The document discusses different types of printers including inkjet printers, laser printers, dot matrix printers, and daisy wheel printers. It describes the basic operation of each type of printer, their advantages and disadvantages, and provides a brief history of printer development. Key points covered include how dot matrix printers form characters using pins, the laser scanning and toner transfer process used in laser printers, and that inkjet and laser printers now produce higher quality output than earlier printer technologies.

1. Assignment on
Printer
Course Name: Peripheral and Interfacing
Course Code: CSE 333

2. Date of Submission: 26-11-2015

3. Submitted To
Riazur Rahman
Lecture
Dept. of CSE
Daffodil International University
Submitted By
 Mohammad Shariful Haque
ID: 131-15-2530
email: avash10@yahoo.com

4.  Printer:
A printer is a device that accepts text and graphic output from
a computer and transfers the information to paper, usually to
standard size sheets of paper. Printers are sometimes sold with
computers, but more frequently are purchased separately.
Printers vary in size, speed, sophistication, and cost. In general,
more expensive printers are used for higher-resolution color
printing.
In the other word, a printer is an external hardware device
responsible for taking computer data and generating a hard copy
of that data. Printers are one of the most used peripherals on
computers and are commonly used to print text, images, and
photos. The picture is the Lexmark Z605 Inkjet, an example of
a computer printer.
 History of Printer:
In 1953, the first high-speed printer was developed by

5. Remington-Rand for use on the Univac computer.
In 1938, Chester Carlson invented a dry printing process called
electro photography commonly called a Xerox, the foundation
technology for laser printers to come.
 Types of printers:
Below is a list of all the different computer printers. Today, the
most common printers used with a computer are Inkjet and
Laser printers.
o 3D printer
o All-in-one (AIO) printer
o Dot Matrix printer
o Inkjet printer
o Laser printer
o LED printer
o Multifunction printer (MFP)
o Plotter
o Thermal printer
o Printer Characteristics:
Printers are also classified by the following characteristics:
o Quality of type: The output produced by printers is said
to be either letter quality (as good as a typewriter), near
letter quality, or draft quality. Only daisy-wheel, ink-jet,
and laser printers produce letter-quality type. Some dot-

6. matrix printers claim letter-quality print, but if you look
closely, you can see the difference.
o Speed: Measured in characters per second (cps) or pages
per minute (ppm), the speed of printers varies widely.
Daisy-wheel printers tend to be the slowest, printing
about 30 cps. Line printers are fastest (up to 3,000 lines
per minute). Dot-matrix printers can print up to 500 cps,
and laser printers range from about 4 to 20 text pages per
minute.
o Impact or non-impact: Impact printers include all
printers that work by striking an ink ribbon. Daisy-wheel,
dot-matrix, and line printers are impact printers. Non-
impact printers include laser printers and ink-jet printers.
The important difference between impact and non-impact
printers is that impact printers are much noisier.
o Graphics: Some printers (daisy-wheel and line printers)
can print only text. Other printers can print both text and
graphics.
o Fonts : Some printers, notably dot-matrix printers, are
limited to one or a few fonts. In contrast, laser and ink-jet
printers are capable of printing an almost unlimited
variety of fonts. Daisy-wheel printers can also print
different fonts, but you need to change the daisy wheel,
making it difficult to mix fonts in the same document.
 Daisy-Wheel Printer:
Daisy wheel printing is an impact printing technology invented

7. in 1969 by David S. Lee at Diablo Data Systems. It uses
interchangeable pre-formed type elements, each with typically
96 glyphs, to generate high-quality output comparable to
premium typewriters such as the IBM Selectric, but two to three
times faster. Daisy wheel printing was used in electronic
typewriters, word processors and computers from 1972. The
daisy wheel is considered to be so named because of its
resemblance to the daisy flower.

8. Figure: Metal Daisy Wheel for Xerox & Diablo printers and
Plastic Daisy Wheel for Qume printers.
By 1980 daisy wheel printers had become the dominant
technology for high-quality print. Dot-matrix impact, thermal,
or line printers were used where higher speed was required and

9. poor print quality was acceptable. Both technologies were
rapidly superseded for most purposes when dot-based printers
in particular laser printers that could print any characters or
graphics rather than being restricted to a limited character set
became able to produce output of comparable quality. Daisy
wheel technology is now found only in some electronic
typewriters.
 Dot Matrix Printer:
All dot matrix printers create characters on paper by striking an
inked ribbon with a hard surface. Unlike typewriters, which use
a similar mechanism, dot matrix printers do not have fixed
character shapes or fonts. Instead, each individual character is
formed by the arrangement of a series of pins. This allows dot
matrix printers to be used for basic graphical printing and
multiple fonts as well as basic text printing -- but it gives the
printout a characteristic “dotted” appearance. Dot matrix
printouts often produce lower-quality text that can be difficult to
read. In addition, dot matrix printers generally are noisier than
inkjet or laser models.

10. Figure: Dot Matrix operation
The print quality produced by a dot matrix printer is
significantly affected by the number and size of pins in the print
head.
Printer
.
Figure: Operation of Dot Matrix Printer
The print quality produced by a dot matrix printer is
significantly affected by the number and size of pins in the print
head. Even the best dot matrix printers generally can't match the
quality of inkjet or laser printers. The simplest dot matrix

11. devices use just nine pins to produce each individual character,
creating a pixelized, blocky appearance. More complex printers
use a larger number of smaller pins, producing greater detail
and eliminating the characteristic look of dot matrix text.
Common arrangements for these printers include dual 9-pin and
24-pin print heads.
 Advantage of Dot-Matrix
o Low purchase cost
o Can handle multipart forms
o Cheap to operate
o Low repair cost
 Disadvantage of Dot-Matrix
o It so much noisy
o Low resolution
 Inkjet printer:
Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a
digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper, plastic,
or other substrates. Inkjet printers are the most commonly used
type of printer, and range from small inexpensive consumer
models to expensive professional machines

12. Figure: Operation of Inkjet Printer.
The concept of inkjet printing originated in the 20th century,
and the technology was first extensively developed in the early
1950s. Starting in the late 1970s inkjet printers that could
reproduce digital images generated by computers were
developed, mainly by Epson, Hewlett-Packard (HP), and
Canon. In the worldwide consumer market, four manufacturers
account for the majority of inkjet printer.
For most inkjet printers, the print head takes about half a second
to print the strip across a page. On a typical 8 1/2"-wide page,
the print head operating at 300 dpi deposits at least 2,475 dots
across the page. This translates into an average response time of
about 1/5000th of a second. Quite a technological feat! In the

13. future, however, advances will allow for larger print heads with
more nozzles firing at faster frequencies, delivering native
resolutions of up to 1200dpi and print speeds approaching those
of current color laser printers (3 to 4 pages per minute in color,
12 to 14ppm in monochrome). In other words, declining costs
for improving technology.
 Ledger Printer:
When we print something, our computer sends a vast stream of
electronic data (typically a few megabytes or million
characters) to our laser printer. An electronic circuit in the
printer figures out what all this data means and what it needs to
look like on the page. It makes a laser beam scan back and forth
across a drum inside the printer, building up a pattern of static
electricity. The static electricity attracts onto the page a kind of
powdered ink called toner. Finally, as in a photocopier, a fuser
unit bonds the toner to the paper.

14. Figure: Operation of Ledger Printer.
Operation
1. Millions of bytes (characters) of data stream into the printer
from our computer.
2. An electronic circuit in the printer (effectively, a small
computer in its own right) figures out how to print this data
so it looks correct on the page.
3. The electronic circuit activates the corona wire. This is a
high-voltage wire that gives a static electric charge to
anything nearby.
4. The corona wire charges up the photoreceptor drum so the
drum gains a positive charge spread uniformly across its
surface.

15. 5. At the same time, the circuit activates the laser to make it
draw the image of the page onto the drum. The laser beam
doesn't actually move: it bounces off a moving mirror that
scans it over the drum. Where the laser beam hits the drum,
it erases the positive charge that was there and creates an
area of negative charge instead. Gradually, an image of the
entire page builds up on the drum: where the page should be
white, there are areas with a positive charge; where the page
should be black, there are areas of negative charge.
6. An ink roller touching the photoreceptor drum coats it with
tiny particles of powdered ink (toner). The toner has been
given a positive electrical charge, so it sticks to the parts of
the photoreceptor drum that have a negative charge
(remember that opposite electrical charges attract in the
same way that opposite poles of a magnet attract). No ink is
attracted to the parts of the drum that have a positive charge.
An inked image of the page builds up on the drum.
7. A sheet of paper from a hopper on the other side of the
printer feeds up toward the drum. As it moves along, the
paper is given a strong positive electrical charge by another
corona wire.
8. When the paper moves near the drum, its positive charge
attracts the negatively charged toner particles away from the
drum. The image is transferred from the drum onto the paper
but, for the moment, the toner particles are just resting
lightly on the paper's surface.
9. The inked paper passes through two hot rollers (the fuser
unit). The heat and pressure from the rollers fuse the toner
particles permanently into the fibers of the paper.
10. The printout emerges from the side of the copier. Thanks to
the fuser unit, the paper is still warm. It's literally hot off the
press.
 Advantages of Laser Printer

16. o The main advantage of Laser printer is its speed &
efficiency at which it prints high-quality graphics &
text.
o Laser printers produce high-quality output as
compared to other printers.
o Laser printers are quite and does not produce
disturbing sounds.
o They are also capable to produce color prints.
 Disadvantages of Laser Printer
o The main disadvantage of Laser printer is its cost, they
are relatively costly as compared to other printers.
o The maintenance, repair & servicing charges are also
high of these printers.
o Laser printers emit small amount of ozone and are
hazardous to health and the atmosphere.
 Conclusion:
Printer is an output device which we use in our everyday life.
Different types of printer can be used in different purpose. It is
used almost all the sectors. Specially Office, School, College,
University, Laboratories, Hospital, Bank, Research, Shopping
Center, Image Processing, Personal use and many other place.

17.  References
[1] Wikipedia ’25-11-2015’
‘https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_(computing)’
[2] Webopedia ’25-11-2015’
‘http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/printer.html’
[3] Whatls ’25-11-2015’
‘http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/printer.html’
[4] Small Business ’24-11-2015’ ‘http://smallbusiness.chron.com/dot-
matrix-printer-work-56581.html’
[5] Wikipedia ’24-11-2015’
‘https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_wheel_printing’
[6] Explainthatstuff ’25-11-2015’
‘http://www.explainthatstuff.com/laserprinters.html’

18. ----------END----------