What Is Printer?
As we know the printer is an output device that prints documents (paper) and pictures, and which converts Soft Copy to Hard Copy. It is an external output device that prints data that is processed by the computer.
Printer Groups :-
Printers are broadly classified into two groups: –
- Impact Printers: Impact printers are used for printing documents as well as graphics. The job of an impact printer is similar to that of a type-writer. Impact printers are printers where a physical contact is established between the print head, ribbon cartridge, and paper. The use of ink ribbon leads to effective printing on paper. A dot matrix printer is an example of an impact printer.
- Non Impact Printers: Non-impact printers are characterized by their quiet working process as physical contact between the print head, cartridge, and paper is not established. Inkjet, laser, and thermal printers are types of non-impact printers.Impact printers include dot matrix printers and non-impact printers include inkjet printers, thermal and laser printers, we can classify printers into 5 parts primarily based on characteristics.
Types of Printer
- Dot Matrix Printer: Dot Matrix Printer is a very popular printer, it uses a matrix of metal pins on the print head. An ink soaked ribbon is placed between the paper and the print head. The print head is bumped against the ribbon with considerable force that causes the impression of letters on the paper. Because of this, dot matrix printers produce little noise, dot matrix printers produce high quality documents or graphics. Does not do. Low-quality applications use dot matrix printers. This type of printer is used in the creation of multifunctional documents such as invoices and receipts. Dot matrix printers are used in carbon copy printing. The number of metal pins in the print head determines the quality of the output of the dot matrix printer. Dot matrix printers have a metal pin number 9 to 24. The best quality matrix printers have 24 metal pins.
- Ink Jet Printer: An inkjet printer is printed by spraying ink on paper to create images or text. The ink droplets are sprayed through a series of nozzles. These drops are about 0.6 μm in diameter and are located with very high precision. The inkjet printer uses color as well as monochrome cartridges. This type of printer provides high quality printing but the printing costs are high. This printer is connected via parallel (LPT) or USB port or can also be wirelessly connected to the system.
- Laser Printer: The laser printer uses a laser beam to print. The laser printer works on the principle of static electricity, i.e. the electric charge that accumulates on an insulated object is called static electricity, in the field of static electricity, oppositely charged objects are attracted to each other. As oppositely charged atoms attract each other, the laser printer ink uses this property to combine powder and paper. It produces high quality prints and these printers are quite expensive and require servicing from time to time.
- Thermal Printer: This type of printer uses heat sensitive paper, in which the hot pins are heated on a spot of heat sensitive paper, then the area becomes dark. This type of printer is mainly used in calculators and fax machines; Because they are inexpensive but they print slowly and produce relatively low-resolution prints.
- All in one Printer: Nowadays most of the people are using such printers which are being given many facilities like it does many things like printing, faxing, scanning and photo copy. Since it is a multi-functional device (MFD), it saves you money and time.This printer has fax and scanner installed along with printing, which takes up more memory space of the printer. For this reason, this printer is slower than a normal printer. Printer accessories such as ink, toner cartridge and paper are expensive, in this printer when a function stops working, you will not be able to use other features until it is fixed.
What is Wireless Printer ?
A printer is a type of peripheral device that contacts a computer and receives input from it, giving it output, it can be connected to a computer in various ways, such as printer cables, USB cables, Ethernet, like other peripheral devices. Cables and more recently, it also includes wireless connections. A printer capable of connecting wirelessly is called a wireless printer. They are connected to the computer without wires or cables, they can print out via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
What is Network Printer ?
A network printer is a printer, designed to connect to the network. It uses an Internet Protocol (IP) address to connect to the network. This allows use as a standard network resource similar to a file server or network attached storage device. However, some network printers are able to connect to wireless networks. Many standard wired network printers use Ethernet ports for connectivity.
Printer Manufacturers Companies
Printers are available in different sizes and features, it is manufactured by many companies, each company makes printers with some standard features. Printers manufactured by various companies are described below:
- Canon Inc.
- HP (Hewlett Packard)
- Epson
- Ricoh
- Dell
- Samsung
- Panasonic
- Xerox
- Kyocera
- Lexmark
- Toshiba
Now you have a good knowledge about various printer manufacturers as you can see that in so many printer manufacturers, it is sometimes difficult to choose which printer is good if you do not want to do further research. And would like to get my opinion, then I recommend you to buy HP (Hewlett Packard) and Epson printers.
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