The Ink Jet is a high speed (up to 120 pages of full colour per minute) wet ink printer. It can print up to A3 in full colour. It is roughly half the price of full colour laser printing (and much less than half price for larger print runs).

The underlying technology is the same as an ordinary inkjet printer - but with a couple of major differences. The ink is "forced" into the paper and so the finished product is waterproof (you can run it under the tap and the ink won't run!). The ink cartridges contain over a litre of ink per colour, so print runs of thousands are possible and economical. Also, the ink dries almost instantly and so there is no problem with set-off (where the back of printing picks up smudges of ink from the sheet below). This also means that the paper or card does not become wrinkled due to wet ink.

Because the process uses real ink and does not require heat to fix the image to the paper - unlike a photocopier or laser printer - the output from an Ink Jet Risograph can happily go through a laser printer (important when producing letterheads!)

The Full Colour Ink Jet can print on lots of different types of recycled papers and cards. It can also print onto silk finish uncoated papers and cards.

What It Can't Do

It does not print large areas of solid, dark colours well (see Laser Printing)

Dark colours use more ink - use too much and you will start to get significant show through (Might be OK for single sided but not very good for double sided!)

It does not provide the same quality as a laser printer (see Laser Printing)

Whilst popular for its "Green" process, (and because it is cheap!), it cannot produce the near photographic quality of the laser printer. Please ask for as proof copy BEFORE ordering your print run to check that the quality is acceptable.

The Full Colour Ink Jet can print on lots of different types of recycled papers and cards. It can also print onto silk finish uncoated papers and cards.