Bleeding - A printing defect where colors bleed through the paper into one another, usually caused by either too muck ink or highly absorbent paper.

Bubble Jet - Canon trade name for the ink jet technology of heating a water based ink causing a bubble of ink to expand and thus be expelled out the print head nozzle. The resultant vacuum then draws a bubble of ink into the printer head in readiness.

Cartridge - The physical case which holds the ink in the printer. Some cartridges also include the print head attached.

CMY - The acronym for the three subtractive color primaries used in the three color printing process, Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), and Yellow.

CMYK - The four color printing process, Cyan Magenta Yellow Black, used in conventional color printing and color inkjet printing. By overlaying these four colors a vast range of colors can be produced.

Compatible Cartridge - A printer cartridge manufactured by a third party to original OEM specifications.

Composite Black - The creation of an almost black by mixing cyan, magenta and yellow inks. However, this produces a muddy black and so the CMYK model, which adds pure black as a fourth ink, is used in high quality printing.

Consumables - Resources and materials used constantly and hence need to be replaced periodically. Printer Paper and Printer Cartridges fall into this category. In fact, replacement printer cartridges can often be the highest cost item when printing large amounts of pages and so should be taken into consideration when purchasing a new printer.

Cyan - Technical terms for the color Blue.

Dye - Soluble colorants, usually chemical, used in printer inks. They dissolve in solvents such as water or alcohol whereas pigments are insoluble.

Enhanced Pigment - Inks that contain both dye and pigment colorants thus gaining the benefits of both colorants to the ink.

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Generic - An unbranded version of a manufactured device, usually a copy of the OEM version.

Ink - A liquid, usually water, and usually with a dye although pigmented inks are becoming more popular. Inks may also be based on alcohol along with other chemicals.

Ink Jet Printers - Printers which spray ink onto the receiving substrate in a series of dots to form characters. The basic principal is that of heating the ink to form a bubble and then force it through the jet whereupon the bubble cools and bursts onto the paper. The standard and quality of Ink Jet Printers is improving all the time where currently they are capable of near photographic quality at far cheaper costs than laser jet printers.

Laser Printing - A printing process that produces very high quality text and graphics, both monochrome and color, at fast speeds. A laser is used to scan an image onto a metal drum thus charging the drum electro-statically. Powdered ink is then attracted to the charge and transferred to paper using heat and pressure. This process is used in Laser Printers, Copiers and Facsimiles.

Laser Toner - A powdered ink used in laser printing technology.

LED Printer - A printer that uses LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) as its light source instead of a laser, thus reducing moving parts and energy requirements. LED printers use the latest technology and are capable of producing "laser-quality" results.

Magenta - The technical term for the color Red

Nozzle - The tiny tubes through which the heated bubbles of ink are sprayed onto the page thus producing the printed image. The nozzles are also susceptible to clogging and so should be cleaned regularly.

OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer or a manufacturer that is contracted by and OEM.

Pigment - A solid particulate colorant used in inks. Being insoluble pigments produce better quality images in most situations and also provide better protection against fading.

Pigment Inks - Inks that use pigments as the colorant rather than dyes and arguably producing prints that are blacker and richer in color and also have better color retention. However, pigment inks do have the tendency to clog nozzles, especially on long print runs.

Primary Color - The prime colors that are used in varying combinations to create other colors. With projected images the primary colors are red, green and blue , RGB, whereas with physical images they are cyan, magenta and yellow, CMY.

Printhead - The part of the printer or printer cartridge that contains the necessary electrical and/or electronic circuitry and nozzles needed to spray the ink onto the paper during the printing process.

Process Colors - The four primary ink colors, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, used in color printing.

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Remanufactured Cartridge - A used inkjet cartridge that is taken apart, cleaned, worn parts replaced, reassembled, filled and tested for resale.

Resolution - In technical terms, the number of individual dots per inch, DPI, stored and used to re-create the image. In layman's terms, the sharpness or fineness of the image.

Solvent - The component ingredient of an ink for the purpose of dissolving a dye. In inkjet cartridges, the solvent is water.

Toner - A dry powdery ink used in the Laser printing process and found in Laser Printers, Copiers and Facsimiles. Toner is composed of plastic, carbon black, and iron oxide for color, which are mixed together, solidified and then ground into a fine powder.

True Black - True Black is produced by black ink as distinct from composite black, produced from a mixture of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow, which lacks a true black color

Virgin Cartridge - An Inkjet or Toner cartridge that has been used only once and has not yet been recycled or remanufactured.

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