What is Printer? -Definition from bca wale ladke

Printer :- A printer is a device that accepts text and graphic output from a computer and transfers the information to paper, usually to standard size sheets of paper. Printers vary in size, speed, sophistication, and cost. In general, more expensive printers are used for higher-resolution color printing. Printer is an output device which is used to print information on paper. There are two types of Printers.

1. Impact Printer

2. Non-Impact Printer

1. Impact Printer:- Impact printer print the characters by striking them on the                             ribbon. which is then pressed on the paper.

           

              Characteristic of Impact printer

• Very low consumable cost.
• Very Noisy.
• Useful for bulk Printing due to low cost.
• There is physical contact with the paper to produce an image.

   There are two types of Impact printers

 

 i.) Character Printer

ii.) Line Printer

 i.) Character Printer :-  Character printer are the printers which print one character at a time. they have also two types.

a.) Dot-matrix Printer

b.) Daisy-wheel Printer

a.) Dot-matrix Printer :- In the market, one of the most popular printer is dot-matrix printers. These printers are popular because of their ease of printing and economical price. Each character printed is in the form of pattern of dot and head consist of a pin of size[5*7, 9*7, 7*9, 9*9]. Which come out from a character which is why it is called dot-matrix printer.

 Advantages                                                                                                   

• Inexpensive
• widely used

Disadvantages

• Slow Speed
• Poor quality

b.) Daisy-wheel printer :- Head is lying on a wheel and pins corresponding to characters are like petals of daisy [Flower]. Which is why it is called Daisy-wheel printer. These printer are generally used for word processing in office that require a few letters to be sent here and there with very nice quality.

                                               fig:- Daisy-wheel printer

Advantages

• More reliable than dot-matrix printer.
• Better quqlity.
• Font of character can be easily changed.

Disadvantages

• Slower than dot-matrix printer.
• Noisy.
• More expensive than dot matrix printer.

ii.) Line Printer:-  Line printers are those printers which can print only one line at a time. There are two types of line printers.

a.) Drum Printer

b.) Chain printer

a.) Drum Printer:- This Printer is like a drum in shape hence it is called Drum printer. The surface of the drum is divided into a number of tracks. total traks are equal to the size of the paper, ie for a paper width of 132 character set is embossed on the track. Different characters sets available in the market are 48, 64,96 character set. On the rotation of the drum print one line. Drum printers are fast in speed and can print 300 to 2000 lines per minutes.

                                                    fig:- Drum printer

Advantages

• Very high in speed 

Disadvantages

• Very expensive.
• Characters font cannot be changed.

b.) Chain Printer:- In this printer, a chain of character set is used, hence it is called chain printer. A standard character set may have 48,64 or 96 character.

fig:- Chain Printer

Advantages

• Character font can easily be changed.
• Different language can be used with same printer. 

Disadvantages

• Very Noisy.

2.) Non-Impact Printer:- Non-impact printers print the characters without using the ribbon. These Printers print a complete page at a time thus they are also called as page printers.

           Characteristic of Non-Impact printer

• Faster than impact printers.
• They are not noisy.
• High quality.
• Support many fonts and different character size.

           These printers are two types.

 i.) Laser Printer

ii.) Inkjet Printer

 i.) Laser Printer:- These are non-impact printers. They use laser light to produce the dots needed to form the character to be printed on a page.

                                                        Fig:- Laser Printer

Advantages

• Very high speed.
• Very high quality output.
• Good graphics quality.
• Support many fonts and different character size.

Disadvantages

• Very Expensive.
• Can't be used to produce multiple copies of  Document in a single printing.

ii.) Inkjet Printer :- Inkjet printers are non-impact character printer based on a relatively new technology. They prints characters by spraying small dots of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers produce high quality output with presentable features. They make less noise because no hammering is done and these have many styles of printing modes available. color printing is also possible. Some models of inkjet printers can produce multiple copies of printing also.

 

                                               Fig:- Inkjet printer.

Advantages

• High quality printing.
• More reliable.

Disadvantages

• Expensive as the cost per page is high.
• Slow as compared to laser printers.

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