The document discusses various types of printers, categorizing them into impact and non-impact printers, and detailing specific types like dot matrix, ink-jet, and laser printers. It compares these printers based on characteristics such as speed, print quality, and cost of operation. Additionally, it addresses special purpose printers used for high-quality outputs and their operational costs.

1. Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
McGraw-Hill Technology Education
McGraw-Hill Technology Education Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
McGraw-Hill Technology Education
Chapter 3B
Printing

3. 4B-3
Commonly Used Printers
• Impact printers
– An impact printer creates an image by
using pins or hammers to press an inked
ribbon against the paper
• Non-impact printers
– Use methods other than force
– Tend to be quiet and fast

4. 4B-4
Dot matrix printers
• Dot matrix printers
– Impact printer
– Used to print to multi-sheet pages
– creates an image by using a mechanism called a
print head, which contains a cluster of short pins
arranged in one or more columns
– On receiving instructions from the PC, the printer
can push any of the pins out in any combination.
– the protruding pins ends strike a ribbon, which is
held in place between the print head and the
paper.
– When the pins strike the ribbon, they press ink
from the ribbon onto the paper.

5. Dot matrix printers (Continued)
– The more pins that a print head contains,
the higher the printer’s resolution.
– The lowest-resolution dot matrix printers
have only nine pins;
– the highest-resolution printers have 24 pins.
– speed measured in characters per second
(cps).
– The slowest dot matrix printers create 50 to
70 characters per second; the fastest print
more than 500 cps.
4B-5

6. 4B-6
Dot Matrix Print Head

7. Line Printers & Band Printers
• Line Printers
– impact printer.
– It works like a dot matrix printer but uses a special wide print head
that can print an entire line of text at one time
– do not offer high resolution but are incredibly fast;
– the fastest can print 3,000 lines of text per minute.
• Band Printers
– impact printer.
– A band printer features a rotating band embossed with
alphanumeric characters.
– To print a character, the machine rotates the band to the desired
character then a small hammer taps the band pressing the character
against a ribbon.
– band printers are very fast and very robust.
– a good-quality band printer can generate 2,000 lines of text per
minute.
4B-7

8. 4B-8
Ink-jet printers
• Ink-jet printers
– Non-impact printer
– Ink jet printers create an image directly on the
paper by spraying ink through tiny nozzles
– Inexpensive home printer
– Color output common using CMYK
• Cyan, magenta, yellow, black
– Speed measured in pages per minute
– Quality expressed as dots per inch
– they are often used to print pictures taken with a
digital camera.

9. 4B-9
Dots Per Inch

10. 4B-10
Laser printer
• Laser printer
– Non-impact printer
– Produces high quality documents
– Color or black and white
– Print process
• Laser draws text on page
• Toner sticks to text
• Toner melted to page
– Speed measured in pages per minute
– Quality expressed as dots per inch

11. Laser printer
4B-11
how laser printer works

12. 4B-12
Commonly Used Printers
• All-in-one peripherals
– Several printer makers now use ink jet or
laser printers as the basis for all-in-one
peripherals
– Scanner, copier, printer and fax
– Popular in home offices
– Prices are very reasonable

13. 4B-13
Comparing Printers
• Determine what you need
• Determine what you can spend
• Initial cost
• Cost of operation
– The cost of ink or toner and maintenance varies with the type
of printer
• Image quality/print resolution
– measured in dpi (dot per inch)
– The more dots per inch a printer can produce the higher its
image quality
• Speed
– is measured in the number of pages per minute (ppm)

14. 4B-14
High-Quality Printers
• Special purpose printers
– Used by a print shop
– Output is professional grade
– Prints to a variety of surfaces

15. 4B-15
High-Quality Printers
• Photo printers
– Produces film quality pictures
– Prints very slow
– Prints a variety of sizes

16. 4B-16
High-Quality Printers
• Thermal wax printers
– Produces bold color output
– Color generated by melting wax
– Colors do not bleed
– Operation costs are low
– Output is slow

17. 4B-17
High-Quality Printers
• Dye sublimation printers
– Produces realistic output
– Very high quality
– Color is produced by evaporating ink
– Operation costs are high
– Output is very slow

18. 4B-18
High-Quality Printers
• Plotters
– Large high quality blueprints
– Older models draw with pens
– Operational costs are low
– Output is very slow

19. Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
McGraw-Hill Technology Education
Chapter 3B
End of Chapter