Inkjet & Bubblejet Printers

Inkjet Printers

Inkjet printers work by using piezo electric charges to emit ink onto a piece of paper.

Bubblejet (Thermal Inkjet) Printers

Bubblejet printers use a heating element to vaporise ink, forcing it out and onto the paper.

 

Printing Process

Step 1

The document to be printed is sent to the printer driver to format.

Step 2

The printer driver changes the data into a format the printer can process

Step 3

The printer controller checks the sensor to see if there is paper in the paper tray

Step 4

The printer driver checks the status of the printer to see if the printer is out of paper or if there is a jam.

Step 5

The data is sent to the printer and is stored in the printer buffer.

Step 6

A sheet of paper is fed into the printer from the printer tray

Step 7

Once the paper is advanced to the required position for the line to be printed, the print head moves across the page, ejecting the correct mix of colors in each position.

Step 8

Once the end of the line has been reached the paper moves onto the next line.

Step 9

If the printer buffer is empty an interrupt request is send to the CPU requesting more data to be sent.

Step 10

The cycle is repeated until the whole document is printed.

 

More information on the printing process

Pros and cons of inkjet/bubblejet printers

Advantages

• The printers are cheap to buy
• The cartridges are relatively cheap to buy

Disadvantages

• Printing costs for high volume printing is very high, far higher than laserjet
• The ink is not waterproof, it can run if the paper gets wet
• The print heads are prone to blocking, especially if the printer is not used very often

Printer process sorting activity

 

Past Paper Questions

0478/11 Paper 1 Theory May/June 2016  Qn 4b-c

0478/12 – Paper 1 Theory October/November 2018 qn 5b