Computer Applications to Business Lecture 11-12 Printing

Commonly Used Printers Printer can be categorize into two categories: Impact printers Non-impact printers

1) Impact printers Creates an image by using pins or hammers to press an inked ribbon against the paper. Generate output by striking the paper Uses an inked ribbon For example ; type writer The most common type of impact printer is the dot matrix printer Other types of impact printers are line printers and band printers.

2) Non-impact printers 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. Use methods other than force Tend to be quiet and fast

Commonly Used Printers Dot matrix printers Impact printer Commonly used in workplaces where physical impact with the paper is important. When the user is printing to carbon copy or pressure sensitive forms. Used to print to multi-sheet pages Print head (contains a cluster or matrix of short pins arranged in one or more columns) strikes inked ribbon.

Dot matrix printers The more pins that a print head contains, the higher the printer’s resolution. The lowest-resolution dot matrix printers have only nine pins; The highest-resolution printers have 24 pins. The slowest dot matrix printers create 50 to 70 characters per second; the fastest print more than 500 cps. Not commonly used in homes, Still widely used in business.

Dot Matrix Print Head

Dot matrix printers

Commonly Used Printers Other types of impact printers: Line printers Uses a special wide print head that can print an entire line of text at one time. Line printers do not offer high resolution but are incredibly fast. The fastest can print 3,000 lines of text per minute.

Commonly Used Printers Other types of impact printers: Band printers Features 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. Can generate 2,000 lines of text per minute

Commonly Used Printers Ink-jet printers Non-impact printer Inexpensive home printer create an image directly on the paper by spraying ink through tiny nozzles. attain print resolutions of at least 300 dots per inch. When used with special printing paper, many ink jet printers can produce photo-quality images. Color output common using CMYK Cyan, magenta, yellow, black Sprays ink onto paper

Commonly Used Printers--Ink-jet printers

Dots Per Inch

Commonly Used Printers--Non-impact printer Laser printer Non-impact printer. Produces high quality documents. Color or black and white. A CPU and memory are built into the printer to interpret the data that it receives from the computer and to control the laser. Single-color (black) laser printers typically can produce between 4 and 16 pages of text a minute. The most common laser printers have resolutions of 300 or 600 dpi.

Commonly Used Printers--Non-impact printer Laser printer Print process Laser draws text on page Toner sticks to text Toner melted to page Speed measured in pages per minute (PPM) Quality expressed as dots per inch(DPI)

Commonly Used Printers Laser printer: Printing process

Commonly Used Printers Laser printer: Printing process

Commonly Used Printers All-in-one peripherals Scanner, copier, printer and fax Popular in home offices Prices are very reasonable

Comparing Printers Determine what you can spend Initial cost Cost of operating Image quality Also known as print resolution, is usually measured in dots per inch (dpi). Speed Printer speed is measured in the number of pages per minute (ppm) the device can print. Most consumer-level laser printers offer print speeds of 6 or 8 ppm, But high-volume professional laser printers can exceed 50 ppm.

High-Quality Printers Special purpose printers Used by a print shop Output is professional grade Prints to a variety of surfaces

High-Quality Printers Photo printers Thermal wax printers Dye sublimation printers Plotters

High-Quality Printers Photo printers Produces film quality pictures Prints very slow Prints a variety of sizes Many larger-format photo printers can print multiple images on a single sheet of paper

High-Quality Printers 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, such as posters or book covers.

High-Quality Printers Thermal wax printers Color generated by melting wax. Colors do not bleed. Operation costs are low. Output is slow.

High-Quality Printers Dye sublimation printers A ribbon containing panels of color is moved across a focused heat source capable of subtle temperature variations. The heated dyes evaporate from the ribbon and diffuse on specially coated paper or another material, where they form areas of different colors. Produces realistic output

High-Quality Printers Dye sublimation printers Very high quality Color is produced by evaporating ink Operation costs are high Output is very slow

High-Quality Printers Plotters A plotter is a special kind of output device. Used to print large-formal images , such as construction drawings created by an architect. Large high quality images Older models draw with pens Operational costs are low Output is very slow