Inkjet Printer Glossary - Canon Malaysia

Bidirectional printing
The ability of the printer to print each time it makes a pass across the sheet from left to right and right to left.

BJ mode
The printer control mode where the printer emulates the IBM Proprinter X24E.

BJ ink cartridge
The replaceable ink cartridges on the Color BJ Cartridge eg. BC-21e.A69

BJ Cartridge Storage Container
A specially designed box for storing a BJ Cartridge when it is not being used. The container prevents the print head on the cartridge from drying out. If you want to switch temporally from a BJ Cartridge to a Color BJ Cartridge, store the extra cartridge in the BJ Cartridge Storage Container until you need it again.

Bubble Jet printer
A printer that applies ink to paper by heating the ink to boiling point until it forms a bubble. The bubble expands until there is no room left in the nozzle, then it is projected onto the paper.

Buffer
A unit of eight bits. A byte is approximately equal to one character.

Cartridge
The mechanism that moves the BJ Cartridge across the paper on the printer platen.

CMYK
An abbreviation for Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and Black, the four colors used in the standard color model in the printing industry.

Composite black
A black color formed by mixing cyan, yellow, and magenta so it appears black on a printout.

cpi
Characters per inch. A unit of measurement used only for a non-proportional font in which all characters (and spaces) are the same width.

cpl
Characters per line. A unit of measurement that indicates the number of characters per printed line.

cps
Characters per second. Used to measure a printer's speed.

Cut sheet paper
A type of paper where each sheet is separated from other sheets.

Dithering
A method by which color dots are combined on a page to produce a wide spectrum of colors.

Download buffer
An area of the printer that holds fonts after they are downloaded from a software program running on the host computer.

dpi
Dots per inch. A unit used to measure printer resolution. Your printer can produce a resolution up to 720 x 360 dpi.

FINE mode
One of the three print modes. Use FINE for printing on Transparencies or when printing pictures composed of halftone images that produce grey scale or intermediate colors. The other two print modes are HQ ( high quality) and HS (high speed).

Form feed
A printer operation that ejects the current page and advances the next page as far as its top line.

Grey scale
A variation in color between black and white as a result of different concentrations of color.

Halftone
A printing method that produces shades of grey or of color by the concentration of dots. For color printing, different dots of ink are placed closely together to create the other dots.

Hue
A color of the spectrum such as red,green,violet, and so on.

Ink cartridge
The part of a BJ Cartridge that contains the ink supply for the print head.

Input buffer
An area of the primary memory that holds files that have been sent from the host computer to the printer.

Ink jet printer
A non-impact printer that ejects ink onto paper to form characters. Your Bubble Jet printer is a type of ink jet printer.

Interface
The connection between two devices, like computer and a printer, that makes it spossible for them to communicate. Your printer has a parallel interface.

Interface connector
The connector on the back of the printer where you connect the printer cable. The other end of the printer cable is connected to the printer.

Landscape
Refers to the orientation of a printed page where printing is done across the length of the page. A landscape orientation is normally used for financial reports done on spreadsheets that require a wider page. The term landscape is deprived from landscape paintings framed horizontally like a rectangle on its long side. See also portrait.

lpi
Lines per inch. The number of lines that print within one vertical inch. Most printing is done at 6 ipi or 8 lpi.

Manual feed
Loading a single sheet of a paper or other media by hand one at a time. Some types of thick paper, Back Print Film, or coated paper should be fed manually. See automatic feed.

Media
The material you print on. The most common, inexpensive print media is Plain Paper. You printer can also print on special media such as coated paper, Black Print Film, OHP Transparencies, glossy paper, and High Gloss Film.

Nozzle Pattern Print
One of the three types of test prints. This test is used to verify that each nozzle is operating properly.

Off-line
The printer mode where the printer is on but you cannot send data to the printer. In the off-line mode,you can set up the print parameters with the setup utilities.

On-line
The printer mode where the printer ready to receive data and print.

Paper feed
Guiding a sheet of paper into the paper path for printing.

Paper jam
When a sheet of paper stops in the paper path and halts paper feed.

Paper thickness lever
Adjusts the distance between the print head and the paper for the type of media you are printing on and the type of cartridge that you are using.

Platen
Holds the paper in position in the printer as a page prints.

Portrait
Refers to the orientation of a printed page where printing is done across the width of the page. A portrait orientation is normally used for most printing applications like business letters and reports. The term portrait is derived from portrait paintings framed vertically like a rectangle standing upright on one of its short sides.

Printer cable
The cable used to connect the printer to the host computer.

Printer driver
A small program that sends printing instructions to a printer. You must install the driver before you can use the printer. The driver only has to be installed once sifter you set up the printer for the first time.

Print head
The part of a BJ Cartridge that contains the nozzles that eject ink for printing.

Print head capping
A function that automatically returns the cartridge to the home position on the right side of the printer so the print head can be capped to prevent it from drying out when it is not being used.

Print mode
Refers to how the printer is currently set to operate. There are three modes: FINE, HQ (High Quality), HS (High Speed).

Printing area
Varies according to the type of paper or other media that is used. Generally refers to the maximum size of the area where text and graphics can be printed.

RAM
Random Access Memory. Printer memory used to store data waiting to print or to store downloaded fonts. When you switch the printer off, all data in RAM is lost.

Resolution
refers to the quality of printed text and graphics. The more dots used to print characters or lines, the better the quality. For this reason, resolution is usually measured in dots per inch (dpi). Higher resolution means smoother curves and crisp characters without ragged edges.

RGB
An acronym for the primary colors red, green, and blue. See additive colors.

ROM
ARead only memory. Contains the default settings and residential fonts stored in the printers. This information remains intact even after the printer is switched off.

Subtractive colors
The primary colors( cyan,yellow, and magenta) which when combined through a subtractive process produce a spectrum of colors.

True black
Printing done with black ink. See composite black.

Unidirectional printing
Printing in one direction as the print head makes a pass over the surface of the paper from left to right. See bidirectional printing.