Output Devices : Ink Jet Printers

Ink jet printers are the most popular type of printer for use at home or in a small business. This is because they are relatively cheap to purchase and can print in colour. Ink jet printers generate output by squirting tiny jets of ink at the paper to be printed on. A column of ink jets in the print head moves across the page squirting dots onto the paper to make the image.

Typically ink jet printers can produce 1200 to 4800 dots per inch (dpi). Because these dots are made with liquid ink photographs usually look better when printed on an ink jet printer than on a laser printer printer, but the quality of printed text is not quite as good. Ink jet printers nearly always print in colour and cost from £30 upwards. They are slower than laser printers (8 pages per minute+) and cost more to run as the ink cartridges they use are expensive.

GCSE ICT Companion 04 - (C) P Meakin 2004