To address concerns regarding inkjet printers, inkless printing using inkless printing paper and substrates (reusable media) has been developed. Reusable media is inkless printable media that can be imaged, erased, and reimaged a multitude of times, thereby eliminating the need to print an image on a new sheet every time a user prints a new image. However, because reusable media is very similar to traditional paper in look and feel, there is significant risk that a user will inadvertently mix regular ink-printable paper with reusable media in an inkless printer input tray.
Unexpected print failures may occur if the wrong media type ends up in a media feed tray of an inkless printer. Users may then become frustrated and disappointed in print results and wrongly attribute the poor print quality or print errors to the printer itself, rather than to the erroneously mixed media. In this situation, a user may continue to resubmit a print job to the printer until a satisfactory print occurs on the correct media type, or at best, would have to resubmit the print job once the problem becomes apparent. Therefore, large quantities of paper and time may be wasted and increase the printing expense.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds