Printers came to the fore in response to the growing need of computer-users to reproduce permanent records of documents and keep a paper trail of necessary transactions. Commencing with simple, all-text printed documents, various outputs can be reproduced at present for home and office applications alike. An assortment of models and designs of printers has proliferated over the years, making printing simple correspondence to complex graphics and images easier and more stunning.

Printers that are designed for home and business use can generally be categorized into seven kinds: dot matrix, daisywheel, solid ink, dye sublimation, thermal wax, thermal autochrome, laser, and lastly, inkjet printers. Inkjet printers build up images and characters through a series of nozzles. They make use of one of the three technologies present in the print cartridge, namely piezoelectric, thermal, and continuous. Of the three, piezoelectric crystal is the most commonly used and is found in the nozzle in the print head. Various inks can be used in a piezoelectric inkjet, but they are prone to clogging and require relatively pricey ink cartridges. Thermal inkjet has a cheaper print head than other inkjet technologies but its output is more susceptible to smudging, running, and ink bleeding because of the water-based ink it uses.

Inkjet printers can be purchased at a much lower price than all the other up-to-date printers but have higher maintenance cost than laser printers. Moreover, they are not designed for voluminous work because of their low speed and low duty cycle. Inkjets can churn out two to seven pages per minute (ppm) and print colored outputs good enough for personal or educational use.

An ordinary inkjet printer is composed of numerous parts, but the parts that do most of the working are the print head, ink cartridges, and control circuitry. The control circuitry is a very tiny device attached in the inkjet cartridge that interprets the information forwarded to the printer from the computer. Some companies manufacture and furnish printers with an immovable print head. The print head of these inkjet printers are fixed inside the printer. On the other hand, some inkjet printers are also designed with a print head that is connected to detachable and replaceable ink cartridge.

The most recent printing technologies are the thermal wax and the dye sublimation. They work best for professionals in the advertising and graphic design fields because of their first-rate print quality and graphic capabilities. However, they are quite expensive and slow. The laser printer comes close today to thermal wax and dye sublimation in terms of image quality, and to inkjet printers in terms of popularity. Most of todays laser printers promise faster speed ratings and color and image quality that are as good as those offered by the costly printers.