Printers and Types of Printer

ICT
 Printers
• Printers are the most commonly used output
devices.They are used to print documents. The output
printed on the paper is called hardcopy. The hardcopy is
also called printout.
• The output may be in the form of characters, symbols,
and graphics.The printout resolution is measured in dots
per inch(dpi).
Types of Printers
• Different printers have different printing
mechanism.Depending upon the printing mechanism.
• Printers are classified into two types
1. Impact printers
2. Non-impact printers
Types of Printers
Impact Printers
• Impact printers create pictures and figures by hitting a
device such as a wheel or a print hammer against an
inked ribbon.
• In impact printers, printing is executed by hammering a
character dye or metal pin.
• Impact printers are low in terms of speed.
• The print quality of impact printers is lower.
• Impact printers generally utilize hammers, pins, or wheels
to hit against an inked ribbon to print on paper.
Character Printers
• A character printer prints one character at a time, instead
of one line at a time. Today, these printers are rarely used
because of speed issues and because only text can be
printed.
i. Dot matrix printer
ii. Daisy wheel Printer
Dot matrix printer
• A dot matrix printer is an impact character printer.it makes
a hardcopy by printing one character at a time.
• The speed of a dot matrix printer is measured by the
number of characters print in one second.
• The printing speed of dot matrix printers is from 300 to
1100 chracters per second.
• The dot matrix printer contains a print-head with a matrix
of small pins arranged in rows and columns.
Daisy wheel Printer
• Daisy wheel printer is an impact character printer. It is
similar to a typewritter.
• it has a print wheel a series of petals. This wheel is known
as daisy wheel. Each petal of the daisy wheel contains a
character at its end .
• A motor rotates the wheel ,when the desired character
reaches the print position on the paper, a hammer strikes
a petal against the ribbon.
• In this way a character printed on the Paper.
• Daisy wheel printer is slower than dot-matrix
printer,Quality is better.
Line Printers
• Line Printers :- Line Printer can Print One Line at a Time.
The line printer is a form of high speed impact printer.
They can Print 300 to 3000 Lines per Minute. So that they
are very fast. Large Computer system typically use Line
Printer.
• The Line Printers are of two Types.
i. Drum Printers
ii. Chain Printers
Drum Printers
• The drum printer is an imapact line printer. It is similar to a
chain printer. It consist of a solid cylindeical drum. The
drum has a complete characters set around the drum in
lines.
• The drum rotates at a very high speed. Once complete
rotation of drum is required to print on line.
• All the characters of the line are not printed at the same
time.A line will be printed after completing one rotation of
the drum.
• The printing speed is 300 to 2500 lines per minute.
Non-impact printers
• Non-impact printers create figures and pictures without
any connection between the printing device and the
paper.
• Non-impact printers are comparatively fast in speed. They
can print several pages in one minute.
• They have a low level of noise.
• Non-impact printers use a spray of ink, laser, or heat and
pressure to execute their printing operation.
• The print quality of non-impact printers is higher.
• They are quite expensive as compared to impact printers.
Laser Printer
• LASER Stand for Light Amplification by Simulated
Emission of Radiation. A laser printer is faster and high
quality non-impact printer.
• Laser printers are available in both black and white and
colors models. Laser printers are commonly used for
printing different types of documents.
• Laser printer prints one page at a time, its also called
page printer.A laser printer works like a photocopying
machine. They are also called fast printers.
• The resolution of black and white printer is 1200 dpi,
colors printer is 2400 dpi.
Ink-Jet Printer
• The Ink-jet printer is a non-impact printer.It creates output
on paper by spraying tiny drops of liquid ink.
• It can Print text and graphics in both vlack and white and
colors. The printing speed of the Ink-jet printer is
measured by the number of pages per minute.
• Most Ink-jet printers can print 12 to 36 pages per minute,
they print graphics and colors at slow rate.
• Most ink-jet printers have resolution ranging from 1200 to
4800 dpi.
• The inkjet printers have a low price than laser printers,and
also low speed.
Thermal Printers
• A thermal printer is a type of non-impact printer.It prints
information on heat sensitive paper by pushing electrically
heated pins.
• Basic thermal printers are not very expensive but their
print quality is low.
• these printers are typically used to print receipts at ATM’s
and retail stores,electronic tickets at airports, tokens at
banks and other places.
• Modern thermal printers have high quality.
• They are also faster than ink-jet and Laser printers.
Photo Printers
• The Photo printer is a non-impact color printer.
• It is specially designed for printing high quality
photographs.
• A photo printer is also called a Snapshot printer.
• Typically photo printer use Ink-jet technology for printing
photographs.