what is printer?

what is printer

A printer is an online output device that prints the information received from the computer on paper. This copy of the output on the paper is called hard copy. The output of the information from the computer is very fast. And the printer could not work so fast, so the need was felt that the information can be stored in the printer itself, so the printer also has a memory from where it prints the results slowly.

"A printer is an output device that converts soft copy into hard copy." a simple answer of what is printer.

Printers are a popular output device that is used and used for printing output on paper and is called hardcopy and the output produced by them is almost permanent. The user can produce such as text or images. Production produced on display devices such as monitors is called softcopy. Hardcopy printouts can be acquired on paper with specific sizes such as A4, legal, letter, or custom sizes. A3 is used in larger size printouts.

what is printer

The orientation of a printout can be determined by the presence of a printout such as vertically or horizontally known to a Landscape orientation and a horizontal landscape orientation. A portrait view is a printout where the printout is longer than the width of the paper.

A printout that is wide and long is called landscape orientation. Books, letters, novels are portrait orientation while Excel sheets use landscape view. They come in different sizes, speeds and capacities, different printer speeds are measured in CPS- CPS- Character Per Second, LPS-Lines Per Second, PPS-Pages Per Seconds. The printers are connected to personal computers with the use of a USB printer cable for personal execution speed. Printouts can be obtained on various materials such as paper, plastic sheets, T-shirts such as fabrics. Special printers are designed for special purposes, such as photocopies of photo printers. Famous manufacturers of printers are EPSON, HP, CANNON.

History of Printer

The first computer printer designed by Charles Babbage in the 19th century for their Difference Engine was a mechanically driven device; However, his mechanical printer was not designed until 2000.

The first electronic printer was the EP-101, invented by the Japanese company Epson and released in 1968.

The first commercial printers commonly used mechanisms from electric typewriters and teletype machines. The demand for high speed led to the development of new systems specifically for computer use.

In the 1980s, there were daisy wheel systems similar to typewriters, with output similar to line printers but at much higher speeds, and dot matrix systems that could blend text and graphics but produce relatively low quality outputs.

The plotter was used for people in need of high quality line art such as blueprints.

The first low-cost printer HP LaserJet was launched in 1984.

By 1990, the easiest printing tasks such as flyers and brochures were now being made on personal computers and then printed on laser printers.

The rapid rise of Internet email during the 1990s and early 2000s largely displaced the need for printing as a means of transferring documents.

From around 2010, 3D printing became an area of ​​greater interest, making it easier to print 3D objects.

Types of Printer

Printing Method: - The method of printing is a very important factor in printing. Printing method has two types of Impact Printing and Non-Impact Printing.

Impact Printing

Impact Printers are printers that leave their Impact, such as this method of typewriter printing, similar to the typewriter method that has a metal hammer or print head. Which collides with paper and ribbon. In Impact Printing, characters or characters emerge on paper using the Solid Font or Dot Matrix method. There are several methods of Impact Printer. like-

• Dot Matrix Printer.

• Daisy Wheel Printer.

• line Printer.

• Chain Printer.

• Drum Printer etc.

Dot Matrix Printer

It is an Impact Printer so it makes a lot of noise while printing. The print head of this printer has a Matrix of several pins and each pin has a ribbon and A dot on the paper is printed by a dot. Several dots form a character together. The print head has a vertical group of 7, 9, 14, 18 or 24 pins. Horizontal group ) Is the pin of one column at a time exits the print head Prints Dots so that a character is formed in several steps and the print head moves in the direction of the line Printing speed of Dot Matrix Printer 30 to 600 characters per second (CPS-Character Per Second) Dot Matrix Printer does not have pre-built currency characters, so it can print different size-type and character graphics (Graphics) etc. P With the help of a print head, we create characters which are obtained from memory in the form of codes (0 and 1). The print head contains an electronic circuit that decodes the character.

passbook dot matrix-what is printer

In dot-matrix printers, a print head moves over the page. Characters or graphics are created using a group of pins. These pins press an ink ribbon onto the paper to form a dot.

Each character or image is made up of a series of dots. These printers are usually cheap and durable, so they are still used as invoice printers by many businesses.

They are slow and make noise at the time of printing, and the output quality is the lowest compared to all other types.

Typically printing is done with a speed of 50 to 500 characters per second depending on the quality of the printing. The quality of the print depends on the number of pins used (from 9 to 24). The 24 pin dot-matrix printer produces more dots resulting in better quality and clearer character than a 9 pin dot-matrix printer.

Advantage

• Dot matrix printers are actually less expensive. Since they are so cheap they are easy to buy and use.
• The cost of maintaining a dot matrix printer is small.
• The cost of printing a dot matrix printer is also low. 

Disadvantage:

• The quality of print of dot matrix printer is very low.
• Dot matrix printers make a lot of noise while printing.
• Paper jam handling is very difficult.
• Dot matrix printers have lower speed than other ink jet printers and laser printers.
• The print head is likely to be damaged due to the bend of the pin.

Daisy Wheel Printer

It is an Impact Printer with Solid Font, it is named Daisy Wheel because its print head shape resembles a floral daisy wheel Daisy Wheel Printer.  Is a slow printer but the clarity of its output is high, so it is used for printing letters etc. And in its print head, it is called Letter Quality Printer. A wheel is a wheel, in which a character's solid font is embossed in each spoke, the wheel moves in the horizontal direction of the paper and the printable character's spoke rotates in the wheel. A small hemmer arrives at the print position from the spoke ribbon and collides on the paper so that the letter is printed on the paper. These types of printers are now very little used.

what is printer

Daisy wheel printers only print characters and symbols and cannot print graphics. They are typically slough with a printing speed of about 10 to 75 characters per second. By 1980, daisy wheel printers were the dominant printers for quality printing, but the prices of laser and inkjet printers dropped and the quality of dot matrix printers improved, making daisy wheel printers now obsolete.

The work of a daisy wheel printer is very similar to a typewriter. A circular printing element (known as the daisy wheel shown in the image below) is the heart of these printers that have all the text, numeric characters, and simple molds on each wing of the circle's circumferences. The printing element rotates rapidly with the help of a servo motor and the printing hammer strikes the characters on the paper.

Advantage:

• Low initial unit cost.
• Low running cost.
• Low maintenance cost.
• Able to perform in hot and dusty conditions.

Disadvantage:

• Low resolution output.
• Noise.
• Ribbons are often replaced.

Line Printer

It is also an Impact Printer. Large computers require high speed printers. High speed printers can print one line page at a time instead of printing one character at a time. Speeds range from 300 to 3000 lines per minute. These printers are used for large tasks in mini and mainframe computers. 

It is similar to a daisy wheel printer. However, these printers can print on an entire line at a time. It uses BufferMary to store information of the line to be printed. These lines are then printed on paper at a rate of 500 to 3000 lines per minute. They make a lot of noise while printing.

Line printers are still widely used in data centers and industrial environments and can print multi-part forms very quickly.

what is printer

High speed line printers print 1000–2000 lines per minute and are therefore useful for printing a large number of address labels, payroll checks, statements, or bills.

Advantage:

• Line printers can print multi-part forms very fast.
• Line printers are usually enclosed in a cabinet to reduce noise levels.

Disadvantage:

• Standard line printers can only use pin feed paper and they can print only with black ink.

Drum Printer

A Drum Printer consists of a fast moving drum (Drum) on whose surface the characters emerge, a band (Band) is a set of all the letters (Set), many such bands on the entire drum Are so that the characters can be printed in each position of the line on the paper. The drums rotate rapidly and print a line in a rotation. A fast Hammer tuck against the paper on the appropriate character of each band. The expertise and are splash a line on a full rotation.

The drum printer consists of a solid, cylindrical drum with a character raised in a band on its surface. The value of print positions in the drum corresponds to the amount on the page. This number ranges from 80 to 132 print positions.

The drum rotates with a fast speed. There is a print hammer located on the back of the paper for each possible print position. These hammers strike on paper with ink ribbon with the appropriate character on the drum. One line of drum is required to print each line. This means that not all characters in a line print at the same time, but the time it takes to print the entire line is fast enough to call them line printers.

what is printer

Typical speed of line printers can range from 300 to 2000 lines per minute.

Chain Printer

This printer consists of a fast moving chain called a print chain. Characters are printed in the chain. Each link has a character font in each print position. But Hammer is fitted so that Hammer collides on the paper and prints one line at a time.

A chain printer utilizes a sequence of characters that are wrapped around two pulleys. There's a hammer for each print place like a drum printer. The circuitry inside the printer detects when the correct character appears at the desired print location on the page. The hammer then strikes the page, the paper presses through a ribbon, and the characters are printed in the desired print position.

what is printer

The chain rotates until all required print positions are reached on the line. The page then proceeds to print the next line. Chain printer speed ranges from 400 to 2500 characters per minute.

Band Printer

This printer works like a chain printer, it has a print band of steel in place of the chain. it also use Hammer to prints one line at a time on target.

what is printer

Non-Impact Printing

Non-Impact Printing does not have a contact between the print head or the paper, it is given the technology by laser printing so it has a high quality Non-Impact Printer. There are many methods of -

• Laser Printer.

• Photo Printer.

• Inkjet Printer.

• Portable Printer.

• Multi functional Printer.

• Thermal Printer.

Laser printer

Laser printers are non-impact page printers. Laser printers have been in use in computer systems since the 1970s. They were first used in Mainframe Computer. In the 1980s, laser printers were worth about $ 3000. These printers are nowadays more Are popular because they are capable of printing text and graphics in relatively fast and high quality. Most laser printers have an extra micro Processor (Ram) and ROM (Rom) are used, this printer also prints on paper only through dots, but these dots are very small and Due to the close proximity there are very clear prints. 

Cartridge is used in this printer, inside which the ink (ink) is filled in. The method of working of laser printer is basically like a photocopy machine. But in photocopying High light is used in the sheen. Laser Printer) Laser Printer) prints resolutions from 300 to 600 DPI (Dot Per Inch) or even higher. Color laser printers provide high quality color output and have special toner. In which particles of different colors are available, these printers are very expensive because their printing speed is high and it can print the output on the plastic seat or other seat Sector.

The laser printer works like a photocopy machine. The laser printer produces an image on paper by directing a laser beam onto a mirror that bounces the beam onto the drum. The drum has a special coating to which toner (ink powder) is affixed.

A laser beam transmits the information from a computer to a positively charged drum to be neutralized, using a pattern of small dots. The toner separates from all areas of the drum which become neutralized.

what is printer

As the paper rolls by the drum, the toner transfers onto the paper to print characters or other graphics on the page.

Laser printers use buffers that simultaneously store a whole page.. When an entire page is loaded, it is printed.

Laser printers have high speed and they print silently without much noise. Many home-use laser printers can print eight pages per minute, but fast printers print about 21,000 lines per minute, or 437 pages per minute if each page contains 48 lines.

Laser printer features

• High resolution
• High print speed
• Suitable for large volume printing
• Low cost per print
• Cost effective from inkjet printer.
• Productivity increase.
• Higher paper capacity.
• Often expandable with paper trays, finishers etc.

Laser printer drawbacks

• More Costly Than Inkjet Printers
• Changing toner and drums
• Larger and heavier than inkjet printers
• Less warm-up time may be required.
• High voltage required.

Thermal Transfer Printer

This is a technique in which letters can be printed with wax-based ribbon on paper. The print done by this printer does not remain for long time, ie Matter printed after some time is erased from the paper.

These printers are commonly used in businesses or shops. Traditionally, it uses a special type of hit sensitive paper. Heat is generated which reacts with heat sensitive paper and transfers the image to the sheet with the help of a thermal print head. In newer machines, a ribbon printer cartridge with a wax material is stored.

what is printer

The hit melts the waxy material and prints are obtained on paper. These are usually not very expensive and they are easy to use.

Photo Printer

A photo printer is a color printer that prints on the quality photo paper of the photo lab. It can be used for printing documents. These printers have a large number of nozzles, which are very good inks for very good quality images. Prints drops.Some photo printers also have media card readers. It can print 4 × 6 photos directly from a digital camera media card without a computer. Most inkjet printers and high-capacity laser printers are capable of printing high quality pictures. 

what is printer

Sometimes these printers are brought in the market as photo printers, in addition to a large number of nozzles and very good drops. The additional cyan in the mono is colored magenta in light magenta and light black colors. These extra colors help the cartage to produce more interesting and real-looking photos, resulting in better than ordinary inkjet and laser printers. It happens.

Inkjet Printer

It is a Non Impact Printer in which characters and graphics are printed by splashing ink droplets on the paper with a nozzle (nozzle). The output of this printer is very clear as it consists of many dots forming the characters in a color inkjet printer. It has four nozzles, sapphire red yellow black, so it is also called CMYK printer and these four colors together can produce any color. Used to (use) color printers all types (Colored Printer) |

One of the main problems with this printer is that ink clogging occurs in its print head if it does not print for some time. The ink freezes at the mouth of its nozzle. By which its holes are closed. This problem is called Ink Clingig. Nowadays this problem has been solved. Apart from this, if there is any moisture on the printing of this printer then the ink is spread. Its printing quality is usually 300 Dot Per Inch.

Inkjet printers are the most popular printers for home and small scale offices because they also have reasonable costs and good quality of printing.

Ink-jet printers spray ink with small nozzle through an electrical film, which charges the charred ink particles as a character. Their speed is usually 250 characters per second. The ink is absorbed into the paper and dries immediately. Different colors of ink can also be used.

One or more nozzles in the print head emit a steady stream of ink drop. Ink's droplets are electrically charged after being released from the nozzle. These droplets are guided electrically charged deflecting plates on paper.

what is printer

The plate is a positive charge (upper plate) and the other is a negative charge (upper plate).

With a resolution of over 300 dpi, an inkjet printer can print.Some good quality inkjet printers are capable of producing full color copies at 600 dpi.

Advantage:

• Environmentally friendly
• Produces less noise
• Made of non-toxic vegetable oils
• Compact design

Disadvantage:

• Warm-up time is required.
• Print cannot be laminated.

Portable Printer

Portable printers are small low-weight inkjet or thermal printers that allow a laptop computer to print out on the go, it is easy to use, easy to carry, but is more expensive than a normal inkjet printer due to compact design. 

what is printer

Their printing speed is also less than a normal printer, some prints are used to take instant photos from digital cameras, hence they are called portable photo printers.

Multifunctional / All in one Printer

A printer through which we can scan a document and print it and also fax it after printing is called a multifunctional printer. Multifunctional / All in one printers are also called multifunctional devices. It is a machine through which the functions of many machines such as printer scanner copyers and faxes can be done. Multifunction printers in home offices It is very popular. It may use inkjet or laser print method. 

what is printer

Some multifunction printers use media card reader which can print images directly from digital camera without using computer.It is the last but very important printer of the printer, also known as All-in-One Printer. You can also classify this printer as a sub category. Both inkjet and laser printers can be multifunctional. But recently due to the high demand of these printers, they fall into a different category.

When multifunctional printers first came on the market, they were expensive. But recently, you can buy them for 10000 rupees, which is very good. Of course, cheaper models are inkjet printers.

Multifunctional lasers are designed for those who require more than a printer. They can print, scan and fax from one device instead of two devices in the office. Because they perform more tasks, their sizes are also larger.

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