''Bubblejet'' for its inkjets). The ink's [[surface tension]] as well as the condensation and thus contraction of the vapour bubble, pulls a further charge of ink into the chamber through a narrow channel attached to an ink reservoir.
The ink used is known as ''aqueous'' (i.e. water-based inks using pigments or dyes) and the print head is generally cheaper to produce than other inkjet technologies. The principle was discovered by Canon engineer [[Ichiro Endo]] in August 1977.
Note that thermal inkjets have no relation to [[thermal printer]]s, which produce images by heating thermal paper, as seen on older fax machines, cash register, ATM receipt, and lottery ticket printers.
Certain Epson printers use special Durabrite Ultra ink which is a type of thermal ink.
===Piezoelectric inkjets===
Most commercial and industrial ink jet printers use a [[piezoelectricity|piezoelectric material]] in an ink-filled chamber behind each nozzle instead of a heating element. When a voltage is applied, the piezoelectric material changes shape or size, which generates a pressure pulse in the fluid forcing a droplet of ink from the nozzle. This is essentially the same mechanism as the thermal inkjet but generates the pressure pulse using a different physical principle. Piezoelectric ink jet allows a wider variety of inks than thermal or continuous ink jet but the print heads are more expensive.
===Continuous ink jet===
The continuous ink jet method is used commercially for marking and coding of products and packages. The idea was first patented in [[1867]], by [[William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin|Lord Kelvin]] and the first commercial devices (medical strip chart recorders) were introduced in [[1951]] by [[Siemens]].<ref name="CRC">CRC Press, Scientific Examination of Questioned Documents, [[2006]], p. 204</ref>
In continuous ink jet technology, a high-pressure pump directs liquid ink from a reservoir through a gunbody and a microscopic nozzle, creating a continuous stream of ink droplets via the [[Plateau-Rayleigh instability]]. A piezoelectric crystal creates an acoustic wave as it vibrates within the gunbody and causes the stream of liquid to break into droplets at regular intervals – 64,000 to 165,000 drops per second may be achieved. The ink droplets are subjected to an electrostatic field created by a charging electrode as they form, the field varied according to the degree of drop deflection desired. This results in a controlled, variable electrostatic charge on each droplet. Charged droplets are separated by one or more uncharged “guard droplets” to minimize electrostatic repulsion between neighboring droplets.
The charged droplets pass through an electrostatic field and are directed (deflected) by electrostatic deflection plates to print on the receptor material (substrate), or allowed to continue on undeflected to a collection gutter for re-use. The more highly charged droplets are deflected to a greater degree. Only a small fraction of the droplets is used to print, the majority being recycled.
Continuous ink jet is one of the oldest ink jet technologies in use and is fairly mature. One of its advantages is the very high velocity (~50 m/s) of the ink droplets, which allows for a relatively long distance between print head and substrate. Another advantage is freedom from nozzle clogging as the jet is always in use, therefore allowing volatile solvents such as [[ketones]] and alcohols to be employed, giving the ink the ability to "bite" into the substrate and dry quickly.
The ink system requires active solvent regulation to counter solvent evaporation during the time of flight (time between nozzle ejection and gutter recycling) and from the venting process whereby air that is drawn into the gutter along with the unused drops is vented from the reservoir. Viscosity is monitored and a solvent (or solvent blend) is added in order to counteract the solvent loss.
==Inkjet inks==
The basic problem with inkjet inks are the conflicting requirements for a colouring agent that will stay on the surface and rapid dispersement of the carrier fluid.
Desktop inkjet printers, as used in offices or at home, all use '''aqueous inks''' based on a mixture of water, glycol and dyes or pigments. These inks are inexpensive to manufacture, but are difficult to control on the surface of media, often requiring specially coated media. Aqueous inks are mainly used in printers with disposable, so-called thermal inkjet heads, as these heads require water in order to perform.
Some professional wide format printers use aqueous inks, but the majority in professional use today employ a much wider range of inks, most of which require piezo inkjet heads:
*'''Solvent inks:''' the main ingredient of these inks are [[volatile organic compound|VOC]]s. The chief advantage of solvent inks is that they are comparatively inexpensive and enable printing on uncoated [[vinyl]] substrates, which are used to produce vehicle graphics, billboards and banners. Disadvantages include the vapour produced by the solvent and the need to dispose of used solvent.
*'''UV-curable inks:''' these inks consist mainly of acrylic monomers with an initiator package. After printing, the ink is cured by exposure to strong UV-light. The advantage of UV-curable inks is that they "dry" as soon as they are cured, they can be applied to a wide range of uncoated substrates, and they produce a very robust image. Disadvantages are that they are expensive, require expensive curing modules in the printer, and the cured ink has a significant volume and so gives a slight relief on the surface.
*'''Dye sublimation inks:''' these inks contain special [[dye sublimation|sublimation dyes]] and are used to print directly or indirectly on to fabrics which consist of a high percentage of polyester fibres. A heating step causes the dyes to sublimate into the fibers and create an image with strong color and good durability.
==Inkjet head design==
There are two main design philosophies in inkjet head design: '''fixed-head''' and '''disposable head'''. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
===Fixed head===
The '''fixed-head''' philosophy provides an inbuilt print head (often referred to as a ''Gaither Head'') that is designed to last for the whole life of the printer. The idea is that because the head need not be replaced every time the ink runs out, consumable costs can be made lower and the head itself can be more precise than a cheap disposable one, typically requiring no calibration. On the other hand, if the head is damaged, it is usually necessary to replace the entire printer. [[Epson]] have traditionally used fixed print heads featuring micropiezo technology. These print heads are available in consumer products and are typically more accurate in dot placement than comparable thermal printers.
Other fixed head designs are more likely to be found on industrial high-end printers and large format plotters and use piezo inkjet heads. Because development of these heads requires a large investment in research and development, there are only a few companies offering them: [http://graphics.kodak.com/US/product/printers_presses/high_volume_inkjet_printers/kodak_versamark_v-series_printers/kodak_versamark_vx5000_printing_system/default Kodak Versamark][http://www.trident-itw.com/ Trident], [http://www.xaar.co.uk Xaar], [http://www.dimatix.com Spectra (Dimatix)], [http://www.hitachi-printingsolutions.us/ijt/ijt.html Hitachi / Ricoh], [http://www.hp.com/go/scitex HP Scitex], [http://www.brother.com/brother_En/e-topics/inkjet/inkjet.pdf Brother], [http://www.konicaminolta.com Konica Minolta], [http://www.epson.co.jp/e/technology/print_tech.htm Seiko Epson], and ToshibaTec (a licensee of Xaar).
Hewlett-Packard has introduced a fixed-head thermal inkjet printer with its newer printer models such as the HP Photosmart 3310.
The [[Memjet]] technology, developed by Silverbrook Research, is a thermal inkjet technology that is integrated into fixed, page-wide fixed heads. The printheads are designed to scale from 20 mm to up to 2 m. The first OEM printers using the Memjet technology are expected to be available in 2008 or 2009 in 100 mm and A4/letter formats.
===Disposable head===
The '''disposable head''' philosophy uses a print head which is supplied as a part of a replaceable [[ink cartridge]]. Every time a cartridge is exhausted, the entire cartridge and print head are replaced with a new one. This adds to the cost of [[consumables]] and makes it more difficult to manufacture a high-precision head at a reasonable cost, but also means that a damaged print head is only a minor problem: the user can simply buy a new cartridge. [[Hewlett-Packard]] has traditionally favoured the disposable print head, as did Canon in its early models.
An intermediate method does exist: a disposable ink tank connected to a disposable head, which is replaced infrequently (perhaps every tenth ink tank or so). Most high-volume Hewlett-Packard inkjet printers use this setup, with the disposable print heads used on lower volume models.
Canon now uses (in most models) replaceable print heads which are designed to last the life of the printer, but can be replaced by the user if they should become clogged. For models with "Think Tank" technology, the ink tanks are separate for each ink color.
==Cleaning mechanisms==
The primary cause of inkjet printing problems is due to ink drying on the printhead's nozzles, causing the pigments and dyes to dry out and form a solid block of hardened mass that plugs the microscopic ink passageways. Most printers attempt to prevent this drying from occurring by covering the printhead nozzles with a rubber cap when the printer is not in use. Abrupt power losses, or unplugging the printer before it has capped the printhead, can cause the printhead to be left in an uncapped state. Further even when capped this seal is not perfect, and over a period of several weeks the moisture can still seep out, causing the ink to dry and harden. Once ink begins to collect and harden drop volume can be affected, drop trajectory can change, or the nozzle can fail to jet ink completely.
To combat this drying, nearly all inkjet printers include a mechanism to reapply moisture to the printhead. Typically there is no separate supply of pure ink-free solvent available to do this job, and so instead the ink itself is used to remoisten the printhead. The printer attempts to fire all nozzles at once, and as the ink sprays out, some of it will wick across the printhead to the dry channels and partially softens the hardened ink. After spraying, a rubber wiper blade is swept across the printhead to spread the moisture evenly across the printhead, and the jets are again all fired to dislodge any ink clumps blocking the channels.
Most Epson printers also use a supplemental air-suction pump, utilizing the rubber capping station to suck ink through a severely clogged cartridge. The suction pump mechanism is driven by the page feed [[stepper motor]] – it is connected to the end of the shaft. The pump only engages when the shaft turns backwards, hence the rollers reversing while head cleaning. Due to the built-in head design, the suction pump is also needed to prime the ink channels inside a new Epson printer, and to reprime the channels between ink tank changes.
The ink consumed in the cleaning process needs to be collected somewhere to prevent ink from leaking all over the surface under the printer. The collection area is known as the [[spittoon]], and in Hewlett Packard printers this is an open plastic tray underneath the cartridge storage and cleaning/wiping station. In Epson printers, there is typically a large fibrous absorption pad in a pan underneath the paper feed platen. For printers several years old, it is common for the dried ink in the spittoon to form a pile that can stack up and touch the printheads, jamming the printer with sticky slime. Some larger professional printers using solvent inks may employ a replaceable plastic receptacle to contain waste ink and solvent which needs to be emptied and/or replaced when full.
The type of ink used in the printer can also affect how quickly the printhead nozzles become clogged. While the official brand of ink is highly engineered to match the printer mechanism, generic inks cannot exactly match the composition of the official brand since the actual ink composition is a trade secret. Generic ink brands may alternately be too volatile to keep the printhead moist during storage, or may be too thick and jellied leading to frequent printhead channel clogging.
There is a second type of ink drying that most printers are unable to prevent. In order for ink to spray out of the cartridge, air needs to enter somewhere to displace the removed ink. The air enters via an extremely long, thin labyrinth tube, up to 10 cm long, wrapping back and forth across the ink tank. The channel is long and narrow to slow down moisture from evaporating out through the vent tube, but some evaporation still occurs and eventually the ink cartridge dries up from the inside out.
The frequent cleaning conducted by printers can consume quite a bit of ink and has a great impact on cost per page determinations.
Clogged nozzles can be detected by printing a pattern on the page. Methods are known for re-routing printing information from a clogged nozzle to a working nozzle.
==Inkjet advantages==
Compared to earlier consumer-oriented colour printers, inkjets have a number of advantages. They are quieter in operation than impact [[dot matrix printer|dot matrix]] or [[daisywheel printer]]s. They can print finer, smoother details through higher printhead resolution, and many consumer inkjets with photographic-quality printing are widely available.
In comparison to more expensive technologies like [[thermal transfer printer|thermal wax]], [[dye-sublimation printer|dye sublimation]]s, and [[laser printer]]s, inkjets have the advantage of practically no warm up time and lower cost per page (except when compared to laser printers).
For some inkjet printers, monochrome ink sets are available either from the printer manufacturer or third-party suppliers. These allow the inkjet printer to compete with the silver-based photographic papers traditionally used in black-and-white photography, and provide the same range of tones – neutral, "warm" or "cold". When switching between full-color and monochrome ink sets, it is necessary to flush out the old ink from the print head with a special '''cleaning cartridge'''.
As opposed to most other types of printers, inkjet cartridges can be refilled. Most cartridges can be easily refilled by drilling a hole in and filling the tank portion of the cartridge. This method is more cost effective as opposed to buying a new cartridge each time one runs dry.
==Inkjet disadvantages==
Inkjet printers may have a number of disadvantages:
# The ink is often very expensive. (For a typical [[Original equipment manufacturer|OEM]] cartridge priced at $15, containing 5 [[milliliter|mL]] of ink, the ink effectively costs $3000 per liter--or $8000 per gallon.)
# Many "intelligent" ink cartridges contain a [[integrated circuit|microchip]] that communicates the estimated ink level to the printer; this may cause the printer to display an error message, or incorrectly inform the user that the ink cartridge is empty. In some cases, these messages can be ignored, but many inkjet printers will refuse to print with a cartridge that declares itself empty, in order to prevent consumers from refilling cartridges.
# The lifetime of inkjet prints produced by inkjets using aqueous inks is limited; they will eventually fade and the color balance may change. On the other hand, prints produced from solvent-based inkjets may last several years before fading, even in direct sunlight, and so-called "archival inks" have been produced for use in aqueous-based machines which offer extended life.
# Because the ink used in most consumer inkjets is water-soluble, care must be taken with inkjet-printed documents to avoid even the smallest drop of water, which can cause severe "blurring" or "running." Similarly, water-based [[highlighter]] markers can blur inkjet-printed documents.
# The very narrow inkjet nozzles are prone to clogging with dried ink. The ink consumed cleaning them - either during cleaning invoked by the user, or in many cases, performed automatically by the printer on a routine schedule - can account for a significant proportion of the total ink installed in the machine.
These disadvantages have been addressed in a variety of ways:
# Third-party ink suppliers sell ink cartridges at significantly reduced costs (often 10%−30% of OEM cartridge prices) and also sell kits to refill cartridges, and bulk ink, at even lower prices.
# Many vendors' "intelligent" ink cartridges have been [[reverse-engineer]]ed. It is now possible to buy inexpensive devices to reliably reset such cartridges to report themselves as full, so that they may be refilled many times.
# Print lifetime is highly dependent on the quality and formulation of the ink, as well as the paper chosen. The earliest inkjet printers, intended for home and small office applications, used dye-based inks. Even the best dye-based inks are not as durable as pigment-based inks, which are now available for many inkjet printers.
=== Third-party ink and cartridges ===
The high cost of OEM ink cartridges, and the intentional obstacles to refilling them have been addressed by third-party ink suppliers.
Many printer manufacturers discourage customers from using third-party inks, claiming that they may damage the print heads, leak, and produce inferior-quality output. However, some OEM cartridges can be refilled, and the "intelligent" cartridge microchips may be circumvented as explained above. Some cartridges lose ink capacity upon refilling due to air growth in the internal foam. When an Epson inkjet printer 'thinks' a cartridge is empty and this is not so, it can sometimes be 'fooled' by sticking a strip of clear thin adhesive tape/film over the outlets of the cartridge which is then pierced when the cartridge is replaced in the printer. This might work for other printers.
The quality of third-party ink and cartridges is widely debated. [[Consumer Reports]] has noted that third-party cartridges may contain less ink than OEM cartridges, and thus yield no cost savings.<ref>[http://www.mysimon.com/Consumer-Reports-Printers/4002-9375-6311140.html mySimon - Consumer Reports Printers - Photo Printer Reviews - Laser Printer Reviews<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> [[Wilhelm Imaging Research]]<ref>[http://www.wilhelm-research.com Wilhelm Imaging Research] offers general information on the factors that limit print life, and test reports on print life with specific printer/ink/paper combinations.</ref> claims that with third-party inks the lifetime of prints may be considerably reduced. However, an April 2007 review<ref>[http://www.trustedreviews.com/printers/review/2007/04/21/The-Inkjet-Investigation/p1 TrustedReviews.com – The Inkjet Investigation]: compares the quality of prints using OEM and third-party ink cartridges from various manufacturers.</ref> showed that, in a [[double-blind]] test, reviewers generally ''preferred'' the output produced using third-party ink over OEM ink. They plan next to compare the longevity of prints using OEM and third-party ink.
OEM inks generally have undergone significant system reliability testing with the cartridge and print-head materials, whereas R&D efforts on 3rd party inks’ material compatibility is likely to be significantly less.
The third party refill industry is a relatively new business having been around for only six years. As the industry matured into three or four major refillers, a sub industry has emerged to service the refill industry. Higher volumes justified the cost of developing new inks and more effective refill and cleaning equipment to match the new processes that the major chains of refillers have developed. As a result, the process has moved from a simple topping up with a syringe to flushing old ink out and replacing it with cartridge specific new ink using modern vacuum filling equipment. This has significantly improved the refill process. Professional refill franchises have also entered the market, focusing on refilling customers cartridges on site. Some of the more widely known names in the refill franchise include 123 Refills, Cartridge World and others.
=== Overall expense ===
Even with many available options for cost-reduction, inkjet printing is costly over time due to expensive replacement ink cartridges with much lower capacity than laser-printer cartridges.<ref>[http://www.askoki.co.uk/encyclo/printertech/inkjet.asp Ask OKI—"Inkjet Printers"]</ref> Unless photo-realistic reproduction is necessary, value-minded consumers often prefer [[laser printer]]s for medium- to high-volume printing applications.
=== Continuous ink system ===
{{main|Continuous ink system}}
==Underlying business model==
[[Image:Inkjet Cartridge Microchips.jpg|thumb|150px|Microchips from Epson ink cartridges. These are tiny [[printed circuit boards]]; the dollop of black [[epoxy]] covers the chip itself.]]
A common [[Razor and blades business model|business model for inkjet printers]] involves selling the actual printer at or below production cost, while dramatically marking up the price of the (proprietary) ink cartridges. Some inkjet printers enforce this [[product tying]] using [[microchips]] in the cartridges to prevent the use of third-party or refilled ink cartridges. The microchips can function by storing an amount of ink remaining in the cartridge, which is updated as printing is conducted. Expiration dates for the ink may also be used. Even if the cartridge is refilled, the microchip will indicate to the printer that the cartridge is depleted. For some printers, special circuit flashers are available that reset the quantity of remaining ink to the maximum. Some manufacturers{{Who|date=November 2007}} have been accused of indicating that a cartridge is depleted while a substantial amount of ink remains in the cartridge.{{Fact|date=November 2007}}
Alternatives for consumers are cheaper copies of cartridges, produced by other companies, and refilling cartridges, for which refill kits are available. Owing to the large differences in pricing due to OEM markups, there are many companies specializing in these alternative ink cartridges. Most printer manufacturers discourage refilling disposable cartridges or using aftermarket copy cartridges. Refilling cartridges causes the manufacturers to lose revenue. Using non-qualified inks can cause poor image quality due to differences in viscosity, which can affect the amount of ink ejected in a drop, and color consistency. Refilling can also damage the printhead.
In Lexmark Int’l, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc., Case No. 03-5400 (6th Cir. Oct. 26, 2004) (Sutton, J.) the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit]] ruled that circumvention of this technique does not violate the [[Digital Millennium Copyright Act]]. The [[European Commission]] ruled this practice anticompetitive: it will disappear in newer models sold in the European Union. <!-- What about Japan, etc? --> While the DMCA case dealt with copyright protection, companies also rely on patent protection to prevent copying and refilling of cartridges. For example, if a company devises all of the ways in which their microchips can be manipulated and cartridges can be refilled and patents these methods, they can prevent anyone else from refilling their cartridges. Patents protecting the structure of their cartridges prevent the sale of cheaper copies of the cartridges.
In 2007 [[Eastman Kodak]] entered the inkjet market with its own line of All-In-One printers based on a marketing model that differed from the prevailing practice of selling the printer at a loss while making large profits on replacement ink cartridges. Kodak claimed that consumers could save up to 50 percent on printing by using its lower cost cartridges filled with the company’s proprietary pigmented colorants while avoiding the potential problems associated with off-brand inks.[http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_08/b4022048.htm]
== Professional inkjet printers ==
Besides the well known small inkjet printers for home and office, there is a market for professional inkjet printers; some being for page-width format printing, but most being for wide format printing. "Page-width format" means that the print width ranges from about 8.5" to 37" (about 20 cm to 100 cm). "Wide format" means that these are printers ranging in print width from 24" up to 15' (about 75 cm to 5 m). The application of the page-width printers is for printing high-volume business communications that have a lesser need for flashy layout and color. Particularly with the addition of variable data technologies, the page-width printers are important in billing, tagging, and individualized catalogs and newspapers. The application of most of the wide format printers is for printing advertising graphics; a minor application is printing of designs by architects or engineers.
Another specialty application for inkjets is producing [[prepress]] color proofs for [[printing]] jobs created in the ''digital realm''. Such printers are designed to give accurate color rendition of how the final image will look (''a "proof"'') when the job is finally produced on a large volume press such as a four offset lithography press. A well-known example of an inkjet designed for proof work is an [[Iris printer]], and outputs from them are commonly "''iris proofs''" or just "''irises''".
In terms of units, the major supplier is [[Hewlett-Packard]], which supply over 90 percent of the market for printers for printing technical drawings. The major products in their [[Designjet]] series are the Designjet 500/800, the new T-series (T1100 & T610), the Designjet 1050 and the Designjet 4000/4500. They also have the [[HP Designjet 5500]], a six-color printer that is used especially for printing graphics as well as the new Designjet Z6100 which sits at the top of the HP Designjet range and features an eight colour pigment ink system.
The constantly growing niche of page-format printing has been filled by [[Kodak]], with the Kodak Versamark(tm) VJ1000, VT3000, and VX5000 printing systems. [[Scitex]] also made a short-lived entry into high-speed, variable-data, inkjet printing, but sold its profitable assets associated with the technology to Kodak in 2005.
A few other suppliers of low volume wide format printers are [[Epson]], [[Kodak]] and [[Canon Inc.|Canon]]. Epson has a group of 3 Japanese companies around it that predominantly use Epson piezo printheads and inks: Mimaki, Roland, and Mutoh.
More professional high-volume inkjet printers are made by a range of companies. These printers can range in price from €25,000 to as high as €1.5 m. Carriage widths on these units can range from 54" to 192" (about 1.4 to 5 m) and ink technologies tend toward solvent, eco-solvent and UV-curing as opposed to water-based (aqueous) ink sets. Major applications where these printers are used are for outdoor settings for billboards, truck sides and truck curtains, building graphics and banners, while indoor displays include point-of-sales displays, backlit displays, exhibition graphics and museum graphics.
The major suppliers for professional wide- and grand-format printers include: [[LexJet]], Inca, Durst, [[Océ]], NUR (now part of [[Hewlett-Packard]]), Lüscher, VUTEk, Zünd, Scitex Vision (now part of [[Hewlett-Packard]]), Gandinnovations, Mutoh, Mimaki, Roland DGA, Seiko I Infotech, Leggett and Platt, Agfa, Raster Printers, DGI and MacDermid ColorSpan (now part of [[Hewlett-Packard]]).
== Inkjet printing of functional materials ==
*[[3D printing|Three-dimensional printing]] constructs a prototype by printing cross-sections on top of one another.
*[[United States|U.S.]] [[Patent]] 6,319,530 describes a "Method of photocopying an image onto an edible web for decorating iced baked goods". In other words, this [[invention]] enables one to inkjet print a food-grade color [[photograph]] on a [[birthday cake]]'s surface. Many bakeries now carry Print-Ons<!-- The previous version stated that bakers use Edibe Image brand Printers- There is no such thing. The current change takes that error into consideration and corrects it. -->[http://lucks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page§ionid=46] brand decorations, which are printable using edible inks[http://lucks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page§ionid=49<!-- These are patented inventions of the Lucks Food Decorating Company in Tacoma, Washington. -->] and dedicated inkjet printers.
*Inkjet printers and similar technologies are used in the production of many microscopic items. See [[MEMS]].
*Inkjet printers are used to form conductive traces for circuits, and color filters in LCD and plasma displays.
== Inkjet trade names ==
Images produced on Inkjet printers are sometime sold under other names since the inkjet's connection with "digital", "computers", and ''everyday printing'' have negative connotations<ref>[http://www.dpandi.com/giclee/giclee.html dpandi.com ''What's In a Name: The True Story of "Giclée"'' Harald Johnson, 2006 ]</ref>. These ''trade names'' or ''coined names'' are usually used in the fine arts reproduction field. They include:
* [[Digigraph]]
* [[Iris printer|Iris prints]]
* [[Giclée]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==See also==
*[[Daisy wheel printer]]
*[[Digital printing]]
*[[Dot matrix printer]]
*[[Dye-sublimation printer]]
*[[IS&T]] [[Society for Imaging Science and Technology]]
*[[Laser printer]]
*[[Photo printer]]
*[[Thermal printer]]
*[[Deskjet|DeskJet]] (the major line of Inkjet printers by Hewlett-Packard)
*[[Inkjet transfer]]
*[[Inkjet paper]]
*[[Ink cartridge]]
*[[Inkjet refill kit]]
*[[Additive manufacturing]]
==External links==
* [http://www.imaging.org/conferences/ IS&T's NIP conference series on digital printing technologies]
* [http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2001/4/2001_4_18.shtml Printing Enters The Jet Age]
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