Printers have played a large part of our educational and professional lives. If it wasn’t for Remington-Rand who developed the first high speed printer that was used on the Univac computer, we’d be left to our pens, craft materials, and creativity to be able to spruce up a project, make hard copies of a report, or produce instant works of digital art.
Like today’s presidential bets, printers come in all shapes, sizes, and kinds which all answer your most discriminating printing needs. Some result to fine images and are value for money while some are costly, bulky, and noisy. Here are a few of them:
Inkjet Printers
Inkjet printers are non-impact printers that print text and images by spraying tiny droplets of liquid ink onto paper. Currently, most inkjet printers use either thermal inkjet or piezoelectric inkjet technology. Thermal inkjet printer uses heating element to heat liquid ink to form vapor bubble, which forces the ink droplets onto the paper through the nozzle.
What’s Hot
Inkjet printers are considerably cheaper to buy.
High-end printers are capable of producing good quality images when used with special paper.
Most models are relatively lightweight and compact so they don’t take up too much space on the desk.
What’s Not
Due to the cost of ink, running an inkjet printer over time is a more expensive than a laser printer.
Prints emerge from the printer slightly wet and may need time to dry.
Printing is slower and therefore inkjets aren’t designed for high volume printing.
Laser Printers
Laser printers are non-impact printers that can print text and images in high speed and high quality resolution, ranging from 600 to 1200 dots per inch (dpi). Unlike inkjet printers, laser printer use toners (black or colored powder) instead of liquid inks and consists of the drum cartridge, rotating mirror, toner cartridge, and roller. How it works is the drum cartridge rotates as the paper is fed through, the mirror deflects laser beam across the surface of the drum, laser beam creates charge that causes the toner to stick to the drum, and as the drum rotates and presses on paper, the toner is transferred from the drum to paper, creating images.
What’s Hot
High resolution
High print speed
No smearing
Printout is not sensitive to water
Good for high volume printing
What’s Not
More expensive than inkjet printers
Except for high end machines, laser printers are less capable of printing vivid colors and high quality images such as photos.
The cost of toner replacement and drum replacement is high
Bulkier than inkjet printers
Warm up time needed
All-in-One Printers
Multifunction printer (MFP) is also known as all-in-one printer or multifunction device (MFD). It is a machine that includes several functionalities (hence the name) including printer, scanner, photocopier, and fax and can either use inket or laser print method of printing. As a practical measure, printers also have media card readers, allowing printing of pictures directly from digital cameras without using a computer.
What’s Hot
Low cost – why order one when you can have a central device that does one for the price of many?
Takes up less room
What’s Not
If one component is broken, the entire machine has to be replaced
Failure in any component will affect other functions
The print quality and speed may be lower than some stand alone components
Dot-matrix printer
Dot-matrix printer is an impact printer that produces text and graphics when tiny wire pins on the print head strike the ink ribbon. An early 90s favourite, the dot matrix printers work in such a way that print head runs back and forth on the paper like a typewriter. When the ink ribbon presses on the paper, it creates dots that form text and images. Higher number of pins means that the printer prints more dots per character, thus resulting in higher print quality.
Dot-matrix printers were very popular and the most common type of printer for personal computer decades ago.
What’s Hot
Can print on multi-part forms or carbon copies
Low printing cost per page
Can be used on continuous form paper, useful for data logging
Reliable, durable
What’s Not
Noisy. Very noisy.
Limited print quality
Low printing speed
Limited color printing
Photo printer
Photo printers are color printers that produce photo lab quality pictures on photo paper. These printers have a very high number of nozzles and can print very fine droplets for improved image quality. They can print 4” x 6” photos directly from the media card of digital cameras without a computer in between.
Theoretically, most inkjet printers and high end laser printers are capable of printing high quality pictures. Sometimes, these printers are marketed as “photo printers”. However, a dedicated photo printer is designed to print photos effectively and economically. Apart from a higher number of nozzles and very fine droplets, these printers also use additional cartridges.
What’s Hot
Prints are nearly indistinguishable from traditional photographic prints, including excellent color and sharpness
Designed to be printing workhorses
Prints offer long life similar to traditional photographic prints
A wide variety of models enable prints of every size, from wallet to poster
What’s Not
Printers are expensive
Usually large and not as easily transported as a typical dye-sub or inkjet capable of the same print size
Prints on glossy paper from some printers may take several minutes, or even several hours, to dry and take on their final color appearance
