How does inkjet printing work? - By: Rutland

When inkjet printers first came out almost 30 years ago, they were top of the line, premium pieces of equipment with price tags to match. These days the technology has come down in price and new methods are now leading the way in print quality and speed, but inkjets are one of the most popular types of printer, especially around the home and in smaller offices.

How do they work? Well, as the name implies, a small amount of liquid is taken from the inkjet cartridge and spat out onto the paper to make a tiny single dot. Exactly how that happens varies from printer to printer, but at the time this idea was the ground breaking technological innovation. It meant that dot size no longer had to be determined by the size of a mechanical part dabbing liquid from a conventional ink cartridge to the page.

In Bubble Jet printers like those made by Canon, the micro droplets are formed by heating. The water in the hot ink is vapourised and forms a bubble that gets bigger and bigger until it pops. That action squirts a tiny amount of ink out the printer nozzle and draws more liquid from the inkjet cartridge. Epson use a different method involving a particular material that vibrates when electric current is passed through it. When it moves one way, ink is pushed out the nozzle. When it moves the other, fresh liquid is drawn from the ink cartridge.

Inkjet dots are often smaller in diameter than a human hair. That means they can be combined to create very precise colours and photo quality images. While printing photos at home sounds a bit old hat now, in the late 80s it was amazing. Early inkjets might have been slow, but they opened up a whole new world of possibilities for home printing. These days they are everywhere and far faster.

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