2/29/2020

TYPES OF
PRINTERS
Output Devices

Ali Raza Mushtaq

INSTRUCTOR
INTRODUCTION
A computer has various output devices, a plotter, monitor, speaker, printer, to mention but a few. In
this paper however, our major interest is the printer-the different types of printers, their advantages
and/or disadvantages. And thus, recommend the best printer for a school.
A printer is an output device of a computer, it prints the output data and information of a computer on
paper, plastic, wood metal or any hard surface depending on what printer one is using. In simple
language, a computer printer is an external hardware device responsible for taking computer data and
generating a hard copy of that data. Different types of printers print differently, the quality and speed of
printing differ from one printer type to another. They are one of the most commonly used peripherals
on computers and are commonly used to print text, images, and photos.
A different type of printer has different interfaces or ways of connecting to the computer. The
interfaces of include: Ethernet port: Cat5 or Cat6, firewire port, MPP-1150, parallel port, SCSI, serial
port, wireless, Bluetooth or through a USB port. Today the most common way a printer connects to a
printer is through a USB port.

TYPES OF PRINTERS
They are different types of computer printers: all-in-one (AIO) printer, dot matrix printer, inkjet printer,
laser printer, multifunction printer (MFP), thermal printer, LED printer, etc. Today, the most common
printers used with a computer are Inkjet and Laser printers (Custom Guide, p59). Printers are all
together divided into two main categories: impact printers or character printers and non-impact
printers.

• Impact Printer: With this category, hammers or pins strike against a ribbon and paper to print
the text. This mechanism is known as electro-mechanical mechanism. The examples of Impact
printers are Daisy wheel and Dot matrix printers. Character Printer: it prints only one character
at a time. It has relatively slower speed. For instance, the dot matrix printers. (Dinesh Thakur).
• Non-Impact Printer: Use non-Impact technology such as ink-jet or laser technology. There
printers provide better quality of operations at higher speeds. Non-impact printers are of two
types, the: Inkjet printers and laser printers. (Dinesh Thakur).

Dot Matrix Printer

It prints characters as a combination of dots. The dot matrix printers are the most popular among the
serial printers. They have a matrix of pins on the print head of the printer which in turn forms the
characters being printed. With this printer type, the computer sends one character at a time to be
printed by the printer. There is a carbon between the pins & the paper. The words get printed on the
paper when the pin strikes the carbon in this printer type. The printer head of a dot matrix printer
usually houses about 24 pins, which do the printing. However, this printer type is too old and you can
hardly find one these days. (Dinesh Thakur).
Daisy Wheel Printers
Daisy wheel
printers print only
characters and
symbols and
cannot print
graphics or rather
images. They are
generally slow 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 since the prices of laser and inkjet printers have declined and quality of
dot matrix printers has been improved, the daisy wheel printers are now almost obsolete. The daisy wheel
printer works in a similar as a typewriter. A circular printing element (known as daisy wheel) is the heart
of these printers that contains all alphabetical letters, numeric characters and symbols mound on each
petal on the circumference of the circle. The printing element rotates rapidly with the help of a servo
motor and pauses to allow the printing hammer to strike the character against the paper. The daisy wheel
printer was thus replaced with new printers of this time, and they are hardly been manufactured
anywhere anymore. (Ashok Sharma (2012).

Thermal Impact Printer

It’s a printer that uses heated pins to "burn" images onto heat-sensitive paper. These printers are
commonly used in calculators and fax machines; and although they are inexpensive and print relatively
fast, they produce low resolution print jobs.

Thermal Printer
A thermal printer, thermal transfer printer, or thermal wax-transfer printer is a high-quality printer
invented by Jack Kilby that commonly utilizes a thermal wax ribbon that melts a colored wax onto the
paper creating near photo-realistic images.
Laser Printer
Laser printer, is 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. If you're after a
printer that can support a small
team at the office, a laser printer
is probably your best choice.
Most are much faster at churning
out documents than inkjet
printers, have higher duty cycles
(the number of pages they are
able to print in a given time), and
are known for excellent text-
printing abilities. Since laser
printers are made for fast
printing, they will often have
larger paper trays than inkjet
printers. Instead of ink, laser printers use toner to print. As with inkjet printers, you'll have a choice
between multifunction models, and those that simply print. Once you've
made that decision, you then have to decide whether you want a color or monochrome laser printer.
Color laser printers are not as good for printing photos as ink jet printers, but they are excellent for
printing color business graphics. For printing text mostly, a mono laser printer is fine.
Laser printers are sometimes called page printers as they work the same way a copy machine works-an
entire page is transmitted to a drum before the toner is applied. 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
(the number of dots per given area (dpi) they lay down). The available resolutions range from 300 dpi at
the low end to 1,200 dpi at the high end. In addition to text, laser printers are very adept at printing
graphics, so you need significant amounts of memory in the printer to print high-resolution graphics. To
print a full-page graphic at 300 dpi, for example, you need at least 1 MB (megabyte) of printer RAM. For
a 600-dpi graphic, you need at least 4 MB RAM.

Advantages
Laser printers are much quieter and relatively fast, although not as fast as some dot-matrix or daisy-
wheel printers. The speed of laser printers ranges from about 4 to 20 pages of text per minute (ppm). A
typical rate of 6ppm is equivalent to about 40 characters per second (cps). They have high duty cycles
that allow users to print many pages without unduly taxing them.
Disadvantages
They are relatively bigger than ink jets and take more desk space. These printers are heavy and are not
easily portable.

Ink-Jet Printer
It prints characters by spraying
patterns of ink on the paper from a
nozzle or jet. It prints from nozzles
having very fine holes, from which
a specially made ink is pumped out
to create various letters and
shapes. The ink comes out of the
nozzle in a form of vapors. After
passing through a reflecting plate,
it forms the desired letter/shape at
the desired place. If color is an
absolute necessity to you, an inkjet
printer might be the way to go.
Most come with the standard cyan-
magenta-yellow-black color array, although some photo-centric printers, such as the Canon Pixma
MG8220, offer more hues for better color representation. If you plan on printing lots of photos, an
inkjet printer is the only way to go. You can print photos with some color lasers, but the quality with an
inkjet is much better. You can also further preen your options by determining what kind of photos you
want to print. Most inkjets can handle printing snapshot and 8.5x11-inch images, but if you plan on
going any bigger, you'll want a wide-format photo printer, such as the Epson Stylus Photo R3000.
Because inkjet printers are more geared toward photo printing, they will often have features that make
this easier, including memory card readers and Pict Bridge connectivity, which allows you to print
directly from your digital camera. (Jonathan Rougeot, 2014).
Inkjet printers come in two main categories: multifunction and single function. If having a printer that
scans, copies, and faxes appeals to you, you'll want to go with a multifunction inkjet. But if your main
focus will be printing, a single-function unit will do the trick. Be aware, though, that the cost of
multifunction inkjets has fallen so low, it's almost a shame not to opt for one just in case you might use
the other functions.

Advantages
And speaking of cost, the inkjet printers are cheap since they are less expensive to manufacture than
laser printers. If you intend on taxing the printer, you need to spend a little more for a quality model.
And also, they print photos, pictures and general graphics faster speed and with a good higher
resolution than most printers other than ink jet or photo printers.

Disadvantages
The inkjet printer despite been so affordable, the ink runs out fast with a few print outs. And the ink is
quick expensive to replace. And not just that, ink jets print slower as compared to laser jets, that is why
they are most suited to home use and not office use.
MULTIFUNCTION PRINTER
Multifunction, or all-in-one (AIO),
printers are do-it-all machines that
print, copy, scan, and sometimes fax,
making them great small- or home-
office companions. Both inkjet and
laser printers are available as AIOs, so
check out which printer type to
determine whether an inkjet or laser
AIO may suit their needs. Since these
models are geared toward office users,
they will often have features that cater
to their audiences, such as an
automatic duplexer for double-sided
printing and an automatic document
feeder for scanning multiple pages at a time. (Jonathan Rougeot, 2014).

Advantages
These printers save space by combining multiple devices into one unit: print, copy, scan, and sometimes
fax. The AIO's can vary greatly in features and performance. Simple inkjet AIOs cost less as compared to
the advanced, business-centric multifunction lasers that go for thousands of dollars.

Disadvantage
The multifunction inkjet printer has also a few draw backs, and the most been the ink. As much as the
printer is affordable, the ink runs out fast with a few print outs. And the ink is quick expensive, as
compared to the laser jet. Also, the multifunction ink jet has a lot more weight than, than the single
function ink jet.

PHOTO PRINTER
Photo printers come in several varieties. Some inkjet all-in-one printers cater to photo audiences by
including memory card readers, Pict Bridge connectivity, advanced photo-editing tools, and color LCD
screens for editing images on the printer. Dedicated photo printers, however, are made just for printing
photos. They often have a wide array of ink colors that go beyond the standard cyan-magenta-yellow-
black, and offer the ability to print on paper larger than 8.5x11 inches (which you'll be limited to on
most AIO inkjet printers). In this category, you'll also find snapshot printers, which are simple, often
portable gadgets that are used to print your snapshot-size photos.

Advantages
They print photos are a faster speed and with a good higher resolution than most printers. They have
advanced photo-editing tools, and color LCD screens for editing images on the printer, which most
average printers don’t have. The photo printer, is one of the most portable printers ever made, one can
easily carry it around, as it weighs than two kilograms on average.
Disadvantage
It's often pricy to print on snapshot printers, which use inkjet or dye-sublimation technology, but they
offer the convenience of saving you a trip to the photo kiosk.

BUSINESS-READY PRINTER
These printers can vary according to what kind of
business they are catering to, but most business-
ready printers have a few things in common, they
can print, scan, copy, and sometimes fax from a
single device. (Jonathan Rougeot, 2014).

Advantages
Most are multifunction units, allow office workers
to print, scan, copy, and sometimes fax from a
single device. They also have features that are
integral to most businesses: an automatic
duplexer for double-sided printing and an
automatic document feeder for scanning multiple
pages at a time. Some other feature are more
advanced security features and are networkable
so that many users can hook up to a single model.
They will have high duty cycles that will allow users to print many pages without unduly taxing them.
And because they are built to handle high duty
cycles, they will also have large paper-input and -output trays. They should also have a relatively low
cost of consumables that aims to save businesses money over the long run. However, lately we've seen
a few color laser multifunction printers drop to surprisingly low prices.

Disadvantages
They are big and they take large space in an office. These printers are heavy and are not easily portable.
These printers are expense and a small business company will not be able to afford it.

RECOMMENDATIONS
When one needs to get a printer, they are a few things one needs to consider: the type of a printer,
whether a color or a mono-color printer, the resolution of the printer output, the printing speed, the ink
type (ink cartridge or toner), printer memory, and the printer buffer and spooler speed. Different
printer types have different of these features or specifications.
• Type of Printer

The most common types of printers today are inkjet and laser printing machines. The cheapest and
commonest in small businesses and homes is the inkjet printers. However, they are not that fast and
they will not print so many copies before the ink runs out. Laser printers on the other hand are faster
than inkjet printers. The most common laser jet printers are mono color printer (black and white), and
are relatively cheaper that the laser color printer. Laser printers are usually suitable for big office
environment, as they are fast and the cartridge lasts longer with so many print outs. However, when
printing photos, ink jet do a better job as they have a higher print resolution.
• Resolution

A printer’s resolution (the clarity or fineness of detail of an image) helps determine the quality of the
images a printer can produce. Higher resolution means higher quality images. Printer resolution is
measured in dots per inch (dpi). Generally, 600-dpi resolution works great for text documents, while
you will probably want 1200 dpi or better resolution for printing images. As such, one needs to check
the printer’s resolution before they purchase one, inkjet printers produce higher resolution as
compared to laser jet printers. If u intend to print photos a lot, an inkjet is ideal, but if u intend to print
lots of text, a laser jet will be the best option.
Speed
When you in a busy office, a faster printer is ideal. Inkjets are not known for their speed, but laser jets
are. A printer’s speed determines how quickly it can print pages. Speed is measured two ways: in
characters per second (cps) or in pages per minute (ppm). Either way you want a higher number if you
want to have a faster printer.
Printers usually slow down quite a bit when printing pages with a lot of complicated graphics, or color
images.
• Ink Cartridges and Toner

Today many inkjet printers are cheap, about less than K2000 to a K1000. However, the ink for most ink
jet printers costs a lot of money. Inkjet printers use ink cartridges that runs dry at a faster speed. Laser
printers use toner cartridges filled with the black powder that is found in copy machines. Laser toner
cartridges last a lot longer than inkjet cartridges, but they also cost significantly more. But the benefit of
toner cartridges is that they can print so many print outs as the ink jet.
• Memory

Inkjet printers usually have a higher memory than laser jets. This is because the ink jets print at higher
resolutions and can print complex graphics and pictures faster than the laser jet printers. Laser printers
also have their own memory, or RAM, just like a computer. This memory is used to store pages before
they are printed. Memory is important for printing complex or high-resolution images. Most laser
printers have anywhere from 2 MB to 8 MB of memory. The more the memory a printer has, the faster
it can print complex pages and/or pictures. As such, one needs to know the memory of the printer one
is buying, the more memory it has, the better and faster.
• Print Buffer and Spooler

The print buffer (the computing memory area of a printer, which functions as a temporary storage area
for data being transmitted between two devices that function at different speeds. A buffer enables a
faster device such as a computer to complete sending the data and begin another task without waiting
for a slower device such as a printer). Computers are a lot faster than most printers are, so they can
send information faster than the printer can accept it. A printer buffer or spooler fixes this problem. A
print buffer works like a dam: it holds back the information and releases it at a rate that the printer can
handle. A printer with a larger buffer size will print faster than a printer with a smaller buffer size.
To sum up this, one needs to know what he or she needs the printer for. As we have seen above,
different makes and types of printers have different characteristics, and the most important include
print speed, print resolution, ink price and durability, and printer cost.

➢ Inkjet Printers
 If u is planning on printing characters, drawings, photos and pictures a lot, inkjet printers are better
at this job as they make use of colored inks, and they will print are higher resolution with crystal
clear images than laser jet printer. Inkjet printers use Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks. Using
these four basic colors, inkjet printers generate all other colors. These printers are very popular due
to their high quality and low cost, despite the ink cartridge been expensive in due course.

➢ Laser Printers

If you are purchasing a school printer, laser jet printers are the best. These have a high-quality text
print, high speed and are high cost printers. In such type of printers, printing is done, using laser
beam and black magnetic powder, called Toner. Speed of these printers can range from 10 pages
per minute to about 200 pages per minute. They cost much higher than the inkjet printers.
However, the toner cartridge lasts for longer time with lots of print cycles as compared to the ink
jet. They can be multi-tasked and most these days are networkable, meaning a lot of people can
print from the network and the printer can handle the various vast print jobs without the printer
getting spoiled. These printers are ideal for larger offices, and school environments.

CONCLUSION
When one is getting a printer, one needs to look into account the reasons why they are buying the
printer. They need to consider the environment that the printer will be in, and what jobs the printer
will be doing. As such, basic knowledge of the printer specifications can help a lot for one to choose
the right printer. The speed, resolution, and the costs of the ink cartridge or toner of the printer. In a
busy office, a laser jet is ideal, for home light use, an ink jet does the magic. It will printer photos for
family memories at a great beautiful colorful resolution as compared to the laser jet. But in a busy
office, an ink jet printer will slow down the office work flow as people will have to wait for a printer
to finish doing a single task and they is also the ink cartridge that will be running out quicker, making
the maintenance expensive. As such, the laser jet will do the trick in an office environment. Printers
have undergone evolution since the Daisy Wheel Printers, to the current ink and laser jet printers.
Printer have now become faster, and with better resolutions than before. And they will continue to
evolve as computers evolve.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Custom Guide, Inc. (2003), Computer Basics, 1502 Nicollet Avenue, Suite 1, Minneapolis, USA.
2. Rajiv Hanna (2008), Basics of Computer Science, New Age International (P) Ltd., Publishers, New
Delhi.
3. Jonathan Rougemont (2014), Computer Shopper - No-Nonsense Buying Advice Since 1979: Help
Me Decide: Which Type of Printer Do I Need?, Ziff Davis, LLC, http://www.computershopper.com
4. Dinesh Thakur, Computer Notes: What is a Printer and what are the different types of Printers?
http://ecomputernotes.com/
5. Ashok Sharma (2012), Engineers Garage, Printers: Daisy Wheel, Dot Matrix, Inkjet Printers &
Laser, Printers, Engineers Garage, http://www.engineersgarage.com