Photo printing: When inks ain't inks
If these were the case, it might appear that if you want long-lasting prints, you'd go for pigments, while if you're finicky about image quality, dyes might be the way to go. Unfortunately, while the arguments above are correct, it doesn't and shouldn't apply to printers we purchase today. Manufacturers have gotten around each of the problems with various technologies. For instance, fade resistance is not just about colorants. Paper media is another medium to aid in prevention and we'll be talking about this in the second article of our series on photo printing. On their part, manufacturers have made dye colorants with more sophisticated dye structures to increase resistance and added specialty components--often proprietary--to prevent problems like color bleeds. For the problem with pigments, Epson's core firing technology takes care of the issue of clumping particles. At the heart of each Epson printer is its piezo-electric elements. These delicate crystals vibrate each time voltage passes through. With a piezo element at each nozzle vibrating tens of thousands of times per second, there is no physical need for you to take the cartridge out to shake it, potentially dealing with messy ink leaks. In terms of uneven surfaces, the Japanese company has introduced an eighth "ink" which is a gloss optimizer to fill in the white spaces on the surface of the paper.
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