Four types of ink on inkjet printer

Printers are a need for every home and office use. So does paper. I believe that most of you use inkjet printers cause they are cheaper than laser printer and much better than dot matrix printers. Of course, with inkjet printer alone, you can't produce anything. You need something else, that is the paper (and another one is ink).

By using correct type of paper and good quality ink, you can produce very good printing result. Then the problem is how to test the ink and paper. As I know there are some types of ink that are used with printers. Water based ink, Dye based ink, Pigment ink and Fluorescent ink. The last one has ever been used since Canon released the product with BJC 1000 series. But I've never used such ink. The first three types of ink are quite common.

Water based ink seems to be quite low-cost in printing. Dye based are a bit higher in price but offer better quality. Pigment is probably the best. My friend told me that even pigment ink also categorized in kinds of price. Not all pigment ink is good. Cheap pigment ink has been proven to produce dull printing result (therefore the printing on paper is more durable)

I prefer using dye-based ink which is not very expensive but still can give good quality printing. This type of ink can produce good enough printing for photo paper or inkjet paper. But when you are using ink, you need to consider the paper, too. Using the right ink with the right paper can give out good quality printing. I think that's all for this post. I'll write about paper later on.

Tips on buying photo paper

If you want to print high resolution book cover, consider whether you want to print on one side only or double side. If you intend to print on one side, you just need to buy common single side photo paper. But if you want to print on both side, you need to buy "double side matte paper". This kind of paper is usually used for book cover, or for box-making purpose.

Usually Matte Paper is not glossy. So, if you want to have double sided glossy printing, you'll have to buy double side photo paper.

But if you just intend to print double-sided, but one side with glossy and another side with text only, you can just buy single side photo paper BUT make sure that the unglossy side is not smooth, because you can't print on smooth side (I mean uncoated smooth side).

Usually branded single side photo paper can't be use to print on the back side EVEN with text only!

This is because most ordinary inkjet printer ink will be smeared on the smooth back side (I've ever tried on Fuji Photo Paper with refill ink).

So, just buy a pack of photo paper and test. Nothing is better than to experience it yourself.