Epson Printer Technology Basics

MicroPiezo® Technology is Core to Epson Print Quality

Epson builds a high quality, permanent print head into every Epson Stylus printer. Epson permanent print heads are robust and print heads deliver precise, variable-size ink droplets, which ensure fantastic, photo quality output.

MicroPiezo print heads are at the heart of every Epson inkjet printers. These print heads are able to achieve high quality results through microscopic nozzles, or holes on the print head, from which the ink is fired. Each of these nozzles has tiny, piezo electric elements, which vibrate tens of thousands of times per second, allowing the nozzle to fire ink droplets onto the page at extremely rapid rates. No heat is involved in the printing. This ensures greater accuracy when firing ink droplets precisely onto the page. And, it gives the printer greater control over ink droplet size. MicroPiezo technology ensures uniform, stable ink droplets with no satellites or misting. So, you get phenomenal prints!

The piezo elements inside MicroPiezo print heads ensure precise control over the ink, which helps Epson printers achieve Ultra Micro Dot™ ink droplets as small as 1.5 picoliters (much finer than a human hair). These tiny droplets ensure great results on Epson paper with virtually grain-free text and images.


Maintaining Print Quality

As ink is fired from the nozzles of an Epson print head, new ink is supplied to the print head from the ink cartridge. Supplying ink to the print head in an even, uninterrupted fashion is critical to how Epson printers work. To avoid the introduction of air or airborne contaminants and ensure that ink droplets are evenly fired, the printing system should always contain a fluid seal. If air is introduced into the printing system, ink can dry and clog a nozzle, which can be seen on the image as missing dots or lines or through color shifting on the image. To avoid these issues, Epson ink cartridges are designed to retain a small, but variable, ink safety reserve after the "Replace cartridge" indicator comes on. This ensures the print performance and reliability that our customers expect from Epson MicroPiezo permanent print head technology. The ink safety reserve also maintains the proper negative pressure in the printing system to ensure the ink droplets are fired evenly.

Whether printing text, graphics or photos, the printer directs the print head to send thousands of black and color droplets onto the page, allowing the printer to reproduce an infinite range of colors and tones. Whatever you print, the print head will draw on ink from all of the cartridges. Even printing in black, which uses primarily black ink, involves using some color ink. Ink is used for both printing and for maintaining the MicroPiezo print head to ensure optimum image quality.

Using your Printer Most Efficiently

Epson printers include many user-friendly features, which allow users to make smart choices about their printing. Epson printer drivers let you select different resolutions, draft modes and papers types suitable to your printing tasks. Read more about printing more cost effectively.