Printer is the most popular output device used today to produce hard copy output. There are many types of printers which are used by the users as according to their need. These are very useful nowadays as all the things which are uneasy to read on the monitor screen we used to print those things and read carefully. Below we describe the various types of Printers.
Dot-Matrix Printer
It is a character printer that print one character at a time. This Printer can form characters and all kinds of images as pattern of dots. Since dot matrix printer produce printed output as pattern of dots, they can print any shape of character that a program can describe. They therefore, can print many special characters, different sizes of print, and also have the ability to print graphics such as charts and graphs.
Dot Matrix printer are normally haves slow printing speeds ranging from 30-600 characters per second. They are available at very low cost. These types of printers are generally used to print the shipping invoices.
Inkjet Printers
It prints characters by spraying patterns of ink on the paper from a nozzle or jet that can heated up selectively. 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. It is also a Character printer but it produces high quality output than dot matrix printers because these printers form characters with very tiny ink dots.
Inkjet printers are slower than dot matrix printer as inkjet printing speed is 40- 300 characters per second. Inkjet printer is also more expensive than dot matrix because it produces the high quality prints with more transformed technology. These printers are very popular because they are less expensive than laser printers and can print faster and accurate than dot matrix and other impact printers.
Drum Printer
Drum printer is a line printers that print one line at a time. In addition the drum printer is also the impact printer. In this Printer it has a set of hammers mounted in front of the drum in a manner that an inked ribbon and paper can be placed between the hammers and the drum. Than the drum rotates at a high speed. A character is printed at a desired print position.
This printer has the speed of 300- 2000 lines per minute. This printer also produces lots of noise that’s why cover is used to reduce the noise.
Chain Band Printer
Chain/Band printer are line printers that prints one line at a time. It consist of of a metallic chain/band on which all characters of the character set supported by the printer are embossed. A standard character set may have 48,64 and 96 characters. The characters in the character set are embossed several times on the chain/band.
Unlike drum printer the chain/band printer can be changed easily. It allows the printing to be done in different fonts and styles in the same printer. Due to the impact printing chain/band printers are noisy in operation and often use a cover to reduce the noise level. Printing speeds of the chain/band printers range from 400 – 3000 lines per minute.
Laser Printers
Laser printers are the page printers that prints one page at a time. main component of the laser printer are a laser beam source, multi sided mirror, a photoconductive drum, and toner. Laser printers produces high quality output because they form characters by very tiny ink particles. The high end laser printer can have a resolution of 1200 dpi. Due to the high resolution , these printers give excellent graphics art quality.
Laser printers are faster than other printers discussed earlier. Low speed laser printers can print 4 to 12 pages per minute. Owing to their better print quality and printing speed, laser printers are more expensive than the other types of the printers. These printers are very popular in the market because of its fast printing.
