Printers

Impact and Non Impact

Printers

Printers are used to provide users with

output in hard copy form.
This means the output is printed on
paper.
Impact printers
The impact printer creates immediate
contact between the ink ribbons and
paper. They can be noisy yet are very
popular. Impact printers have
mechanical components that allow
printing. Examples include Daisy-wheel
printers, line printers, and Dot-matrix
printers.
Non-impact printers
Non-impact printers create figures
and pictures without any connection
between the printing device and the
paper.
Non-impact printers
The most common types of non-
impact printers include inkjet,
thermal, laser, and wide format.
Laser printers
Laser printers are the type of printer
mainly used by businesses and
organizations because of their high
speed. For this reason they are usually
chosen as printers used for networks.
Most laser printers print in black and
white. Although you can buy color
laser printers, they are relatively
expensive.
Advantages of laser printers
• Very quiet – important when used as a network printer in an
office where phones are also being used.
• Supplies last longer – the toner cartridge lasts longer than
inkjet cartridges.
• High printing speed – essential to have high speed if lots of
people on a network are using one printer.
• Very reliable – fewer problems compared to inkjet printers.
• No wet pages that smudge – inkjet pages can smudge but
there is no such problem with a laser printer.
• They are cheaper to run (i.e. they have a lower cost per page
compared to inkjet printers).
• High quality printouts.
Disadvantages of laser printers:
• More expensive to buy – but they are cheaper
to run.
• Color lasers are very expensive to buy.
• Power consumption is high.
• Most laser printers are larger than inkjet
printers.
Inkjet printers
Inkjet printers are popular with home
users because they are relatively
cheap to buy. However, they are
more expensive to run, because of
the high cost of the ink cartridges.
They work by spraying ink onto the
paper and can produce very good
color or black and white printouts.
They are ideal printers for stand-
alone computers but are less
suitable for networked computers as
they are too slow
Advantages of inkjet printers:
• Relatively small compared to laser printers.
• They do not produce ozone or organic vapors which can
cause health problems.
• High quality print – ideal for printing photographs, brochures,
and illustrated text.
• Quietness of operation – this is important in an office as
telephone calls or conversations with colleagues can be
conducted during printing.
• Inkjet printers are usually cheaper than laser printers.
Disadvantages of inkjet printers
• High cost of the ink cartridges – this is okay for low
volume
• work but for large volume it is cheaper to use a color
laser printer.
• Ink smudges – when the printouts are removed the
paper can get damp which tends to smudge the ink.
• Cartridges do not last long – this means they need to
be replaced frequently.
Wide format printers
Wide format printers can handle printing on
sheets of paper 24 inches or wider.
Some businesses may have a need to produce
posters, maps, plans and other large format
documents and may decide to purchase one.
Wide format printers use the same technology
as smaller printers so it is possible to purchase
ink-jet and laser wide format printers.
Wide format printer
Disadvantages of wide format printers
• Expensive especially if only used occasionally.
• Wide format printers are quite large which can be a
problem
in small offices where space is limited.
• As the paper size is larger the ink cartridges will not
last long and
they are expensive to replace.
Advantages of wide format printers
• Can print on paper larger than A4 so is ideal for
printing maps, scale drawings, posters etc.
• Do not need to use the services of professional print
shops which can be expensive.
• Printouts larger than A4 size such as maps, banners,
plans etc. can be printed.
3D printers
3D printers use CAD to
create 3D objects from a
variety of materials, like
molten plastic or powders.
3D printers can come in a
variety of shapes and sizes
ranging from equipment that
can fit on a desk to large
construction models used in
the making of 3D-printed
houses.
3D printers
Some companies use 3D printing to
manufacture parts. 3D printing is very popular in
health care applications because it is possible to
produce items that fit the patient exactly.
Dentistry – scanning a patient’s mouth and then
using computer-aided design software along with
computer-aided manufacturing software enables
crowns, bridges, implants, etc., to be produced.
Advantages of 3D printers
• Can covert designs to prototypes a lot faster compared to
traditional manufacturing of prototypes. This makes making
small design changes and seeing the finished product in much
less time.
• It is cheaper to use 3-D printing rather than traditional
methods of manufacture despite 3-D printers being
expensive.
• It is much easier to produce customized products as they can
just be printed out from designs made using design software
on the computer.
Disadvantages of 3D printers
• Manufacturing of goods is much easier using 3D printing
rather than
by traditional methods so it is easier to produce counterfeit
goods.
• Selling of counterfeit goods steals money
copyright/trademark owners.
• The manufacture of goods using 3D printers is less skilled
compared to the use of older techniques which takes work
from skilled manufacturers.
• Dangerous items such as weapons can be manufactured
using 3D printers.
• There is a limited number of materials that can be used
Impact printers
The impact printer creates immediate
contact between the ink ribbons and
paper. They can be noisy yet are very
popular. Impact printers have
mechanical components that allow
printing. Examples include Daisy-wheel
printers, line printers, and Dot-matrix
printers.
THERMAL printers
Thermal printers are dot-matrix printers
that operate by driving heated pins
against special heat-sensitive paper to
“burn” the image onto the paper.
Adv. & dis adv. of thermal printers
Dot matrix printers
Dot matrix printers are used in offices
and factories where multipart printouts
are needed and noise is not an issue.
They are impact printers and work by
hitting little pins against an inked ribbon
to form the characters on the paper,
which creates a lot of noise.
Dot matrix printers
Dot matrix printers may seem out-of-date
but they are ideal in some situations.
You will see them being used to print out
invoices in warehouses, car part stores,
and garages.
You might also see them being used in
pharmacies for printing labels.
Advantages of dot matrix printers:
• Can be used to print multi-part stationery – this is useful
where the printout needs to be sent to different places.
• Can be used with continuous stationery – this makes it ideal
for stock lists, invoices, etc.
• Cheaper to run than inkjet printers.
Disadvantages of dot matrix printers:
• Very noisy – the pins make a lot of noise when they
strike the inked ribbon.
• Low quality printouts. The text can look ‘dotty’.
• Unsuitable for printing graphics.
• More expensive to buy than inkjet printers.
LINE PRINTER

A high-speed printing device (as for a

computer) that prints each line as a unit
rather than character by character.
Adv. & dis adv. of line printers:
They are especially well suited to industrial
environments and shop floors where other
printers could be easily damaged by
temperature extremes, dust or other factors.
There are also disadvantages associated with
line printers.
The print quality is mostly low and they cannot
print graphics
Adv. & dis adv. of DAISY WHEEL PRINTERS

These printers were popular in the 1970s

and 1980s, known for producing high-
quality text output, which was an
advantage over dot matrix printers.
However, they were limited to
monospaced typefaces and were generally
slower in printing speed
Daisy wheel printers
The wheel is used in a computer printer called a
daisy-wheel printer. To print, the wheel is
rotated until the correct character faces the
paper; a hammer strikes the character against
an ink-coated ribbon and paper. The daisy
wheel is mounted on a carriage that types the
characters in lines.