All About Phaser Ink
Phaser Ink, or the ink used by Xerox’s series of Phaser printers, finds its roots in a technology created by Tektronix in 1986. This solid ink technology, as the name implies, uses solid sticks of ink to produce an image on paper – the sticks are loaded into the printer, and are then melted to create the drops of ink that form the image/text. Solid Ink became phaser ink when it was assimilated into Xerox’s range of printing and imaging products targeted at the home/office market, soon after the buy out of Tektronix by Xerox’s Color Printing and Imaging division in the year 2000.
These solid sticks used in phaser ink have many advantages over their inkjet and toner competitors. For one there is no cartridge involved, cutting down on waste – there are no empty cartridges to refill or throw away. Being solid, there is also no possibility of ink being spilt or leaking, something which will please anyone who has tried to wash printer ink out of clothes or carpet. Phaser ink is created from processed food grade vegetable oils, so it is safe enough to eat (not that you’d want to!), and can be handled without fear of toxicity.
Before it became phaser ink and was found in Xerox’s range of printers targeted at the home and office markets, solid ink technology was mainly targeted at graphic designers and artists. When it was first invented the technology was prohibitively expensive, although according to xerox its colors were so much more vibrant than its competitors that it was first choice for many graphics artists, regardless of cost. Phaser ink retains its reputation for high picture quality today, despite the speed that the Phaser series of printers produces printouts.
