Inkjet printer related glossary

Inkjet printer related glossary.

Here you'll find some common terminology that can sometimes confuse (and is often used to confuse) people new to the world of inkjet printers.

Volume

This is just the industry work for the number of printed sheets from a printer.

Coated paper

Pre-treated paper that will allow you to print high resolutions and/or photo quality prints from your inkjet printer.

6 color inkjet

Or 4 color. This refers to the number of different independent cartridges your printer has. A 6 color cartridge has 6 different cartridges. For high resolution color printing the more cartridges the better. Having separate cartridges also helps since when one color runs out you can simply replace that color rather than replace all the colors in a printer with a combined or multi color cartridge.

PPM - pages per minute

Beware that a manufacturers PPM is usually very optimistic. Basically half the manufacturers quoted print speed and you'll have a rough guide to the printers actual speed..

Native resolution

This is the actual resolution of the printer head in dots per inch (dpi). Using idly techniques I don't understand most manufacturers have an enhanced resolution that is usually twice as high. These "enhanced" modes probably aren't as good as a printer that can print that high in native mode.