Printer , a computerperipheral that puts text or a computer - generated image on paper or on another medium , such as a transparency .

Printers can be categorized in any of several ways . The most common distinction is impact vs. nonimpact . Impact printers physically strike the paper and are exemplified by pin dot-matrix printers and daisy-wheel printers ; nonimpact printers include every other type of print mechanism, including laser , inkjet , and thermal printers .

Other possible methods of categorizing printers include (but are not limited to) the following:
 Print technology: Chief among these, with microcomputers, are pin dot-matrix, ink-jet, laser, dotinkthermal, and (al though somewhat outdated) daisydaisywheel or thimble printers. Pin dot-matrix printers dotcan be further classified by the number of pins in the print head: 9, 18, 24, and so on.  Character formation: Fully formed characters made of continuous lines (for example, those produced by a daisy-wheel printer) vs. dot-matrix characters daisydotcomposed of patterns of dots (such as those produced by standard dot-matrix, ink-jet, and dotinkthermal printers). Laser printers, while technically dotdot-matrix, are generally considered to produce fully formed characters because their output is very clear and the dots are extremely small and closely spaced.

Dot Matrix Printer

DotDot-Matrix Printer , in computer science , any printer that produces characters made up of dots using a wire-pin print head . The quality wireof output from a dot-matrix printer depends dotlargely on the number of dots in the matrix , which might be low enough to show individual dots or might be high enough to approach the look of fully formed characters . Dot-matrix printers are often categorized by Dotthe number of pins in the print head typically 9 , 18 , or 24 .

Ink Jet Printers

A computer - controlled array of ink nozzles can produce images on a moving sheet or a web of paper . Simple ink - jet printers are used routinely to print variable information such as the expiration dates on food packages or address labels on direct mail pieces , and are sometimes installed on the end of a conventional printing press . Sophisticated color inkink-jet printers are able to produce lithographiclithographic-quality reproductions in extremely short runs .

Laser Printer
Laser Printer , an electrophotographic printer that is based on the technology used by photocopiers . A focused laser beam and a rotating mirror are used to draw an image of the desired page on a photosensitive drum . This image is converted on the drum into an electrostatic charge, which attracts and holds toner . A piece of electrostatically charged paper is rolled against the drum , which pulls the toner away from the drum and onto the paper . Heat is then applied to fuse the toner to the paper . Finally , the electrical charge is removed from the drum and the excess toner is collected . By omitting this final step and repeating only the toner - application and paper - handling steps , the printer can make multiple copies. The only serious drawback of a laser printer is that it offers less paper handling flexibility than do dot-matrix dotprinters . Both multipart forms and wide-carriage printing, widefor example , are better handled by dot-matrix or daisy dotwheel printers .

Line Printer
Line Printer , in computer science , any printer that prints one line at a time , as opposed to one character at a time (as with a standard dot-matrix dotprinter) or one page at a time (as with a laser printer) . Line printers typically produce the 11-by11-by1717-inch computer printouts familiar to many . They are high-speed devices and are often used with highmainframes , minicomputers , or networked machines rather than with single-user systems . singleTypes of line printers include chain printers and band printers . The abbreviation LPT originally stood for line printer ; on MS-DOS microcomputers , the MSsame abbreviation is used for the computer's parallel output port(s) .

Method Of Printing
Character by character , line by line , or page by page . Character printers include standard dot-matrix , ink-jet , thermal , and daisy wheel printers . Line printers include the band , chain , and drum printers that are commonly associated with large computer installations or networks . Page printers include the electro photographic printers , such as laser printers .

Print Capability
TextText-only vs. text-and-graphics . Text-only text-andTextprinters , including most daisy-wheel and daisythimble printers and some dot-matrix and dotlaser printers , can reproduce only characters for which they have matching patterns , such as embossed type , or internal character maps . Text-and-graphics printersdotText-andprintersdotmatrix , ink-jet , laser , and others can inkreproduce all manner of images by drawing each as a pattern of dots .

Printer Driver
Printer Driver , in computer science , a computer software program designed to enable other programs to work with a particular printer without concerning themselves with the specifics of the printer's hardware and internal language. Different printers require different codes and commands to operate properly and to provide access to their special features and abilities . Application programs can communicate properly with a variety of printers by using printer drivers, which handle all of the subtleties of each printer so that the application program doesn't have to . Today , graphical user interfaces offer their own printer drivers , eliminating the need for an application that runs under the interface to have its own printer driver .

Printer Font
Printer Font , in computer science , a font residing in or intended for a printer . A printer font can be internal , downloaded , or on a font cartridge . Printer fonts are distinct from screen fonts , which are designed for displaying text on a computer screen .

Font Cartridge
Font Cartridge, in computer science , a plug - in unit available for some printers that contains fonts in several different styles and sizes . Font cartridges , like downloadable fonts , enable a printer to produce characters in sizes and styles other than those created by the fonts built into it .

Use Of Printers in Offices

A considerable volume of office computer output is via the printer . Among the earliest printers used with PCs in business offices were daisy-wheel and thimble printers, so-called because of the daisysoshape of their printing elements. Although their type quality was comparable to that of a typewriter, they were slow and could accommodate only text, not graphic materials . As a result, they have been supplanted in most offices by dot-matrix, ink-jet, and dotinklaser printers . The dot-matrix printer may have a 9- or 24-pin print dot9- 24head . The pins impact the paper through a ribbon, creating patterns of dots in the shape of letters and numbers in multiple fonts and type sizes . The ink-jet printer, an advance over the dotinkdotmatrix, provides both high resolution (the higher the resolution, the better the print quality) and quiet operation . The laser printer represents an even greater advance . Similar in technology to a photocopier, it offers speed, high resolution of 300 dots or more per inch, ability to reproduce complex graphics, and silent operation operationall of which make it virtually essential for desktop publishing .

Characters Per Second

Characters Per Second (CPS) , in computer science , a measure of the speed of a non laser printer , such as a dot-matrix or an ink-jet printer , or a dotinkmeasure of the rate at which a device , such as a disk drive , can transfer data. In serial communications , the speed of a modem in bits per second can generally be divided by 10 for a rough determination of the number of characters per second transmitted .