New Inks and the Expanding Ability of the Inkjet Printer
Digital Printing Gaining Ground on Traditional Commercial Printing
HP has stepped up its game when it comes to photo printing. The new latex inks and HP Indigo Press technologies make printing more professional grade work more accessible than ever before. These new technologies make inkjet printing which rivals silver halide production and conventional printing technologies.
image source: hp.com
Digital, or inkjet printing is gaining ground quickly, and the latex and Indigo Press formulations are bringing this quality level to digital printing. One big advantage to these technologies is the ability to print wide format work and to print directly on a growing number of media. This is going to be a boon the small businesses and home based businesses which have a desire to print top quality promotional material, and to small businesses whose product is not promotional but which is the pictures themselves. Wedding and event photographers are just one example of the small and home based business which is going to benefit from these new formulations and technologies as well as companies which produce posters and outdoor signage.
The latex inks also are very valuable in the fact that they can produce odorless indoor displays, something which has been a problem with some large format printing in the past. Especially with the latex inks, their ability to print to unconventional media means an increased palette that includes floor graphics, textiles, and other flexible and rigid materials. Obviously, these printers are more aligned towards professional users, but as always the expanding abilities of these printers are gradually becoming more and more affordable to the small and home based business and hobbyist who have a large desire to print professional quality work without contracting an actual printer.
Expanded Colors, Blacks and Grays and Why They Are So Important To Quality
In addition to the expanded palette of blacks and grays, the Indigo Digital presses also offer expanded cyan and magenta inks. These expanded color palettes are what allows the new printers to reproduce the results formally only seen in silver halide and the traditional printing fields.
Soon, home printers will routinely use the expanding range of colors becoming more and more available to professional grade printers; expanded cyans, magentas, blacks and grays will continue to seep into the consumer market place, and 4 - 7 color cartridge printers will continue to offer better and sharper images and text print at more affordable prices than ever before. Consumer printers are already able to print on a wide range of media that just a few years ago was impossible with printers in the price range that most home users could afford, even when they are printing for business based applications, but that too is rapidly changing as affordable printers are being adapted to new ink and print head technologies which enable them to print on an ever expanding array of media.
While expanded cartridge printers can offer much better image quality, especially on gloss and art media, one of the downsides of the new printers is the fact that with a greater amount of cartridges to replace it will cost that much more if you are buying ink directly from the printer manufacturer. Fortunately, ink companies which supply compatible and remanufactured cartridges are very good at making products which rival the OEM cartridges from companies like HP. These cartridges can perform every bit as good as the OEM cartridges and still save you quite a lot of money, especially when you multiply the savings over the life of the printer.
In the end, these new technologies will make printing truly professional grade products at home possible, and with a good remanufactured or compatible ink supplier, you will be able to replace your cartridges without breaking the bank.
