Output Devices 2

Different types of printer

There are many different types of printers. In large organizations, laser
printers are most commonly used because they can print very fast and give a very
high quality output. In most organizations, the printers are connected to the
computers via a network. This means that each person with a computer does not
require his or her own printer. Each computer connected to the network can print
using a particular shared printer.

Laser printers

Laser printers produce high print quality at high speed. They are called "laser printers" due to the fact that they contain a small laser within them. There is a wide range of laser printer manufacturers and one buzzword to be aware of is Postscript, a type of printer that is designed to give very high quality reproduction of pictures.

Color laser printers

Originally, most laser printers would only print in black and white (mono). More recently color laser printers have dropped in price and are entering wide spread use. While many of these produce excellent results, you should be aware of the fact that the "price per page", especially if you are using a lot of color on a page can be very high compared to the cost of printing in black and white.

Inkjet printers

Inkjet printers work by using tiny jets to spray ink onto the paper. Inkjet printers are very quiet in operation and produce print quality comparable to that of laser printers, though laser printers still have the edge in terms of speed. Inkjet printers are ideal for low volume printing where high quality print is required and speed is not a high priority, e.g. printing letters in a small office or in the home.

Dot Matrix printers

Dot matrix printers work by firing a row of pins through an ink ribbon onto the paper. The more pins the print head has the higher the quality of the print, most modern dot matrix printers have 24 pins. Unfortunately, dot matrix printers can generate a lot of noise and do not produce a very high quality of print, especially when printing graphics. As a result, the inkjet printer has now largely replaced the dot matrix printer. Dot matrix printers are used for high volume / low quality printing, e.g. printing company pay slips