PRINTERS
Printer is an output device, which is used to print information on paper.
There are two types of printers
Impact Printers
Non-Impact Printers
Impact Printers
The impact printers print the characters by striking them on the ribbon which is then pressed on the
paper.
Characteristics of Impact Printers are the following
Very low consumable costs
Very noisy
Useful for bulk printing due to low cost
There is physical contact with the paper to produce an image
These printers are of two types
Character printers
Line printers
Character Printers
Character printers are the printers which print one character at a time.
These are further divided into two types
Dot Matrix Printer(DMP)
Daisy Wheel
Dot Matrix Printer
In the market one of the most popular printers is Dot Matrix Printer. These printers are popular
because of their ease of printing and economical price. Each character printed is in form of pattern
of dots and head consists of a Matrix of Pins of size (5*7, 7*9, 9*7 or 9*9) which come out to form
a character that is why it is called Dot Matrix Printer.
Advantages
Inexpensive
Widely Used
Other language characters can be printed
Disadvantages
Slow Speed
Poor Quality
Daisy Wheel
Head is lying on a wheel and pins corresponding to characters are like petals of Daisy (flower name)
that is why it is called Daisy Wheel Printer. These printers are generally used for word-processing in
offices which require a few letters to be sent here and there with very nice quality.
Advantages
More reliable than DMP
Better quality
The fonts of character can be easily changed
Disadvantages
Slower than DMP
Noisy
Line Printers
Line printers are the printers which print one line at a time.
These are of further two types
Drum Printer
Chain Printer
Drum Printer
This printer is like a drum in shape so it is called drum printer. The surface of drum is divided into
number of tracks. Total tracks are equal to size of paper i.e. for a paper width of 132 characters,
drum will have 132 tracks. A character set is embossed on track. The different character sets
available in the market are 48 character set, 64 and 96 characters set. One rotation of drum prints
one line. Drum printers are fast in speed and can print 300 to 2000 lines per minute.
Advantages
Very high speed
Disadvantages
Very expensive
Characters’ fonts cannot be changed
Chain Printer
In this printer, chain of character sets are used so it is called Chain Printer. A standard character set
may have 48, 64, or 96 characters.
Advantages
Character fonts can easily be changed.
Different languages can be used with the same printer.
Disadvantages
Noisy
NON-IMPACT PRINTERS
Non-impact printers print the characters without using ribbon. These printers print a complete page
at a time so they are also called as Page Printers.
These printers are of two types
Laser Printers
Inkjet Printers
Characteristics of Non-impact Printers
Faster than impact printers.
They are not noisy.
High quality.
Support many fonts and different character size.
Laser Printers
These are non-impact page printers. They use laser lights to produce the dots needed to form the
characters to be printed on a page.
Advantages
Very high speed
Very high quality output
Give good graphics quality
Support many fonts and different character size
Disadvantages
Expensive.
Cannot be used to produce multiple copies of a document in a single printing.
Inkjet Printers
Inkjet printers are non-impact character printers based on a relatively new technology. They print
characters by spraying small drops of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers produce high quality output
with presentable features.
They make less noise because no hammering is done and these have many styles of printing modes
available. Colour printing is also possible. Some models of Inkjet printers can produce multiple
copies of printing also.
Advantages
High quality printing
More reliable
Disadvantages
Expensive as cost per page is high
Slow as compared to laser printer
