Ink Cartridge Differences For Photos or Documents

Ink Cartridge Differences For Photos or Documents

Whilst it may be standard knowledge that one type of printer is designed to produce a better quality of printed photo,  and another more suitable for printing documents,  few people may be  aware that this is partly due to the type of ink that the printer uses.

Mostly, a printer will use a dye based printer ink cartridge, or a pigment based ink. Dye based ink is water soluble, while pigment based ink is non-water soluble, and  both are environmentally safe, which contrasts to industrial oil or alcohol based inks.

The ability to know whether selected printer cartridges are filled with dye based ink for colour or pigment based ink for more monochrome work, will ensure the correct printer is used for a particular job.

Pigment Based Ink

Pigment ink is normally produced  from chemically based polymers, ground into small particles or resin, a dispersant added, then suspended in water within an inkjet cartridge for printer use. However, this method of creating pigment based ink tends to produce rather dull, printed colours when compared with dye based inks. However, the ink is much more resistant to UV and possess a longer life expectancy.

Black inks tend to be more be pigment based, partially due to being more quick drying, with a much clearer and crisper end result.

Pigments have not been favoured for colour desktop printers because constant usage causes the colour pigments to mass together, leading to ink cartridges becoming blocked. As a result, the only colour pigment based ink printers that may be available tend to have costly in built software to produce dense colours.

Dye Based Ink

Dye inks are far less expensive than pigment inks and are easier to manufacture.  Thus, they have traditionally been the ink of choice for digital printers. Dye based inks are produced for optical brightness, with a coloured dye, soluble solution. The resulting print is brighter in colour and much more stable. However, the drawbacks to using dye  based ink are the more vivid colours will fade quickly due to a poor UV resistance and the longer ink drying time can result in a more blurry image.

Hence, a pigment ink is more resistant to water and light, but the dye based ink is much better in holding and projecting colour. A dye based ink printer, such as Canon, will be best used for photo and graphic production, while a pigment ink printer will produce much better text documents. Major companies, such as Lexmark, Hewlett-Packard, Epson and Dell, will use pigment based black ink to accompany dye based ink for their colours.

t's also important to remember, that no printer is going to be able to make use of an ink type that they have not been designed for, unless a driver is added to change droplet layering. Using the wrong type of ink may damage the printer.

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http://www.tonertown.co.uk are an online UK supplier of ink cartridges or toner cartridges for all the leading brands such as Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, HP and Lexmark. They offer a wide choice of guaranteed printer supplies of original and compatible ink cartridges, printer toners and laser toner cartridges.