Also known as ion deposition or electron charge deposition printing, the ionographic process creates an image with the use of an electron cartridge that creates a negative charge on a nonconductive surface. The nonconductive surface consists of a drum with a dielectric surface of aluminum oxide, which attracts a magnetic toner. Ionography uses a static electric charge to draw the toner particles from the drum onto the substrate. The toner is then fixed to the substrate with a cold fusion process that includes a high pressure roller, which fuses the toner to the substrate. A scraping device removes any excess toner from the drum and an erasing rod removes the latent image from the drum so that it will be ready for the next image.

Ionography is used only for one color printing because the high pressure cold fusion process can slightly distort the substrate, which means that multiple colors may not line up correctly. It is useful for high volume applications and for variable information printing, which allows for changes in the content of the print application during the press run. Variable applications such as checks, statements, letters, tickets, and tags, are printed with the ionographic process. Applications printed with the ionographic process do not hold up to rough handling as well as applications printed with other processes.

The magnetography process is similar to ionography except that the imaging drum uses a magnetic charge rather than a static electric charge to attract the imaging medium. The electronic image is converted to a magnetic charge on the drum, which attracts a toner containing iron particles. The toners are very opaque so the process is best suited for spot colors rather than four-color process printing, which requires transparent colors in order to work effectively.

The primary use for magnetography is for applications that require barcoding, such as labels, business forms, direct mail pieces, and tickets. The toners used for magnetography are very opaque so they are well suited for barcode printing, which requires a thick black colorant.

The print resolution is lower with magnetography than with some of the other printing processes, but the printing speed is very fast. Press speeds as high as 460 feet per minute can be attained.