Printers And Its Types
Printers are used for producing output on paper. Printer used to produce Hard copy of a Soft copy in computer. There are a large variety of printers and printing devices which can be classified according to the print quality and printing speed.
Impact
Printers
Impact
printers use variations of the standard typewriter printing mechanism where a
hammer strikes paper through an inked ribbon.
Non-Impact
Printers
A
Non-Impact printer uses chemical, heat or electrical signals to produce symbols
on paper. Some of these require special coated or treated paper to print
characters on them.
Classification
of printers on the basis of speed:
On
the basis of speed printers are of following types
1.
Character Printer: These printers can print only one character at a time.
They work similar to a typewriter. The examples are Daisy Wheel Printer,
Dot Matrix Printer and Inkjet Printer.
Advantages
1.
Dot
matrix printers, like any impact printer, can print on multi-part stationery or
make carbon copies.
2.
Impact
printers have one of the lowest printing costs per page. As the ink is running
out, the printout gradually fades rather than suddenly stopping part of the way
through a job.
3.
They
are able to use continuous paper rather than requiring individual sheets,
making them useful for data logging. They are good, reliable and ideal for use
in situations where printed content is more important than print quality.
Disadvantages
1.
Impact
printers are usually noisy.
2.
They
can only print low resolution graphics, with limited color performance, and
limited quality.
3.
These
printers are slow. Speed can be 225 cps to 250 cps. Speed may vary from one
printer to another.
2.
Line Printer: As the name suggests a line printer is a high-speed
printer which is used to print one entire line of text at a time. Line
printers are used to print large amount of data, printing labels, accounting
work and other large business printing applications in data centers. These are
fast printers ranging in speed from 300 to 2500 lines per minute. Examples are
Drum Printers and Chain Printers.
3.
Page Printer: These are very high-speed printers which
produce high quality output. Their speed ranges from10-25 pages per minute.
These printers are commonly used today. They use modern Laser Printer
technology and print a whole page at one go. There are many varieties of laser
page printers and so their prices range from base level upwards.
Classification
of printers on the basis of quality
The
various types of printers based on print quality are as follows
1.
Ink-jet Printer: The Inkjet printer works on inkjet
technology and produces better quality printouts than dot matrix
printers. Inkjet printers are preferred for printing photos and graphics due to their high-quality color
output. These print by spraying a controlled stream of tiny ink droplets accurately
on the paper forming either dot matrix or solid characters.
A
typical inkjet printer can produce copy with a resolution of at least
300 dots per inch ( dpi ). Some inkjet printers can
make full color hard copies at 720 dpi or more. The printing quality of these
printers is very good with a speed of 720 or more characters per second. These
are non-impact and hence are relatively silent during the printing process.
These printers are easy to use and can be used to print color pages.
Inkjet
printers are used by people who print very little. The ink comes in
special ink cartridges, which can be
very expensive and uneconomical. Also, the ink in the cartridge may dry up.
This means that a new cartridge is needed. Three colors of cartridges, which
combine magenta, yellow and cyan inks are used to create color tones. A black
cartridge is also used for crisp monochrome output. Some professional printers
have one or more additional colors for better photo quality, such as light
cyan, light magenta, blue, red, green, orange, and grey. Inkjet printers may
use either dye or pigment inks. Pigment inks are less likely
to fade, whereas dye inks create more-realistic photos and are less likely to
clog the printhead.
Advantages
Compared
to other printers, inkjet printers have a number of advantages. These are
1.
They
are quieter in operation than impact printers.
2.
They
can print finer, smoother details through higher print head resolution
3.
They
can produce photographic-quality text and images.
Disadvantages
The disadvantages of Inkjet printers are :
1. The ink is often very expensive.
2. Many intelligent ink cartridges contain a microchip that communicates the estimated ink level to the printer; this may cause the printer to display an error message, or incorrectly inform the user that the ink cartridge is empty.
2.
Laser Printer: This is a high quality, high speed and
high-volume technology printer. In laser printers, a laser beam is used
to produce an image on a drum. The light of the laser alters the electrical
charge on the drum wherever it hits it. The drum is then rolled through a
reservoir of toner, which is picked up by the charged portions of the drum.
Finally, the toner is transferred to the paper through a combination of heat
and pressure. Laser printers produce very high-quality text and graphics but
are expensive. The technology used by them is the same as that of photocopying
machines. The speed of laser printers varies from 10 pages per minute to 200
pages per minute. Laser printers are also called page printers; because they
print a whole page at one go.
Standard
laser printers can be classified into two categories in terms of color:
1.
Monochrome laser printer, and
2.
Color laser printer
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