HOW PRINTERS WORK

INTRODUCTION
n many instances, you may desire a permanent copy of a computer’s output. The
leading hard copy output device is the character (letters, numbers, and graphic
images) printer. This definition distinguishes the character printer (generally
referred to simply as the printer) from the other hard copy output device referred
to as an X-Y plotter. Plotters are typically used to create complex graphics and
drawings. Modern character printers, such as the one depicted in Figure 1, evolved
from earlier typewriter technology. Many different mechanisms have been employed
to imprint characters on a page. The earliest methods used with computer printers
were simply adaptations of other print mechanisms used with typewriters and
teletypewriters. These included print hammers (with characters carved on their
faces) like those found in typical electric typewriters. In early computer
systems, typewriters were often interfaced to the computer, to provide paper
copies of the output. Another adaptation from typewriter technology was the use of
IBM’s golf-ball printhead, borrowed from the company’s popular Selectric
typewriters.

PRINTER CHARACTERISTICS
As computer systems and their applications diversified, a wide variety of printer
systems were developed expressly to meet the expanding needs dictated by modern
computers. Newer printing methods—such as those used in dot-matrix, ink-jet, and
laser printers, have yielded much faster and higher-quality printing capabilities
than ever before. Along with the diversity of printer systems came various methods
of classifying printers. Character printers can be classified by their method of
placing characters on a page (impact or nonimpact), their speed of printing (low
and high speeds), and the quality of the characters they produce (fully-formed,
letter quality, near-letter quality, or dot-matrix).

Figure 1: Typical Character Printer

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PRINTING METHODS
The first method of differentiating among printers involves classifying them by
how they deliver ink to the page. Basically, the printer can produce the character
by causing the print mechanism, or its ink ribbon, to make a physical impact the
upon page. Printers that operate in this manner are referred to as impact
printers. The other printing methodology delivers ink to the page without the
print mechanism making contact with the page. Printers that produce characters in
this manner are known as nonimpact printers.

Impact Printers
Impact printers place characters on the page by causing a hammer device to strike
an inked ribbon. The ribbon, in turn, strikes the printing surface (paper). The
print mechanism may have the image of the character carved on its face, or it may
be made up of a group of small print wires, arranged in a matrix pattern. In this
case, the print mechanism is used to create the character by printing a pattern of
dots resembling it. Generally, the quality—and therefore, the readability—of a
fullyformed character, is better than that of a dot-matrix character. However,
dot-matrix printers tend to be less expensive than their fullyformed character
counterparts. In either case, the majority of the printers in use today are of the
impact variety. Figure 2 depicts both fully-formed and dot-matrix type characters.

Figure 2: Fully-formed and Dot-Matrix Type Characters

Non-Impact Printers
Older non-impact printers relied on special heat-sensitive or chemically reactive
paper to form characters on the page. Newer methods of non-impact printing use ink
droplets, squirted from a jet-nozzle device or a combination of laser/xerographic
print technologies, to place characters on a page. Several non-impact methods of
printing are used in computer printers.

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In general, non-impact printers are less mechanical than impact counterparts.
Therefore, these types of printers tend to be more dependable. Non-impact printers
also tend to be very quiet and faster than comparable impact printers. The major
disadvantage of non-impact printers, however is their inability to produce carbon
copies. Non-impact printers tend to occupy the extreme ends of the printer price
range. Most of the less expensive printers are non-impact, as are most of the very
expensive high-speed printers.

CHARACTER TYPES
Basically, two methods exist for creating characters on a page. One method
produces a character that is fully shaped and fully filled-in. This type of
character is called a fully-formed character. The other method involves placing
dots on the page in strategic patterns to fool the eye into seeing a character.
This type of character is referred to as a dot-matrix character. The quality of
fully-formed characters is excellent. However, creative choices in print fonts and
sizes tend to be somewhat limited. To change the size or shape of a character, you
must change the print mechanism. Conversely, the flexibility of using dots to
create characters means that the shape of the characters can be altered as the
document is being created. The quality of dot-matrix characters runs from
extremely poor to extremely good, depending on the print mechanism.

Fully-Formed Characters
The first, fully-formed impact print mechanism devised for computer printers was
the daisy wheel, depicted in Figure 3. Introduced by Diablo, the daisy wheel
contained an embossed character on each petal. The center hub rotated until the
correct character faced the print area. Then a single hammer struck the petal,
which struck the ribbon, which, in turn, struck the paper. The daisy wheel could
easily be interchanged with other daisy wheels containing different fonts. The
original daisy wheels were metal, but newer models are plastic and correspondingly
lighter, faster, and more energyefficient. All the fully-formed impact printing
mechanisms discussed so far print one character at a time. Of the methods
discussed, the daisy wheel is by far the fastest. However, for higher-speed
letter-quality printing, characters must be printed a line at a time. This
requires a line printer.

Figure 3: The Daisy Wheel

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Dot-Matrix Characters
Dot-matrix characters are not fully-formed characters. Instead, dot-matrix
characters are produced by printing a dot pattern representing the character, as
illustrated in Figure 4. The reader’s eye fills in the gaps between the dots.
Today’s dot-matrix printers offer good speed, high-quality characters that
approach those created by good typewriters, and nearly limitless printing
flexibility. Basically, the printhead in a dot-matrix printer is a vertical column
of print wires that are controlled by electromagnets, as depicted in Figure 5.
Dots are created on the paper by energizing selected electromagnets, which extend
the desired print wires from the printhead. The print wires impact an ink ribbon,
which impacts the paper. It’s important to note that the entire character is not
printed in a single instant of time. A typical printhead may contain 9, 18, or 24
print wires. The number of print wires used in the printhead is a major
determining factor when discussing a printer’s character quality. The matrix
portion of this printer’s name is derived from the manner in which the page is
subdivided for printing. The page is divided into a number of horizontal rows, or
text lines.

Figure 4: Dot-Matrix Characters

Figure 5: Dot-Matrix Printer Pinheads

Each row is divided into groups of columns, called character cells. Character
cells define the area in which a single character is printed. The size of the
character cell is expressed in terms of pitch, or the number of characters printed
per inch. Within the print cell, the matrix dimensions of the character are
defined. The density of the dots within the character cell determines the quality
of the character printed. Common matrix sizes are 5-by-7, 24-by-9, and 36-by-18,
to mention only a few of those available. The more dots the printhead produces
within the character cell, the better the character looks. This is because the
dots are closer together, making the character appear more fully formed and easier
to read.

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Fonts
The term font refers to variations in the size and style of characters. With true
fullyformed characters, typically only one font is available unless you change the
physical printing element. However, all other printing methods typically offer a
wide variety of font types and sizes. Three common classifications of character
fonts exist: bit-mapped (or rasterscanned) fonts, vector-based fonts, and TrueType
outline fonts.

Bit-mapped fonts store dot patterns for all the possible size and style variations
of the characters in the set. Font styles refer to the characteristics of the
font, such as normal, bold, and italic styles. Font size refers to the physical
measurement of the character. Type is measured in increments of 1/72 of an inch.
Each increment is referred to as a point. Common text sizes are 10- and 12-point
type. Vector-based fonts store the outlines of the character styles and sizes as
sets of mathematical formulas. Each character is comprised of a set of reference
points and connecting lines. These types of fonts can be scaled up and down to
achieve various sizes. The vector-based approach requires much less storage space
to store a character set and all its variations than would be necessary for an
equivalent bit-mapped character set. In addition, vector-based fonts can be scaled
and rotated, but bit mapped fonts typically cannot. Conversely, bit-mapped
characters can be printed directly and quickly, but vector-based characters must
be generated when called for. TrueType fonts are a newer type of outline fonts
commonly used with Microsoft Windows. These fonts are stored as a set of points
and outlines that are used to generate a set of bit maps. Special algorithms
adjust the bit maps so that they look best at the specified resolution. After the
bitmaps have been created, Windows stores them in a RAM cache that it creates. In
this manner, the font is generated only once when it is first selected. Afterward,
the fonts are simply called out of memory, thus speeding up the process of
delivering them to the printer. Each TrueType character set requires an .FOT and a
.TTF file to create all its sizes and resolutions. Figure 6 depicts the True Type
enabling window under the Windows Control Panel.

Figure 6: True Type Enabling Window

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The Control Panel’s Character Map icon can be used to access the Windows Printer
fonts. The Character map is depicted in Figure 7. This listing can also be used to
insert special characters into a document.

Figure 7: Windows Character Map

PRINTER SPEEDS
The second method of classifying printers is by their speed. Low-speed printers
print 300 lines per minute (10–300 characters per second), and typical high-speed
printers produce in excess of 20,000 lines of print per minute. Most low-speed
printers operate by printing one character at a time across the page, in serial
fashion. Therefore, these printers are commonly referred to as serial printers.
Serial printers are usually associated with personal computers, and may use impact
or non-impact printing methods. High-speed printers generally achieve their speed
by printing characters a line at a time instead of a character at a time.
Therefore, they are referred to as line at a time or simply, line printers. Due to
their cost, these printers are normally used with larger computer systems. Most
line printers use impact printing methods. Two types of impact line printers
exist:

· Rotating drum printers · Chain (or band) printers

These printers are depicted in Figure 8. Rotating drum printers use a spinning,
horizontal cylinder that has a complete set of characters embossed around its
circumference for each character position across the page. While the drum is
rotated at a constant speed, a bank of hammers strike the desired character at
each print position. Actually, the hammers strike the page, which strikes the ink
ribbon, which strikes the drum characters.

Figure 8: Rotating Drum and Chain Printers HOW PRINTERS WORK 6

Band printers have characters embossed on a flexible metal band, and chain
printers place character sets on a revolving chain. In both cases, the type sets
are rotated horizontally behind the paper at a high rate of speed. When the
desired character is in the proper print position, a hammer corresponding to that
position is fired, imprinting the character on the paper. Both methods use one
hammer for each print position along the page. Actually, the entire line is not
printed at the same instant, but the characters are produced quickly enough to be
classified as line printers. The timing logic for these printers is highly
involved because the units must wait for proper character placement before
printing. Laser printers deserve the title of extremely high-speed printers. These
printers place lines on the page so rapidly that they virtually print a page at a
time. Hence, they are called page printers. Laser printers in the past were very
expensive and were used only with high-speed, high-volume printing operations.
However, recent developments in this technology have produced models in a price
range that makes them very attractive for use with personal computers.

PRINT QUALITY
The last criteria for comparing printers is the quality of the characters they
produce. This is largely a function of how the characters are produced on the
page. Printers using techniques that produce fully-formed characters are described
as letter quality (LQ) printers; all elements of the character appear to be fully
connected when printed. On the other hand, those using techniques that produce
characters by forming a dot pattern are simply referred to as matrix printers;
upon close inspection of a character, one can see the dot patterns. The characters
produced on some matrix printers are difficult to distinguish from those of
fullyformed characters. These printers have been labeled correspondence quality
(CQ), or near-letter quality (NLQ), printers. Often, dot-matrix printers have two
printing modes: one in standard dot-matrix (sometimes called utility mode), and
the other in near-letter quality mode.

PRINTER MECHANICS
By the very nature of their operation, printers tend to be extremely mechanical
peripherals. During the printing operation, the print mechanism must be properly
positioned over each character cell in sequence. Loss of synchronization in
contact printers can lead to paper jams, tearing, smudged characters, and/or
printhead damage. Non-contact printers may produce totally illegible characters if
synchronization is lost. The positioning action may be produced by moving the
paper under a stationary printhead assembly, or by holding the paper stationary,
and stepping the printhead carriage across the page. In the latter operation, the
printhead carriage rides on rods extending across the front of the page, as shown
in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Printhead Carriage

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Depending upon the type of print mechanism used, the carriage may be stepped
across the page at a rate of one character cell at a time (fully-formed
characters) or in subcharacter cell steps (dot-matrix characters). Printing may
occur in only one direction (uni-directional) or in both directions (bi-
directional). In bi-directional printers, the second line of characters is stored
in the printer’s buffer memory and is printed in the opposite direction, saving
the time that would normally be used to return the carriage to the start of the
second line. The printhead carriage assembly is stepped across the page by a
carriage motor/timing belt arrangement. With many printer models, the user can
select the number of character columns across the page, producing variable
characters spacing (expressed in characters per inch, or cpi), which must be
controlled by the carriage position motor. Dot-matrix printers may also
incorporate variable dot-densities (expressed as dot-pitches). Dot-pitch is also a
function of the carriage motor control circuitry. Obviously, this discussion
excludes continuous-stream ink-jet printers, in which printing is done by
electromagnetic deflection of the ink drops, and laser printers, in which the beam
is reflected by a revolving mirror.

PAPER HANDLING
In addition to positioning the print mechanism for printing, all printer types
must feed paper through the print area. The type of paper-handling mechanism in a
printer is somewhat dependent upon two factors: it speed and the type of form
intended to be used with the printer. Paper forms fall into two general
categories: continuous forms, which come in folded stacks and have holes along
their edges, and single-sheet forms, such as common typing paper. Two common
methods exist for moving paper through the printer:

· Friction-feed. Uses friction to hold the paper · Pin-feed. Pulls the paper
through the printer by a
set of pins that fit into the holes along the edge of the form, as shown in Figure
10. The pins may be an integral part of the platen or may be mounted on a
separate, motor-driven tractor.

against the printer’s platen. The paper advances through the printer as the platen
turns.

Figure 10: Pin-Feed Tractor Mechanism

Friction feed is normally associated with single-sheet printers. The sheet-feeding

system can be manual or automatic. Platen pin-feed and pin tractors are usually
employed with continuous and multilayer forms. These mechanisms can control paper
slippage and misalignment created by the extra weight imposed by continuous forms.
Platen pin-feed units can handle only one width of paper, but tractors can be
adjusted to handle various paper widths. Tractor feeds are used with very heavy
forms—such as multiple-part, continuous forms—and are most commonly found on dot-
matrix printers. Most inkjet and laser printers use single-sheet feeder systems.

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The gear trains involved in the paper-handling function can be treated as an FRU
item in some printers. Although it is possible to replace the gears, or gear
packs, in dot-matrix and ink-jet printers (if they can be obtained from the
manufacturer as separate items), it is not usually economical to do so. Laser
printers on the other hand, are normally expensive enough to warrant replacing the
gear trains and clutch assemblies that handle the paper movement through the
printer.

PRINTER CONTROLS
Although printers vary considerably from type to type and model to model, some
elements are common to all printers. These elements are depicted in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Common Printer Components

As with most other peripherals, the heart of a character printer is its

interface/controller circuitry. The interface circuitry accepts data and
instructions from the computer’s bus systems and provides the necessary
interfacing (serial or parallel) between the computer, and the printer’s control
circuitry. Functions of the interface circuitry include decoding the computer’s
instructions to the printer, converting signal logic levels between the two, and
passing data to the printer’s controller. Parallel port connections are most
efficient when the printer is located in proximity to the computer. If the printer
must be located remotely, the serial interface becomes more appropriate. Many
manufacturers offer both connections as standard equipment. Others offer the
serial connection as an option. These two interfaces are covered in greater depth
later in this section. A third, less common method of connecting printers to
computers uses the SCSI interface as the connection port. As with other SCSI
devices, the printer must be set up as a unique SCSI device and must observe
proper connection and termination procedures. The controller section receives the
data and control signals from the interface section and produces all the signals
necessary to select, or generate, the proper character to be printed. The
controller also advances the print mechanism to the next print position and feeds
the paper at the proper times. In addition, this mechanism generates status and
control signals that tell the computer what is happening in the printer.

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Due to the complexity of most character printers, a dedicated microcontroller is
commonly used to oversee the operation of the printer. The presence of the on-
board microprocessor provides greater flexibility and additional options for the
printer. Along with the dedicated processor, the printer normally contains on-
board memory in the form of RAM, ROM, or both. A speed mismatch exists between the
computer and the printer, however, because the computer is capable of generating
characters at a much higher rate than the rate at which the printer can print
them. To minimize this speed differential, printers typically carry onboard RAM
memory buffers to hold characters coming from the computer. In this way, the
transfer of data between the computer and the printer occurs at a rate that is
compatible to the computer’s operating speed. The printer obtains its character
information from the onboard buffer. In addition to character print information,
the host computer can also store printer instructions in the buffer for use by the
dedicated processor. The printer may also contain onboard ROM in the form of
character generators, or printer initialization programs, for startup. Some
printers contain EPROM, instead of ROM, to provide a greater variety of options
for the printer, such as downloadable type fonts and variable print modes. In some
printers, the microcontroller, RAM chips or modules, and ROM/EPROM devices may be
treated as FRU components. Many laser printers come with a preset amount of RAM on
board but enable you to upgrade the memory, if needed. Many high-speed laser
printers require additional RAM be installed to handle printing of complex
documents, such as desktop-published documents containing large encapsulated post
script (EPS) graphics files. Similarly, ROM and EPROM devices that contain BIOS or
character sets are often socketed so that they can be replaced or upgraded easily.
As with the gears and gear trains , the feasibility of replacing these units
depends on whether you can obtain them from a supplier. In most cases, the
question is not “Can the device be exchanged?”, but is “Does this make economical
sense to exchange the device?” For a given printer type and model, the
manufacturer’s service center can provide information about the availability of
replacement parts. Basically, the controller must produce signals to drive the
print mechanism, the paper feed motor, the carriage motor, and possibly such
optional devices as single-sheet feeders and add-on tractors. Most of these
functions are actually performed by precision stepper motors. Hardware driver
circuits usually exist between the motors and the controller to provide current
levels high enough to activate the motors. The controller also gathers information
from the printer through a variety of sensing devices. These include position-
sensing switches and user-operated, front-panel-mounted modecontrol switches. Some
of the more common sensing switches include the home-position sensor, the end-of-
paper sensor, and the carriage position sensor. The controller also responds to
manual input command switches, such as On/Off Line, Form Feed (FF), and Line Feed
(LF). The sensors and switches can be treated as FRUs in many printers. This is
particularly true with more expensive laser printers. In most printers, the entire
operator control panel can be exchanged for another unit. This effectively changes
all the user-operated input switches at one time.

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