The New Age of Digital Print Technologies

Electrophotography, thermal transfer and laser imaging on photographical paper is the most common printing technology that is used for digital prints. This is supported by a liquid toner or dry powder on a photoreceptive layer or surface which is formed by a laser on a certain point to form the image.

The Inkjet is the most common and popularly used printing technology which uses tiny ink drops that is controlled by the computer. These inks when spread onto paper through the printing medium form dots and spots that that form the pattern for printing. With the dots and spots, images are formed and created with the use of the right colors and droplet sizes.
There are three most generally used inkjet application and technology.

The first is the piezo which utilizes and makes use of a small crystal that moves and bends to make the inks undergo a successive compression in the ink chamber. This then results to the spreading out and droplets of ink which comes from the printhead. If the printhead is of good structure and design, these droplets can produce stunning print with great colors. Since the bending gives an eventual effect, prints will vary depending on it. The volumes of prints will be affected and the quality of images as well.

The next one is the thermal which comes from the word itself. This process makes use of heat that creates a tine bubble of vapor formed that pushes tiny ink droplets that also comes from the printhead. This is more full-bodied and more reliable than piezo because the piezo might cause some clogging problems while the thermal is not very vulnerable. This process is used and gained from heating then it is transferred to a colored coating with dyeing substances or molecules. The particle that generates the color is due to the heating of the film which causes transformation of colors. High quality prints can be achieved using this process and technology. This type has been often used for printing photo kioskos from a digital camera or scanned images. Colors are well distributed and printed with quality.

Continuous printing technology is very compatible in digital printing with IRIS/IXIA inkjet printers. This technology uses flow of droplets which are similar in sizes. This technology has provided a lot of quality that has increased investment, outputs and accuracy. But pigmented inks are not appropriate with this kind of printing technology.