Devices That Output Hard Copy

Printers

Wardah Sabeen

Roll no :59

BSPA – Morning

Department Of Public Administration

5, November,2009

Computer Assignment

What is a printer?

Output device that produces text and graphics on a physical medium

 Result is hard copy, or Printout

Two orientations: Portrait and landscape

First, let's take a quick look at the various printer technologies.

Impact vs. Non-impact

There are several major printer technologies available. These technologies can be broken down into two main categories with several types in
each:

Impact - These printers have a mechanism that touches the paper in order to create an image. There are two main impact
technologies:

Dot matrix - printers use a series of small pins to strike a ribbon coated with ink, causing the ink to transfer to the paper at the
point of impact.

Character - printers are basically computerized typewriters. They have a ball or series of bars with actual characters (letters and
numbers) embossed on the surface. The appropriate character is struck against the ink ribbon, transferring the character's image to
the paper. Character printers are fast and sharp for basic text, but very limited for other use.

Non-impact - These printers do not touch the paper when creating an image.
Inkjet printers are part of this group, which includes:

Inkjet - printers, which are described in this article, use a series of nozzles to spray
drops of ink directly on the paper.
 Laser - printers, covered in-depth in How Laser Printers Work, use dry ink (toner),
static electricity, and heat to place and bond the ink onto the paper

Dot-matrix printer
 
Dot-Matrix printers produce characters and illustrations by striking pins against an ink ribbon to
print closely spaced dots in the appropriate shape.
Dot-matrix printers vary in two important characteristics: Speed and Print quality
Speed - Given in characters per second (cps), the speed can vary from about 50
to over 500 cps. Most dot-matrix printers offer different speeds depending on the
quality of print desired.

Print quality - Determined by the number of pins (the mechanisms that print
the dots), it can vary from 9 to 24. The best dot-matrix printers (24 pins) can
produce near letterquality

Price Range - $20 – $1,500

Dot matrix printer - Advantages
Dot matrix printers, like any impact printer, can print on multi-part stationery or make carbon copies. Impact printers have one of the lowest
printing cost per page. As the ink is running out, the printout gradually fades rather than suddenly stopping part way through a job. They are able
to use continuous paper rather than requiring individual sheets, making them useful for data logging. They are good, reliable workhorses ideal
for use in situations where printed content is more important than quality. An advantage of a dot matrix
printer it can print carbon forms.

Dot matrix printer - Disadvantages

Impact printers are usually noisy, to the extent that sound dampening enclosures are available for use in quiet environments. They can only print
text and simple graphics, with limited color performance. . But since it is an impact printer it is very noisy

Dot matrix features

As with any technology product, feature-sets for dot-matrix printers vary by price, intended market, and year of introduction.

Industrial market - Industrial-market printers are designed for high-volume printing and offer construction, feed paths, and
carriage configurations suited for this task. The carriage assembly typically houses multiple printheads, permitting rapid printing of
the entire paper-width with only a partial carriage displacement. Industrial printers are often cabinet-sized, with their own housing
for blank paper, the printer, and printed output. Suppliers of industrial impact printers include Printek, PSi, and Printronix

Personal computer market - color printing (text+graphics)- multi-color output, generally achieved with multiple printhead
passes. Required a color-ribbon to be installed. 18-pin, 27-pin (printhead configuration) - uncommon in consumer market.
Proportional-space font (text) - non-uniform (horizontal) spacing between characters. Some models only allowed PS in conjunction
with specific typefaces.
INK- JET PRINTER
Since their introduction in the latter half of the 1980s, inkjet printers have grown in
popularity and performance while dropping significantly in price.
Ink – Jet Printer Advantages
An inkjet printer is any printer that places extremely small droplets of ink onto paper to
create an image. If you ever look at a piece of paper that has come out of an inkjet printer, Inkjet printers are considerably cheaper to
you know that: buy.

The dots are extremely small (usually between 50 and 60 microns in High end printers are capable of producing
diameter), so small that they are tinier than the diameter of a human hair (70 good quality images when used with
microns)! special paper.

The dots are positioned very precisely, with resolutions of up to 1440x720 Most models are relatively light weight
dots per inch (dpi). and compact so they don't take up too
much space on the desk.
The dots can have different colors combined together to create photo-quality
images. Ink – Jet Printer Disadvantages
Price Ranges - $55 –$1,500, These printers are cheaper than the laser Due to the cost of ink, running an inkjet
printers. And they are also capable of producing a higher quality of print than printer over time is a more expensive than
the laser printers also. Adisadvantage is that they are quite slow in printing a laser printer.
and they require a certain type of ink that is rather expensive.

Prints emerge from the printer slightly wet and may need time to dry.
Printing is slower and therefore inkjets aren't designed for high volume printing.
laser printer

A type of printer that utilizes a laser beam to produce an image on a drum. The light of the laser alters the electrical charge on the drum
wherever it hits. 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. This is also the way copy machines work.

Because an entire page is transmitted to a drum before the toner is applied, laser printers are sometimes called page printers. There are two
other types of page printers that fall under the category of laser printers even though they do not use lasers at all. One uses an array of LEDs
to expose the drum, and the other uses LCDs. Once the drum is charged, however, they both operate like a real laser printer.

One of the chief characteristics of laser printers is their resolution -- how many dots per inch (dpi) they lay down. The available resolutions
range from 300 dpi at the low end to 1,200 dpi at the high end. By comparison, offset printing usually prints at 1,200 or 2,400 dpi. Some laser
printers achieve higher resolutions with special techniques known generally as resolution enhancement.

In addition to the standard monochrome laser printer, which uses a single toner, there also exist color laser printers that use four toners to print
in full color. Color laser printers tend to be about five to ten times as expensive as their monochrome siblings.

Laser printers produce very high-quality print and are capable of printing an almost unlimited variety of fonts. Most laser printers come with a
basic set of fonts, called internal or resident fonts, but you can add additional fonts in one of two ways:

Font cartridges - Laser printers have slots in which you can insert font cartridges, ROM boards on which fonts have been
recorded. The advantage of font cartridges is that they use none of the printer's memory.

Soft fonts - All laser printers come with a certain amount of RAM memory, and you can usually increase the amount of memory by
adding memory boards in the printer's expansion slots. You can then copy fonts from a disk to the printer's RAM. This is called
downloading fonts
Laser Printer Features
Laser printers are controlled through page description languages (PDLs) . There are two de facto standards for PDLs: PCL and PostScript.

PCL - HP was one of the pioneers of laser printers and has developed a Printer
Control Language (PCL) to control output.
There are several versions of PCL, so a printer may be compatible with one but
not another.

PostScript - The de facto standard for Apple Macintosh printers and for all desktop publishing systems. Laser printers range from $80
- $600.
Laser Printer Advantages
They print very fast but not as fast as a dot matrix. Although it does not make as much noise as the dot-matrix printer because it is a non-
impact printer. They also have greatresolution.

Laser prints are generally very high and very accurate.

For high volume printing laser printers are considerably cheaper to run.

Printing is fast so they can handle large volumes.

Due to the technology used prints from a laser printer emerge from the printer dry to the touch.

Laser Printer Disadvantages

Buying a laser printer can be expensive when compared to an inkjet.

Colour laser printers are significantly more expensive than a colour inkjet.

Laser printers are larger and heavier as they need to contain the imaging drum and laser technology.

A disadvantage is that if you want to print in full color you have to use four toners
MULTIPURPOSE PRINTERS

A single print device that serves functions, including printing, faxing, scanning, and copying is a multifunction printer (MFP) but it is also called
an
All-in-one printer (AiO).

All in one printers are extremely popular at the moment and there are
some excellent products currently around at some great prices.

They offer a wide range of features such as the ability to photocopy, fax,
and scan all in the same device.

This is a great time and money saver as you do not have to pay for each
individual device separately or waste precious time installing and setting
up each product.

You just buy one model, install it, and you're then ready to print, fax, scan,
and photocopy!

Price Range
These printers range from about $100 -$400.
Multipurpose Printer Advantages
You can print, fax, copy, and scan all on one machine.

Multipurpose Printer Disadvantage

If this device breaks, you could lose of the functions at the
same time and you can only do one operation.
Modern Printing Technology

Snapshot Printer
Designed to print photographic-quality snapshots. Most snapshot printers require special paper and use dye sublimation, thermal transfer
technologies to produce vivid 24-bit color. These printers range from $80 -$1,200. This is a great printer because you won’t have to go to a
photo place to print out your

pictures, you can print them in the comfort of your own home. The devices, however, are limited to prints no larger than about 4 by

Snapshot - Usage
If you take lots of pictures, consider getting a photo printer. Photo printers can be in the form of photo inkjets which can print
both photos and text; snapshot photo printers for outputting small 4×6-inch prints; or professional photo printers for large,
tabloid-size photos and often including network connections to enable printer sharing. Most consumer and professional photo
printers use inkjet technology, while most snapshot photo printers that print 4×6-inch prints rely on
dye-sublimation technology. Regardless of the type or technology that is used, the most important thing to
look for in a photo printer is photorealistic quality. Everything else is secondary.
Thermal Printer
Generates images by pushing electrically heated pins against heat-sensitive paper.Dye sublimation printer (also called a digital photo printer)
uses heat to transfer dye to specially coated paper.
Mobile Printer

Small, lightweight, battery-powered printer that allows mobile user to print from notebook computer, Tablet PC, PDA, or smart phone while
traveling

Mobile Printer - Advantages

The obvious advantage of the product is that it's
small and light. It can satisfy instant gratification
-- you don't have to wait to get home to a
stationary printer to get finished prints of your
images.

And eco-conscious people will find that the paper

is recyclable (unlike thermal paper) and non-toxic.
Also, because there is no ink cartridge or ribbon to
dispose of, the printer produces no waste.

Mobile Printer - Disadvantages

Given the advantages, you'd expect this

technology to take the public by storm. But some
drawbacks might prevent it from catching on, at
least for a little while.

First, some users have complained that the quality

of the photo produced by a mobile photo printer
is subpar. One expert reviewer for PC Magazine,
claimed that half of his test photos came out with
skewed coloration and that some were "washed
out" . He also tested the supposed water resistance the printer advertises and found that, although the photos sustain drops that are immediately
wiped off, the image suffers if drops dry on it. Time will tell whether these kinks can
be ironed out in later advances.
Label Printers & Postage Printers

Small printer that prints on adhesive-type material

Postage printer has built-in digital scale and prints

postage stamps

Most also print bar codes

Postage printer has built-in digital scale and prints

postage stamps

Lable – Printer Advantages

Label printers have many various capacities. If you are printing on borderless stock, you can see an aspiration of a label printer to move tight from one
lable to another. Special sensor devices detect an area of lable printing to make sure that the printing
model was successfully absorbed.

Color label printer types have got the wide range of applications. They widely adopted in retail stores management, at scientific laboratories to mark
specific samples. A color label printer is also in the wide usage amongst photographic centers that
are specialized in producing labels for diferent companies.

There is one more type of a label printer - CD label printer. Speaking about a CD label
printer one is to have in mind that this type of a label printer can completely provide
striking coloured label prinings that are to go right up to your disk. Any CD label
printer has high printing resolution, ranged color system and quick throughput ability.
Besides, a CD label printer as well as a smart label printer and other types are designed
in sucha way that allows automatization, so almost all label printers are quick in use.
Plotter
Sophisticated printer used to produce high-quality
drawings.

Large-format printer creates photo-realistic-quality

color prints.

Plotter - Advantages
Speed - Plotters the fastest 3D Printer in the world.
Each layer is printed in seconds, reducing the time it takes to print a hand-held part to 1-2 hours.
Colour - Plotter printers can create parts from a full 24-bit palette of colors, resulting in multiple color prototypes. This functionality gives
designers the data they need to create and collaborate more effectively throughout the design process. Color can be used to communicate
important information including engineering data, labeling, highlighting and appearance simulation.
Versatality - Companies are using plotters in every step of the design process for communication, design review and functional testing.
The option of infiltrating parts offers customers the opportunity to produce parts with a variety of material properties to serve a range of
modeling needs.
Simplicity - The office compatible plotter is straightforward to operate, eliminating the need for a designated technician.
This based on standard, off the shelf components developed for the ink jet printer industry resulting in a
reliable, dependable 3D Printer.
How do you know which printer to buy?

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There are several factors to consider when deciding what kind of Printer and with what specifications and performance levels to buy. These include:

It is important to look at the cost per page and see how much you may be paying for the amount of printing you expect to do. Generally
speaking, you can expect to pay less for a laser Printer than an ink Printer when looking at Cost-Per Page.

When purchasing a Printer, look to see if the Printer requires additional add-ons that may be required; this can also factor into the overall
cost of the Printer. These add-ons can include but are not limited to such things as cables, trays, ink, software, etc.

Find out the dpi resolution of the Printers you’re considering. Also find out if the manufacturer has any additional software add-ons that
will increase resolution and their related cost.

Find out the PPM (page per minute) printing speed to determine what you can live with in terms of your overall business printing needs.

Look at the way the Printer handles paper and how it feeds the medium that will be printed upon. This can have an affect on your cost
depending on what format you will predominantly be printing (envelopes, legal size paper, etc.).

Cost. Most laser Printers will run in the $300 - $2,000 price range while inkjet Printers will run from $100-$400.
Refrrences
www.enzine article.com
www.americanpictureproject.com
www.computer.howstuffworks.com
www.irgplotters.com