Human beings are curious creatures, or at least they can be if they take the time to actually thing about curious things. Perhaps one of the most curious things around you, if you are in school, work for home, or work in an office setting, is the nearby printer. If you do not believe me just set your cat down in front of it and see what happens. Printers move by themselves, work quickly (sometimes) and are capable of drawing with far more precision than a human being can. How do they manage this? How does a Inkjet Printer work?
Although the article above goes into much more detail, all inkjet printers (no matter their basic type) work the same basic way. That is, they shoot tiny microscopic dots of ink from an equally small jet. It takes thousands and thousands of these dots to make an image together and they are applied very quickly. How exactly the printer manages it is something that How Stuff Works is more than happy to reveal and explain.
When you hit print the computer sends data to the printer which takes and transforms that data into a pattern for the nozzles, the jets, to use. First the printer cleans the nozzles, some of the very first stuttering sounds you hear from the machine. Then the paper is pulled up and the nozzles begin moving across the paper. They move, spray, move, spray, move spray thousands and thousands of times with perfect accuracy, going so fast that it seems they are moving continuously. Meanwhile the paper is stopping and starting so that the nozzles can go back and forth.
Inkjets, unlike laser printers, can use both color and black ink, varying which nozzles are used to create colorful patters. They may be louder than a LaserJet, and not as fast, but they are cheaper and oh so much more fun for that new kitten you got.