What is a 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, 8.5" by 11" sheets of paper. Printers vary in size, speed, sophistication and cost. In general, more expensive printers are used for more frequent printing or high-resolution color printing. Show
Personal computer printers can be distinguished as impact or non-impact printers. Early impact printers worked something like an automatic typewriter, with a key striking an inked impression on paper for each printed character. The dot matrix printer, an impact printer that strikes the paper a line at a time, was a popular low-cost option. The best-known non-impact printers are the inkjet printer and the laser printer. The inkjet sprays ink from an ink cartridge at very close range to the paper as it rolls by, while the laser printer uses a laser beam reflected from a mirror to attract ink (called toner) to selected paper areas as a sheet rolls over a drum. Different types of printersThere are many different printer manufacturers available today, including Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox and Lexmark, among many others. There are also several types of printers to choose from, which we'll explore below.
Older printer typesThere are a few first-generation printer types that are outdated and rarely used today:
Features to look for in a printerThe four printer qualities of most interest to users are:
Printer I/O interfacesThe most common I/O interface for printers had been the parallel Centronics interface with a 36-pin plug. Nowadays, however, printers and computers are likely to use a serial interface, especially a USB or FireWire with smaller and less cumbersome plugs.
Printer languagesPrinter languages are commands from the computer to the printer to tell the printer how to format the document being printed. These commands manage font size, graphics, compression of data sent to the printer, color, etc. The two most popular printer languages are Postscript and Printer Control Language. PostscriptPostscript is a printer language that uses English phrases and programmatic constructions to describe the appearance of a printed page to the printer. Adobe developed the printer language in 1985, and introduced new features such as outline fonts and vector graphics which can be printed with a plotter. Printers now come from the factory with (or can be loaded with) Postscript support. Postscript is not restricted to printers. It can be used with any device that creates an image using dots such as screen displays, slide recorders and image-setters. Printer Control Language (PCL)PCL (Printer Control Language) is an escape code language used to send commands to the printer for printing documents. Escape code language has its name because the escape key begins the command sequence followed by a series of code numbers. HP originally devised PCL for dot matrix and inkjet printers. Since its introduction, PCL has become an industry standard. Other manufacturers who sell HP clones have copied it. Some of these clones are very good, but there are small differences in the way they print a page compared to real HP printers. In 1984, the original HP LaserJet printer was introduced using PCL, which helped change the appearance of low-cost printer documents from poor to exceptional quality. FontsA font is a set of characters of a specific style and size within an overall typeface design. Printers use resident fonts and soft fonts to print documents. Resident fontsResident fonts are built into the hardware of a printer. They are also called internal fonts or built-in fonts. All printers come with one or more resident fonts. Additional fonts can be added by inserting a font cartridge into the printer or installing soft fonts on the hard drive. Resident fonts cannot be erased, unlike soft fonts. Soft fontsSoft fonts are installed onto the hard drive or flash drive and then sent to the computer's memory when a document is printed that uses the particular soft font. Soft fonts can be downloaded from the internet or purchased in stores. This was last updated in August 2021 Continue Reading About printer
Which part of a laser printer is responsible for ensuring the toner permanently adheres to the paper?Quick answer. Laser printers use an electrical charge to attract toner particles to a transfer roller. Toner particles are pressed onto a piece of paper, while heat and pressure from the fuser unit permanently fix the image onto the page.
What is thermal printer used for?Direct thermal printers are most commonly used to print items such as receipts and shipping labels. Thermal transfer printers use a thermal print head to transfer a solid ink from a ribbon onto a label supply (usually made from vinyl, polyester, nylon, or other thicker materials) to produce a permanent print.
What type of output is required for a virtual printer?A virtual printer is a printer driver that resembles the functionalities of a physical printer, but is not actually associated with one. Instead, a virtual printer sends its output to a file, normally in PDF format or in other image formats like JPEG, TIFF or PostScript.
Which component in a laser printer is responsible for heating up and melting the toner into the paper to create a permanent image?The lamp heats the aluminum roller. As the paper passes between the two rollers, the rubber roller presses the paper against the heated roller. This causes the toner to melt and become a permanent image on the paper.
|