Printers

A printer is a device used for printing output from your PC onto paper or other forms of media. There are many types of printers and they connect to a PC in various ways including USB, serial port, parallel port, firewire and networked printers. Most printers fall into one of four types: Laser, inkjet, dot-matrix or thermal. Inkjet printers are more popular for home use. Due to their speed, laser printers are used mainly in the business environment where a lot of printing takes place.

Printer Types

Laser Printers

A laser printer is a non-impact printing system that generates high quality images by fusing a black powder to a printing surface using a laser. Laser printers use toner, which is a powdered, electrically charged ink. The toner is applied to the paper using the drum, then heat and pressure fuse the toner onto the paper.

Inkjet Printers

Inkjet printers are the most widely used type of printer. While inkjet printers can't provide the high resolution quality of a laser printer, they can still provide photo quality prints at a fraction of the cost of laser printers. They are also more compact and operate at lower noise levels than laser printers. Inkjet printers use cartridges of ink and a print head that moves across the surface of a piece of paper to apply the ink.

Dot-Matrix Printers

Dot-matrix printers give low quality prints comapred to other types of printers but are also very cheap. Most dot-matrix printers have been replaced by inkjet and laser printers. They are very rarely used presently. Since they are impact printers, dot-matrix printers are capable of printing multicopy documents, which some companies still find useful. Dot-matrix printers use a print head which holds pins that move across the paper to print a matrix of dots onto the paper.

Thermal Printers

A thermal printer is a non-impact printer that uses heat to print onto paper. Thermal printers use a wax based ink that is heated by pins and applied onto the paper. They are commonly used for printing bar codes and price tags. Thermal printers can burn dots onto the surface of the paper in a process called direct thermal printing, or they use thermal wax transfer printing which involves a ribbon that contains the ink.

Printer DPI

The resolution a printer is capable of is measured by DPI (Dots Per Inch). DPI is the number of individual dots a printer can print per linear inch. A higher DPI means a larger resolution, which will result in sharper and more detailed prints. The DPI is different for the various printer types and is also affected by the quality of the printer, ink and paper being used. For example, a dot-matrix printer is capable of around 90 DPI, inkjets 300 DPI and laser printers much higher with a range from 600 to 1,200 DPI.

All-In-One Printers (AiO)

All-in-one printers combine the functions of many devices such as printers, copiers, scanners and fax machines into one compact machine. These devices take up a lot less space and can save you money. There are many types of all-in-ones, ranging from cheap home or small office models based on inkjet printers intended for low volume to high end laser models for commercial use that can handle large volumes and cost thousands of dollars.