What differentiates a high quality printer from a low quality printer, given that low quality printers print in CYMK, which causes the colors to look worse? Do they use a different color scheme for their inks?
keenan
Printers have gamut, just like displays. A large fraction of printers use CMYK and their gamut does indeed have to do with the quality of the inks—not to mention the paper! (You definitely get a bigger gamut by printing on white paper than black paper, for instance. ;-)). Some printers use more than just CMYK, e.g., hexachrome printers use orange and green in addition to CMYK.
There are also factors that contribute to print quality beyond color gamut; a big one for instance is the question of whether prints are "archival" quality, i.e., will they hold up over time, or will the colors fade? This question has to do with things like the basic constitution of the inks: do you use "dyes" where color is dissolved in liquid (akin to a solution like salt water) or "pigments" where color is suspended in a liquid (akin to a colloid like milk). Here there may be a trade off between gamut and archival quality, i.e., archival inks may be duller in the beginning but retain a larger gamut over time.
Here's a nice chromaticity diagram showing roughly where printer CMYK (in red) and Hexachrome (in yellow) fall relative to the sRGB color space that is fairly common for displays:
What differentiates a high quality printer from a low quality printer, given that low quality printers print in CYMK, which causes the colors to look worse? Do they use a different color scheme for their inks?
Printers have gamut, just like displays. A large fraction of printers use CMYK and their gamut does indeed have to do with the quality of the inks—not to mention the paper! (You definitely get a bigger gamut by printing on white paper than black paper, for instance. ;-)). Some printers use more than just CMYK, e.g., hexachrome printers use orange and green in addition to CMYK.
There are also factors that contribute to print quality beyond color gamut; a big one for instance is the question of whether prints are "archival" quality, i.e., will they hold up over time, or will the colors fade? This question has to do with things like the basic constitution of the inks: do you use "dyes" where color is dissolved in liquid (akin to a solution like salt water) or "pigments" where color is suspended in a liquid (akin to a colloid like milk). Here there may be a trade off between gamut and archival quality, i.e., archival inks may be duller in the beginning but retain a larger gamut over time.
Here's a nice chromaticity diagram showing roughly where printer CMYK (in red) and Hexachrome (in yellow) fall relative to the sRGB color space that is fairly common for displays: