Editing Printer (computing) (section)

====Solid ink printers====
{{main|Solid ink}}

[[Solid ink]] printers, also known as phase-change ink or hot-melt ink printers, are a type of [[thermal transfer printer]], graphics sheet printer or 3D printer . They use solid sticks, crayons, pearls or granular ink materials.  Common inks are [[CMYK color model|CMYK]]-colored ink, similar in consistency to candle wax, which are melted and fed into a piezo crystal operated print-head. A Thermal transfer printhead jets the liquid ink on a rotating, oil coated drum. The paper then passes over the print drum, at which time the image is immediately transferred, or transfixed, to the page. Solid ink printers are most commonly used as color office printers and are excellent at printing on transparencies and other non-porous media. Solid ink is also called phase-change or hot-melt ink and was first used by Data Products and Howtek, Inc., in 1984.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gregory|first=P|title=Editor|publisher=Blackie Academic & Professional for Chapman and Hall|year=1996|isbn=0-7514-0238-9|location=Great Britain|pages=113–138}}</ref>   Solid ink printers can produce excellent results with text and images. Some solid ink printers have evolved to print 3D models, for example, Visual Impact Corporation<ref>{{Cite book|last=Burns|first=Marshall|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/27810960|title=Automated fabrication : improving productivity in manufacturing|date=1993|publisher=PTR Prentice Hall|isbn=0-13-119462-3|location=Englewood Cliffs, N.J.|pages=97|oclc=27810960}}</ref> of Windham, NH was started by retired Howtek employee, Richard Helinski whose 3D patents US4721635 and then US5136515 was licensed to Sanders Prototype, Inc., later named Solidscape, Inc.  Acquisition and operating costs are similar to [[Laser printing|laser printers]]. Drawbacks of the technology include high [[energy conservation|energy consumption]] and long warm-up times from a cold state. Also, some users complain that the resulting prints are difficult to write on, as the wax tends to repel inks from [[pen]]s, and are difficult to feed through [[automatic document feeder]]s, but these traits have been significantly reduced in later models. This type of thermal transfer printer is only available from one manufacturer, [[Xerox]], manufactured as part of their [[Xerox Phaser]] office printer line. Previously, [[solid ink]] printers were manufactured by [[Tektronix]], but Tektronix sold the printing business to Xerox in 2001.