quality

Toner & Ink.. Not the same thing!

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Toner? Ink?

Often heard used interchangeably, these are actually two very different things with the same purpose. Ink and toner are the materials that are used to create any printed image, but with different techniques and outcomes, kind of like the difference between writing with a marker and writing with a pen.

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Ink: For Inkjet Printers

Ink is used in inkjet printers for basic personal printing, like for home and school use.

Two Types of Ink… It matters!

Dye Based Ink

The dye is absorbed by the paper which provides bright, vivid colors, which is very good for color printing photos. Unfortunately, it can fade when left in sunlight for too long and smear when it gets wet.

Pigment Based Ink

These are made of resins (organic molecules that plants secrete) that are ground into small particles. Pigment based ink sits on top of the paper instead of getting absorbed like dye inks, which gives the print less vibrant colors. However, it is fade resistant, and is also resistant to water. This is typically used for printing documents.

Toner: For Laser and Digital Printers

Toner is most commonly used in laser printers and copy machines, which are usually found in a busy environment like workgroups instead of just at home. They’re required for fast, high quality, high production printing.

What’s it made of?

Toner is typically made of electrically charged dry carbon powder that is contained inside plastic cartridges. These powders can either based with carbon or based with organic dry granules with polymers.

When printing, the toner sticks to the paper through a heating process where the toner melts and binds to paper fibers, which makes it hard to smear, making it usually of higher quality than inkjet prints.

Why CatPrint’s Prints are so Awesome

Now you have a hint as to why your prints at CatPrint look so amazing! If you have yet to place an order with CatPrint, you should do so today! Here’s one of the very special things about CatPrint: you can put your entire order on hold and receive a free hard copy proof if you want to see what your print will look like before your entire order is printed. Click here for more information!

FYI: What is DPI?

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DPI stands for dots per inch, which refers to the small ink dots that come on paper during the printing process. The amount of these ink dots in one inch of paper is the number you get for your DPI.  These little dots are important because they determine how well your file will print.

You may ask, how do they do that?  The dots per inch determine this based on another small number known as PPI or pixels per inch. To make sure your file prints in a high resolution you need to make sure that your dots per inch are larger than your pixels per inch.  An example would be having a DPI of 1200 and a PPI of 300, leaving you with 4 ink dots for every pixel.

Finding out what the DPI of your image is can seem like a difficult task but is actually quite easy! If you are using a Mac computer, you simply open up the file in preview, click tools > Show Inspector.  To resize on a Mac open the image or file in preview click tools> adjust size.  If you are working in Windows, you want to open the image or file in the picture viewer on your computer.  Once opened you will right click the file, then select “properties”, after that click on the “summary” tab.  If “title”, “subject”, or “author” fields are displayed click “Advanced>>” on the bottom.