Printers and Monitors are two of the Most common output devices use with the Computer.
A Monitor provides us with a “Soft Copy” of our results, the results shown on the monitor is not permanent. The Printer uses to get the Hard Copy of the results.
i.e. It is used to get a permanent copy of the result (which can be viewed, filed, and used at a later stage) on the paper or some other media. Today, Printer is capable of high-quality monochrome. That is single color and multicolor printout at a very high speed.
Most of the printer are capable of high-quality can produce text as well as graphic images.
Printers are often categorized based on the mechanism used by the Printer to print the Image and also they can be categorized based on the Image. And also they can be categorized based on the Image formation method used by them.
Based on the Image formation method printers can be categorized as:
1. Fully Formed Character Printer
2. Bit/Dot Image Printer
1. Fully Formed Character Printer
Typewriter is a very good example of the fully formed character type printing method. In a Fully Formed character type printer, all the printable characters made in advance and provided in the printer, as a part of the Printer Hardware itself. Using this type of printer one can print any of these readymade character onto the paper.
One major drawback of these printer is one cannot use this type of Printer to print a character not provide on the Printer. Most of these printer generate high noise because of their impact mechanism and these printer have very limited character styles available.
One positive thing about this printing technology is, it produces very good quality output and the negative point is, one cannot use these printers to print graphic images.
Some Fully Formed Character Printers are:-
>Daisy Wheel Printer
> Chain printer
> Drum Printer
2. Bit-Image Printer
In this method Printer does not contain any specific character or shape. Instead it prints the required character shape using a matrix of dots. These dots are arranged to resemble the character or shape you want to print. In most of these printer, characters are formed from the dots placed within a matrix.
The Bit-Image Printer is most popular now a days. Because it is used to print text as well as graphic images. By controlling individual dots, Computer can make these printers produce any required pattern.
Based on the Printing Mechanism, printers are categorized as:
1. Impact Printer
2. Non-Impact Printer
1. Impact Printer
Impact Printers as the name suggest, actually use impact to create an image on the Output Media. Some common Impact Printers are: Daisy wheel Printer, Dot-Matrix Printers, Chain Printer, Drum printer etc.
As these printers do not require any special technology such as Laser Beam etc. Therefore these Printers are very low-priced and economical to operate compared to the printers using the other technologies.
2. Non-Impact Printers
Non-Impact Printers do not strike any ribbon or paper to produce the image, instead they use ink spraying, electrostatic magnetization or heat process to produce the required image on the paper or any other output media.
The common non-impact technologies are the Inkjet, thermal wax-transfer, and thermal dye infusion.
Printers can also categorized according to the:
1. Interface used to connect them to the Computer
2. Print Quality
3. Printer Width/Paper Size
4. Printing Direction
5. Printer Speed
6. Paper Feed Mechanism etc.
