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Printers

Printers are classified based on their mechanism, speed, quality, direction of printing, and interface with computers. There are two main types - impact printers that use an inked ribbon and typeface to print, and non-impact printers that print without contact. Common printer types include daisy wheel printers, dot matrix printers, barrel printers, chain printers, laser printers, thermal printers, and inkjet printers. Key factors for selecting a printer are speed, quality, volume, cost, graphics capability, paper size, reliability, and color support.

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233 views

Printers

Printers are classified based on their mechanism, speed, quality, direction of printing, and interface with computers. There are two main types - impact printers that use an inked ribbon and typeface to print, and non-impact printers that print without contact. Common printer types include daisy wheel printers, dot matrix printers, barrel printers, chain printers, laser printers, thermal printers, and inkjet printers. Key factors for selecting a printer are speed, quality, volume, cost, graphics capability, paper size, reliability, and color support.

Uploaded by

Helen Muriuki
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PRINTERS.

Printers are classified on the basis of a number of parameters like:

i) Mechanism used for printing – impact or non

ii) Speed of printing.

iii) Quality of output.

iv) Direction of printing

v) Kind of interface they have with the computer(serial or parallel).

vi) Line, serial or page printers.

MECHANISM

i) Impact printers.

Characters are printed by pressing a typeface against an inked ribbon which makes a mark on the paper

– noisy

ii) Non-impact printers.

There is no contact between a typeface and the paper while printing.(quiet).

SPEED

Speed of a printer is measured in terms of cps(characters per second). Lps(lines per second). Or ppm
(pages per

minute.)

QUALITY OF OUTPUT

Depending upon the type of characters formed printers can be classified as draft(poor), near letter
quality or

letter quality printers.

DIRECTION.

Unidirectional – printing takes place in one direction only.

Bidirectional – printer prints both ways.

INTERFACE.

Deopending upon the number of characters received at a time, printers can be serial or parallel. Serial
printers

are obvious slower than parallel printers.

Line printers – print a complete line at a time.


Serial printers/character printers- print one character at a time across the line of print.

Page printers – create a full page at a time.

1. DAISY WHEEL PRINTER.

Uses an interchangeable print wheel which is like a daisy flower. Each spoke on the wheel holds a
character

or a symbol. There are between 96 to 130 spokes. Printing is restricted to the characters embosed on
the

daisy wheel. Graphical images cannot be printed. It is much slower than Dot Matrix printer because the

daisy wheel is momentarily stationary to position each character. The wheel revolves until thr required

symbol or charater is in the print position. A hammer strikes against the ribbon so that the character is

printed on the paper beneath the ribbon.

Print quality is superior to that of dot matrix printer.

It is an impact printer.

The speed is 40 to 50 cps.

Note: although daisy wheel printers have the highest quality text output for serial printers, they are the

slowes and cannot produce graphic outputs.

2. DOT MATRIX PRINTER.

These are the most popular and widely used low speed printers.

Features.

1. Single characters are printed at a time in lines across the page.

2. Characters are formed using a series of needles at the print head. Various combination of wires for

separate characters which are printed when the wires strike a carbon ribbon against the paper.(7X7,
7X5,

9X9 or 24X24)

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3. In different print mode can be selected eg. Condensed, underlined and fonts.

4. The more the needles the better the image.

5. The printers are called dual mode because of their dual function capability ie near letter quality and
draft

qualities.
6. Speed is in region of 120-150 cps for NLQ and 250 – 150 cps for draft largely because of the

bidirectional printing facilities.

7. Dot matrix are further categorized as monochrome and coloured. Monochrome printer uses the
colour of

the ribbons while coloured printer can select on a multicoloured ribbon.

8. Printing takes places from the printers buffer which is magnetic storage device.

3. BARREL PRINTER.

Has at the heart of its print unit a print barrel or drum which consists of a number concentric bands each

band contains all the characters. The printer barrel revolves at a constant speed. Opposite the bands on

the print drum is a row of hammers, each hammer for one band. Between the bands and the hammer is

the carbon paper and the printer stationary.

4. CHAIN PRINTER.

Print chain contains one or more sets of the characters. It is possible to print on the machine as the
chain travel

past the hammers and this are activated inorder to print a line. Typically there are 132 positions to a
line. Speeds

upto 50 lines per second can be achieved. It is a line and a high peed printer.

5. LASER PRINTER.

A laser printer uses a combination of zerographic photocopier techniques and laser technology. It
appear to

print a page at a time and to its phenomenal speed I,e 325 lines/sec. Or 149 ppm.

A laser beam is used to produce a page of print on the drum. A laser beam used is beamed on the drum
which is

charged. A toner is then applied as in photocopying , which is attracted to the laser treated parts of the
drum

only which passes the image through a heat fixing plate and transfer on to the paper. The drum is then
wiped

clean before it commences its next image cycle.

Advantages

1. High speed printer.

2. Give high quality single copies.


3. Use ordinary papers.

Application

They are expensive devices used where large volume and high quality printing is needed.

6. Thermal printers.

They use thermal electro- sensitive paper and a thin coating of aluminium over a black/blue surface. By
paasing

an electric current through the needle onto the paper, a spark is formed which removes a small area of

aluminium, de-exposes the black/blue area under surface. Major disadvantage is the cost of black blue
heat

sensitive paper. Also produces bad smell.

Advantages.

1. Compact size.

2. Limited noise.

3. Low purchase price.

7. Ink jet printers,

The printer fires ink droplets on to the paper using an electrostatic field. They are non-impact printer
capable of

graphical output. One type can print in colour using a selection of ink.

Factors to consider when selecting a printer.

15

1. Speed

2. Quality of output.

3. Volume of printing job.

4. Cost

5. Graphics.

6. Column width.

7. Quality of paper.

8. Reliability

9. Colour.

Differences between impact and non impact printers


Impact non impact

Slow faster

Use inked ribbons use thermal or electrostatic principles

Cheaper costly

Noisy quiet

Multiple copy production possible multiple copies production almost impossible

Other Classification of printers

a) Line printers: Prints one line at a time eg drum, chain etc

b) Character printers: Prints one character at a time eg dot matrix

c) Page printers: Prints an entire page at once eg laser printer

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