What is Printer | Impact Printer or Non-Impact Printer ||

What is Printer | Impact Printer or Non-Impact Printer ||

Printers
Printers and monitors are two most common used output devices used with the computer. A monitor gives Soft Copy Output means the output displayed on the monitor is temporary and the output goes off when power supply to monitor is switched off or the moment output is changed.

The printers give Hard Copy Output on a paper or on some other medium like overhead projector that can be viewed, field and used at a later stage. Printers now can provide high quality single and multicolour print output at very high speed. Printers are also capable of producing images other than plain text on the paper. Printers are classified based on mechanism used by the printer to print the image and an also be classified based on image formation method used by them.
What is Printer | Impact Printer or Non-Impact Printer ||

Printers can be classified in the following two categories –
(1) Line Printers – These printers print the character by physically striking the typing devices against an inked ribbon and paper.
(2) Non Impact Printers – These printers form the character by using heat, ink and laser beam. There is no physical contact between paper and ribbon.

Impact Printers -
(1) Line Printers – The speed of such printers is about 300 line per minute. These printers are useful where the data volume is large. The drawback of these printers is that they do not support graphics. These printers are of two types –

(a) Chain Printers – As the name indicates the character set of a chain printer revolves at a very high speed representing each character in turn all along the length of print line. Print hammers hit at appropriate points as the latter flies past.



(b) Drum Printers – It is also called as a barrel printer. It has a drum around which there is a complete set character and inked ribbon lies between the character and printing. Each character in turn is represented by rotation of a drum and similar characters I a line all printed simultaneously. One complete line is printed in one complete rotation of the drum.

(2) Character Printers -
(a) Dot Matrix Printers – These printers do not have character embossed or otherwise in view. The arrangement of tiny hammers or pins strike the ribbon to produce the desired characters. These tiny pairs are in a matrix of 7 dots across 9 dots down. These printers are noisy but can print text and graphics.

(b) Daisy Wheel Printers – These Printers use a daisy wheel which is a flat disk having a set of spokes. Each spoke has a single character embossed at the top. The hub of the wheel rotates to bring the desired character into position and in turn is struck by a hammer mechanism to form the image on the paper.

Non Impact Printers -
(1) Laser Printers – Laser printers produce very high quality printing with sharp images. Laser technology is used in such printers and a microprocessor controls the laser beam. The output quality of these printers is very good and these printers are fast in speed. The cost of these printers is also high.

(2) Inkjet Printers – These Printers are very popular these days. The technology used in these printers is similar to dot matrix printers but instead of using ribbons ink is forced out of tiny holes directly on the paper to form characters. The inkjet printers are higher priced than dot matrix printers. The printer quality of those printers is closer to that of laser printers. We can also have a colour print out form these printers.

(3) Plotters and Tracers – A plotter is a print which is used to create representation visuals charts and diagrams prepared from statistical data. In a plotter a pen moves up and down on the paper and draw figures or writes text. A plotter can be connected to a PC through parallel port. A plotter is software dependent and need much more instruction than a printer to produce an output.

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