McGraw-Hill Technology Education Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Chapter 3B

Printing
Commonly Used Printers
• Generally, printers fall into two categories:
– impact and
– nonimpact.
Impact Printer
• Use pins or hammers to press an inked ribbon.
• Each hammer is embossed with the shape of a
letter; number; or symbol.
• Dot matrix printer, line printers and band
printers.
Nonimpact Printer
• Uses other means to create an image.
• Ink jet printers, for example, use tiny nozzles
to spray droplets of ink onto the page.
• Laser printers work like photocopiers, using
heat to bond microscopic particles of dry
toner to specific parts of the page.
Dot Matrix Printers
• Most common In the early years of
computing.
• Can produce sheets of plain text very quickly.
• Relatively fast and inexpensive to operate
• Do a good job of printing text and simple
graphics.
• Print head; a cluster (or matrix) of short pins
arranged in one or more columns.
• On receiving instructions from the PC, the printer
can push any of the pins out in any combination.
• Print head create alphanumeric characters.
• Press ink from the ribbon onto the paper.
• The more pins the higher the printer’s resolution.
• The lowest-resolution have only nine pins; the
highest-resolution have 24 pins.
• The speed is measured in characters per second
(cps).
• The slowest create 50 to 70 cps; the fastest 500
cps
Dot Matrix Print Head

4B-8
Line Printers
• Special type of impact printer.
• Works like a dot matrix printer but uses a
special wide print head that can print an
entire line of text at one time.
• Do not offer high resolution but are incredibly
fast.
• The fastest can print 3,000 lines of text per
minute.
Band Printers
• A rotating band embossed with alphanumeric
characters.
• To print a character, the machine rotates the
band to the desired character then a small
hammer taps the band, pressing the character
against a ribbon.
• Very fast and very robust.
• Can generate 2,000 lines of text per minute
Ink Jet Printers
• Create an image by spraying ink through tiny
nozzles.
• At least 300 dots per inch resolution.
• Can print from two to four pages per minute
• Low operating cost
• Rare expensive maintenance
• Routine replacement of ink cartridge.
• Four ink nozzles CMYK
• Often used to print pictures taken with a digital
camera.
Laser Printers
• Expensive but high quality and faster printing.
• A CPU and memory are built into the printer to
interpret the data that it receives from the
computer and to control the laser.
• More than one user via a network.
• Single-color (black) laser printers typically can
produce between 4 and 16 pages of text a
minute.
• Graphics will provide slower output.
• 300 or 600 dpi resolution (1200-1800 dpi also)
Dots Per Inch

4B-17
All-in-One Peripherals
• Combine printing capabilities with scanning,
photocopying, and faxing capabilities.
• Small, lightweight, and easy to use
• Popular in home offices and small businesses
• Laser-based models are significantly more
expensive than ink jet models.

4B-18
Comparing Printers
• Do you need to print only text, or are graphics
capabilities also important?
• Do you need to print in color?
• Will you need to print a wide variety of fonts
in many sizes?
• How quickly do you want your documents to
be printed?
Image Quality
• Usually measured in dots per inch (dpi).
• More dpi, higher image quality.
• Professional-quality printers offer resolutions
of 1,800 dpi or even higher.
Speed
• Number of pages per minute (ppm) the device
can print.
• Different ppm ratings for text and graphics
• Graphics generally take longer to print
• Higher speed, Higher cost.
• Consumer-level laser printers ppm is 6 or 8
• High-volume professional laser printers can
exceed 50 ppm.
Initial Cost
• The cost of new printers has fallen
dramatically in recent years, while their
capabilities and speed have improved just as
dramatically.
Cost of Operation
• The cost of ink or toner and maintenance
varies with the type of printer.
• Many different types of printer paper are
available, too, and the choice can affect the
cost of operation.
• Low-quality recycled paper is fine for printing
draft-quality documents.
• Glossy, thick, photo-quality stock, used for
printing photographs.
High-Quality Printers
• Most offices and homes use ink jet or laser
printers
• Special purposes printers used by publishers
and small print shops to create high-quality
output.
Photo Printers
• Ink jet and dye-sublimation technology.
• Work slowly
• Multiple images on a single sheet of paper.
• Do not need a computer. Slots for memory
cards used by many digital cameras.
• Can connect directly to a camera by a cable or
even by an infrared connection.
4B-26
Thermal-Wax Printers
• Used primarily for presentation graphics and
handouts.
• Create bold colors and have a low per-page
cost for printouts with heavy color
requirements.
• Operate with a ribbon coated with panels of
colored wax that melts and adheres to plain
paper as colored dots when passed over a
focused heat source.
Dye Sublimation Printers
• Produces realistic output
• Very high quality
• Color is produced by evaporating ink
• Operation costs are high
• Output is very slow

4B-28
Plotters
• Print large-format images.
• Early plotters were bulky, mechanical devices
that used robotic arms, which literally drew
the image on a piece of paper.
• Notoriously slow;
• a large, complicated drawing can take several
hours to print.
Cleaning a Printer
• Printers usually don't require heavy cleaning,
• You can clean the outside surfaces of most printers with a
dry or damp cloth
• Don't use solvents or spray cleaners, which may be harmful
to some printer parts.
• To clean the inside of the printer, open it up and remove all
paper.
• Remove the toner cartridge, ink cartridges, or ribbon
• Use a lint-free cloth or swabs to gently remove built-up dust
and dirt
• Do not use a wet cloth, and never spray any kind of liquid
cleaner into printer unless the manufacturer recommends
doing so.
• If the printer has a great deal of dust built up inside, can use
a vacuum cleaner with a narrow nozzle to pull out the dust.
Dealing with Paper Jams
• The best way to solve this problem is to prevent
it:
≫ Make sure your paper is compatible with your
printer. Some inkjet printers, for example, do not
work well with thick, glossy paper. Check your
manual to see what weights and sizes of paper will
work best with your printer.
≫ Set the printer on an even, level surface. Tilting
can encourage paper jams.
≫ Don't overfill the paper tray. Paper must be flat
and able to slide freely through the mechanism.
Chapter 3B

End of Chapter