What is Printer?

A printer is a hardware output device that is used to generate hard copy and print any document.

A document can be of any type such as a text file, image, or the combination of both.

The printed out put is called hard copy.

Types of printer
There are two types of printer
1. Impact printer
2. Non impact printer

1. Impact printer

o Inkjet Printers
o Laser Printers
o Dot Matrix Printers
o Thermal printer

What Does Dot Matrix Printer Mean?

A dot matrix printer (DMP) is a type of printer which uses pins impacting an ink ribbon to
print. These printers are generally considered outdated, as they
cannot create high-quality prints and are costly as well. However, they have a certain

specialty that other printers like inkjet and laser printers do not have: as

they use impact for printing, they can be used to print multiple copies of text at the same
time with the help of carbon copying. Therefore, they

are mostly used in places where multipart forms are required.

o Advantages of dot matrix printer:

1) Can print on multi-part forms or carbon copies

2) Low printing cost per page

3) Can be used on continuous form paper, useful for data logging

4) Reliable, durable

Disadvantages of dot matrix printer:

1) Noisy

2) Limited print quality

3) Low printing speed

4) Limited color printing

What is a Line Printer?

A line printer is a type of impact printer known for its high-speed printing capabilities, a line printer
prints one line of text at a time. It’s used for printing documents, and reports and is widely used for
printing invoices at shops. It is generally used in the area of large-scale printing requirements.

The normal speed of a line printer is 3000 LPM (Line Per Minute), there are two different types of
line printers, including drum printers and chain printers. Each printer works slightly differently from
the other but nature is the same as printing one line of text at a time. Line Printers work on
continuous forms of paper feeding, unlike individually cut sheets.
Types of Line Printer

Importance of Line Printer

 Line printers are used for high-scale printing requirements in the business industry.

 It is the fastest printer in the segment of impact printer and speed is 3000 lines per minute.

 The line printer is cost-effective in terms of printing cost.

Types of Line Printer

Below are the two types of Line Printer

1. Chain Printer

Chain Printers are Line printers, which print one line at a time. The set of all characters is placed on
a chain. To print the characters onto the paper there are also some hammers, which are placed in
front of the chain. Paper is placed between the print hammers and the inked ribbon. The total
number of hammers available is equal to the total number of printing characters.
Chain Printer

2. Drum Printer

Drum Printers work with drums and it contains the number of characters, which is printed on the
drum. In this printer, all the characters are not printed at one time but their printing speed is very
high. In this, the paper is placed between the drum and the printing hammer, and the character is
printed onto the paper by activating the particular hammer.

Drum printer only prints the pre-defined characters it is restricted to printing color pictures and
special types of font text and also creates noise in the environment because it uses the printing
hammer to print the characters. Drum printers are available in 64 and 96-character sets in the
market.
Drum Printer

Advantages of Line Printer

Let’s see the some advantages of Line Printers.

 Reliable and Durable in operation: The line printers are built with mechanical parts so they
can work better in the situation of humidity, dust, and varying temperatures as compared to
the modern laser printer that comes with sensitive electronics parts.

 Low Operating Cost: These printers come with very low maintenance cost, and only require
lubrication and inked ribbon changes in specific intervals.

 Provides Good Quality Printing: This type of printer is purely made for text-based printing
so it produces very good printing in terms of monochrome printing.

 Environment Friendly: Line printer uses a single color inked band that is safe for our
environment, unlike toner power which is passed through the many air filtration.
Disadvantages of Line Printer

Below are some drawbacks of Line Printer.

 Only Monochrome Printing Ability: This is the most disadvantage of line printers that are
not capable of printing high-resolution graphics images and color fonts.

 Noisy Operation: Line printers are built with many mechanical components so the moving
hammer creates noise in the environment.

 Continuous Paper Feeding: These printers demand continuous feeding of paper into the
printer which is not an easy task to provide continuous feeding to printing in real-life
situations.

2. Daisy wheel printer

A daisy wheel printer is an early type of impact printer invented in 1969 by David S. Lee at Diablo
Data Systems. The printer uses a metal or plastic disk containing each of the letters, numbers, and
other characters it supports. When printing, the printer rotates the disk to each character and,
using a hammer, strikes each character into an ink ribbon to create characters on paper.

Daisy wheel printers were popular in the 1970s and 1980s, but are no longer used today. They have
a low quality of print, are very slow and loud, and were replaced by laser printers as they came
down in cost.

Pros or Advantages of the Daisy wheel printer:

1. It is cheap to buy and maintain.

2. Can create carbon copies.
3. Low maintenance.
4. Low cost.
5. It is better quality.
6. Can use fanfold paper and heavy paper grades.
7. Better print quality than dot matrix printer.
8. More reliable than DMP.
9. The font of the character can be easily changed.
Cons or Disadvantages of daisy printer:

1. The printing speed is very slow.

2. Cannot print graphics.
3. Produce distortion of paper printing
4. A limited number of characters.
5. Slower than DMP.
6. It is noisy.
7. More expensive than DMP.

Inkjet Printers
It is widely used by home and business computer users that prints characters by spraying the ink
using magnetic plates on the paper. It contains a paper feed assembly, ink cartridge, print head,
stabilizer bar, and belt.

It stores the ink in cartridges, and uses separate cartridge to print several types of color documents.
These colors are a combination of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black color. These types of
printers have the ability to create high-quality pictures with the help of vivid colors. Furthermore,
the inkjet printers are more affordable and easier to use as compared to other printers.

Advantages of Inkjet Printers:

o The Inkjet printers have the ability to produce high-quality output.

o These printers are reasonably fast and easy to use.
o Additionally, these types of printers do not take warm up time.
Disadvantages of Inkjet Printer:

o It may take more time to print.

o Its running cost is high.
o It does not allow the highlighter marker.
o Sometimes, it can produce a wrong warning of an empty cartridge.

Laser printers
The laser printer is one of the common personal computer printers. It was introduced in 1971, and
after that it was developed at Xerox PARC by Gary Starkweather. It uses the laser or non-impact
photocopier technology to print the text and images on the paper. Whenever it gets input to print
any document, a laser beam draws the document on the selenium-coated drum with the help of
electric charges.

o When the drum is charged, it is rolled in toner (dry ink powder). The ink follows the image,
which has charged on the drum. The ink is combined with the paper, including heat and
pressure, then transferred on a chunk (piece) of paper.

When the document is printed, the excess toner is collected, and an electric charge is removed
from the drum. Most of the laser printers are capable of printing only in monochrome. The
monochrome laser printer is around ten times cheaper than a color laser printer.

There are many differences between a laser printer and inkjet printer, such as:

o The laser printer contains dry ink, while an inkjet contains wet ink.
o An inkjet printer is approximately ten times more expensive than the laser printer as it
requires replacing the ink very frequently.
 o If a paper is wet, the inkjet printer will print the document with blur, but the laser printer will
print clear. The inkjet printer is suitable for printing fewer documents, while the laser printer
has the ability to print more documents.

Advantages of a Laser printer:

o These types of printers have a higher paper capacity.

o It is less expensive than the inkjet printer.
o It has the ability to print documents speedily.
o Furthermore, it is able to increase productivity.

Disadvantages of a Laser printer:

o Laser printers may need warm up time.

o Laser printers are bulky as they required the laser technology and imaging drum.
o It requires high voltage leads to small carbon emissions.

Disadvantages of a solid ink printer:

o These printers may require warm-up and cool downtime.

o These are sensitive to UV light, and color may fade under the sunlight with the time.
o These printers consume more power than the laser printer
o These printers are mainly used for a large numbers of printing. If it is turned off in the
middle of the printing, it will take some time to warm up again.

Dot Matrix Printers

The dot matrix printers are also known as a pin printer that was released by IBM in 1957.
Although, in 1970, Centronics created the first dot-matrix impact printer. It strikes an ink ribbon
using print heads that place thousands of little dots to form images and text. Nowadays, as
compared to laser and inkjet printers, it is less used, as its printing speed slow and generates lower
quality images. However, dot matrix printers are still in use in some sectors like package delivery
companies and auto part stores.
Advantages of Dot matrix printer:

o A dot matrix printer is less expensive as compared to most of the printers, and it is easily
available in the market.
o It has the ability to print carbon copies of a particular print out, unlike non-impact printers.
o Its printing cost is lowest than the other printers.
o Furthermore, its maintenance cost is less expensive than the other printers.

Disadvantages of Dot matrix printer:

o The speed of the dot matrix printer is slow as compared to non-impact printers, and its
output is also not of high resolution.
o It creates high noise when the pins hit the ribbon to the paper.
o It may be a time-consuming printer as it requires a single paper to wound up and aligned
manually.

Thermal printer
The thermal printer is invented by Jack Kilby that is also known as an electrothermal printer,
thermal transfer printer, or thermal wax-transfer printer. It utilizes heated pins in order to produce
the image on paper. These types of printers are widely used in banking, airline, grocery,
entertainment, retail, healthcare industries, fax, and calculator machines.These printers are low-cost
and print fast, and do not use ink like other printers. They primarily depend on the thermal paper
to produce the images.

This technology is useful for an organization as it is reliable as well as cost-effective. Employees can
work continuously without getting interrupted because they do not need to change the cartridges
or ribbons in this printer.
Advantages of Thermal printer:

o One of the main advantages of a thermal printer, it does not need any ribbons or
cartridges.Thus, the companies can save the time by using it.
o These types of printers are easy to use as they have fewer buttons, including the use of
software.
o These are beneficial for offices as they provide noise-free environments.
o These printers are cheaper and available in several models and sizes.
o These printers are faster and more efficient in printing monochromic ones than the other
printers.

Disadvantages of Thermal printer:

o Generally, a thermal printer does not produce colors print out well, like standard printers.
o At the time of printing, the high heat can be harmful to the printhead. Consequently, if the
printhead breaks down, you have to pay for a repair or buy a new one.

History of various printers

Printer History

Mechanical In 1822, Charles Babbage introduced the first mechanical printer to use with the
printer difference engine.

Inkjet Although inkjet printers were developed in 1950s, they were not capable of
printer producing decent digital images until the 1970s. These printers were developed by
different companies such as Epson, Canon, and Hewlett-Packard.

Laser printer The laser printer was developed by Gary Starkweather during working at Xerox by
modifying one of their model 7000 copiers in the beginning 1970s. When
Hewlett-Packard developed HP LaserJet printers in 1984, the laser printers became
more affordable and widely available. The next year, the Apple LaserWriter printer
was invented by Apple, which provided a PostScript technology to the printer
market.

3D printer In 1984, the 3d printers were introduced by Chuck Hull.

Dot-matrix In 1957, IBM created the first dot matrix printer. Although, the Centronics
printer company introduced the first dot-matrix impact printer in 1970.