IT ESSENTIALS

Final Exam Preparation Paper

Chapter 8: Printers

Characteristics and Capabilities

Printers produce paper copies of electronic files.

Some factors to consider when purchasing a printer:

• Speed - measured in pages per minute (PPM), affected by the complexity of design and
quality desired by the user
• Quality - measured in dots per inch (dpi), larger dpi = better resolution = clearer image
• Color - color printing process uses cyan, magenta and yellow (CMY) color combo, inkjet
printing process uses CMY+black as key, thus, CMYK refers to inkjet printing

The Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) is the average time the printer works without failing.

The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for printers includes:

• Initial purchase price
• Cost of consumable supplies (e.g. paper, ink)
• Pages per month
• Price per page
• Maintenance costs
• Warranty costs

The automatic document feeder (ADF) is a slot where an existing document can be placed. The
machine is then set to make copies of this document. Some inkjet and laser printers with
capabilities of copy machines have this.

Most printers available today are:

• Laser printers - use imaging drums
• Inkjet printers - use electrostatic spray
• Dot matrix printers/Impact printers - use impact technology
• Thermal printers - found in retail, used for receipts
• 3D printers - used in design and manufacturing
Printer Connections

Connection types:
• Serial aka COM - for dot matrix printers, do not require high-speed data transfer, legacy
• Parallel - higher transfer speeds, described by IEEE 1284 standard Enhanced Parallel Port
(EPP) and Enhanced Capabilities Port (ECP) modes
• USB - most common
• FireWire aka i.LINK aka IEEE 1394 - platform dependent, high-speed
• Ethernet - used to connect to the network, RJ-45
• Wireless - use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth

Inkjet Printers

Inkjet printers use ink cartridges that spray ink onto a page through tiny holes called nozzles.

Advantages:
• Initial low cost
• High resolution
• Quick to warm up

Disadvantages:
• Nozzles prone to clogging
• Ink cartridges are expensive
• Ink is wet after printing

Inkjet printer parts:

• Ink cartridges/paper - primary consumable items
• Print head - where the nozzles are located, can be thermal (a bubble of steam in the chamber
that forces the ink out) or piezoelectric (flow of ink controlled through vibrations of
piezoelectric crystals)
• Feeder - holds blank paper in a tray or cassette
• Roller - pull the paper in from the feeder
• Duplexing Assembly - turns the printed page over and sends it back through the printer to
print on both sides
• Carriage/Belt - where the ink cartridges and print head are located and moved back and forth
Laser Printers

A high-quality, fast printer, that uses laser beams to create an image.

Advantages:
• Low cost per page
• High PPM
• High capacity
• Prints come out dry

Disadvantages:
• High cost of startup
• Toner cartridges are expensive

Laser printer parts:

• Imaging drum - the central part, a metal cylinder coated with light-sensitive insulating material,
becomes a conductor where the light hits it
• Toner cartridge/paper - the toner is a negatively charged combination of plastic and metal
particles. As the drum rotates, the laser beams draw an image on it, which is then attracted to
the toner through the electrostatic charge, and then that mess is exposed to the paper
• Fuser Assembly - an assembly made up of hot rollers that melt the toner onto the paper
• Transfer roller - transfer the toner from imaging drum to the paper
• Pickup rollers - move the sheet of paper
• Duplexing assembly - used for printing on both sides

How laser printing works:

1. Processing - the printer converts data from common languages such as Adobe PostScript
(PS)/HP Printer Language (PCL) to a bitmap image stored in printer’s memory. Some
printers have built-in Graphical Device Interface (GDI) support, which is used by Windows
apps to display printer images on a monitor so there is no need to convert the output to
another format.
2. Charging - the drum is conditioned for a new image, a wire/grid (the primary corona) or roller
(conditioning roller) receives a charge of -600 volts DC uniformly across the surface of the
drum
3. Exposing - every portion of the drum that has been exposed to the laser beam has its
charged reduced to -100 volts DC, basically creating an invisible image
4. Developing - the toner moves from the control blade (held at a microscopical distance from
the drum) to the more positively charged area of the drum (the one the image was drawn at)
5. Transferring - the corona wire places a positive charge onto the paper, and the image/toner
mix on the drum is attracted to the paper, so it is transferred. A colored image must go
through multiple transfers to be complete
6. Fusing - the paper is rolled between a heated roller and pressure roller, permanently melting
the toner onto the paper. The paper is then moved to the output tray as a printed page
7. Cleaning - the remaining toner is removed from the drum, stored in an excess toner
container

Thermal and Impact Printers

A thermal printer uses chemically treated, waxy paper, to print on it with heat.

Advantages:
• Last a long time (few moving parts)
• Quiet operation
• No cost for ink or toner

Disadvantages:
• Expensive thermal paper
• Paper turns black if heated
• Poor quality
• No color printing

Process:
1. Roll of thermal paper is loaded
2. The feed assembly moves the paper through the printer
3. Electrical current is sent to the heating element in the print head
4. The heated ares of the print head make the image on the paper

Impact printers have print heads that strike an inked ribbon, causing characters to be imprinted
on the paper.

Advantages:
• Ribbon is less expensive than ink cartridges and toners
• Can use continuous feed (aka tractor feed) or normal sheets

Disadvantages:
• Noisy
• Low resolution graphics
• Limited color printing capabilities
These printers have print heads with electromagnets. When energized, the pins push forward
onto the ribbon, creating a character on the paper. The number of pins on a print head, 9 or 24,
determines the quality of the print. The highest quality of print that is produced by these is
referred to as near letter quality (NLQ).

The paper used by these printers has perforations between each sheet, and perforated strips on
the side are used to feed the paper and to prevent skewing or shifting.

Virtual Printers

Virtual printing does not send a print job to a printer within your local network. Instead, the print
software either sends the job to a file or transmits the information to a remote destination in the
cloud for printing.

Typical methods of doing so:

• Print to file - saves file to be printed in .prn or another format for printing later
• Print to PDF - Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF), open standard since 2008
• Print to XPS - by Microsoft, XML Paper Specification (XPS), PDF alternative
• Print to Image - prevents others from copying document content, JPEG, TTF and other
formats

Cloud printing is sending a print job to a remote printer, that could be at any location within your
organization’s network.

3D Printers

3D printers are used to create three-dimensional objects. 3D printers that use plastic filament
are the most commonly used. The plastic filament is added in layers to create the object that
was programmed on the computer.

Subtractive manufacturing is when machines cut or drill pieces out of raw material to create an
object. In contrast, 3D printers add the material used to create objects in layers or even small
bits; therefore, they are known as additive manufacturing machines.

3D printer parts:
• Filament - plastic-based ABS, PVA or PLA. There are even filaments out of nylon, wood or
metal
• Feeder - the feeder takes filament from a feed tube that is placed into the extruder. The feeder
pulls it down to be heated and exits through the hot end nozzle
• Hot end nozzle - heated filament is extruded from here
• Axis - one of the several bars on which the hot end nozzle travels to dispense the filament
• Print bed - the platform onto which the heated filament will build the object

Installing and Updating a Printer

The installation of any device is not complete until you have successfully tested all its functions.
Depending on the printer you have, functions might include:

• Print double-sided documents.

• Use different paper trays for different paper sizes.
• Change the settings of a color printer so that it prints in black and white or grayscale.
• Print in draft mode.
• Use an optical character recognition (OCR) application.
• Print a collated document.

Functions for an all-in-one printer include the following:

• Fax to another known working fax.

• Create a copy of a document.
• Scan a document.
• Print a document.

Configurations and Default Settings

Some common options available for printers:

Optimizing Printer Performance

Most optimization is done through the software that comes with printer drivers. Some actions to
optimize performance include:

• Print spool settings - cancel/pause print jobs in the print queue

• Color calibration - adjust the settings so the print color matches color on the monitor

• Paper orientation - landscape or portrait

All printers have RAM. Printers usually arrive from the factory with enough memory to handle
jobs that involve text. Upgrading the printer memory increases the printing speed and enhances
complex print job performance.

Print job buffering is when a print job is captured in the internal printer memory. Buffering is a
common feature in laser printers and plotters, as well as in advanced inkjet and dot matrix
printers.

OS Settings for Printer Sharing

Windows allows users to share printers with other users on the same network.

There are potential data privacy and security issues when sharing printers:

• Hard drive caching - Cached print files pose a privacy and security risk because someone
with access to the device could recover this files and have access to confidential or
personal information.
• User authentication - To prevent unauthorized use of a network or cloud-based printer,
permissions and user authentication methods can be used to control access to the
printer.
• Data privacy - Print jobs sent over a network could be intercepted and read, copied, or
modified

Print Servers

Print servers let multiple computer users, regardless of device or operating system, to access a
single printer.

A print server has 3 functions:

1. Provide client access to print resources

2. Administrate print jobs by storing them in a print queue until the printer is ready to print and
then spooling the print jobs

3. Provide feedback to users about the state of the printer

There are 3 types of print servers:

• Software
• Hardware
• Dedicated

Software:
In some instances, the computer sharing the printer is running an operating system that is not
Windows. In those cases, print server software should be used.

Disadvantages of sharing a printer from a computer:

• The computer sharing the printer uses its own resources to manage the print jobs from the
print queue (e.g. if a user is working on a desktop computer at the same time someone
else is printing on the network, that user will experience a performance slowdown)
• The printer is not available if a user reboots/power down the computer with the shared printer

Hardware:

A hardware print server is a simple device with a network card and memory. It connects to the
network and communicates with the printer to enable print sharing. It can manage network
printing through either wired or wireless connections.

Advantages of using a hardware print server:

• The server accepts incoming print jobs from devices, thereby freeing the computers
• It is always available to users, unlike a printer shared from a computer

Dedicated:

For larger networking environments with multiple LANs and many users, a dedicated print
server is needed to manage printing services. A dedicated print server is more powerful than a
hardware print server. It handles client print jobs in the most efficient manner and can manage
more than one printer at a time.

A dedicated print server must meet the following requirements:

• Powerful processor - the dedicated print server uses its own recourses to manage everything
• Adequate storage space - it captures print jobs from clients, places them in a print queue, and
sends them to the printer in a timely manner. This process requires it to have enough storage
space to hold these jobs until completed.
• Adequate memory - sending print jobs to the printer is handled by the RAM and the processor

Printer Preventive Maintenance

Inkjet Printer:
The manufacturer recommends the brand and type of ink to use. Avoid refilling ink cartridges
because the ink can leak. When an inkjet printer produces blank pages, the ink cartridges might
be empty. Some inkjet printers may not print any pages if one of the ink cartridges is empty.

Over time, the parts collect dust, dirt, and other debris. I guess u know what to do lol. Clean the
paper-handling machinery with a damp cloth.

Laser Printer:
Laser printers do not usually require much maintenance unless they are in a dusty area or are
very old. When cleaning a laser printer, use only a vacuum cleaner with High Efficiency
Particulate Air (HEPA) filtration.

For laser printers, a maintenance kit might contain replacement parts that often break or wear
out such as the fuser assembly, transfer rollers and pickup rollers.

Laser printers do not produce blank pages when toner levels are low. Instead, they begin to print
poor quality prints.

When maintenance is completed, reset the page counters to allow the next maintenance to be
completed at the correct time.

Thermal Printer:
To extend the life of the printer, dampen a cotton swab with isopropyl alcohol to clean the
heating element (located near the slot where the printed paper emerges). While the printer is
open, use compressed air or a lint-free cloth to remove any debris.

Impact Printer:
When the impact printer produces faded or light characters, the ribbon is worn out and needs to
be replaced. If a consistent flaw is produced in all characters, the print head is stuck or broken
and needs to be cleaned or even replaced.
Troubleshooting

Common problems and causes:

• Application document does not print - error in the print queue
• Print cannot be added/spool error - printer service stopped/not working properly
• Print jobs sent to the queue but not printed - printer installed on the wrong port
• Printer queue functions but printer doesn’t print - bad cable connection, printer is standby,
printer has error (no paper/toner/ink/jam)
• Printer prints unknown character/doesn’t print a test page - wrong/outdated printer driver,
printer plugged into a UPS, printer cable loose, no paper
• Paper jams - dirty printer, wrong paper type, humidity
• Faded print jobs - toner low/defective, paper incompatible
• Toner not fusing the paper - toner empty/defective, paper incompatible
• Paper creased after printing - paper defective/loaded incorrectly, pickup rollers wrong
• Paper not fed - paper wrinkled, printer set to print a different size paper, pickup rollers wrong
• “Document failed to print” - cable loose/disconnected, printer no longer shared
• “Access denied” - user does not have administrative power
• Printing incorrect colors - cartridge empty/defective/incorrect, print heads need to be cleaned
• Printer printing blank pages - printer out of ink/toner, print head clogged, corona wire/high
voltage power supply failed
• Printer display has no image - printer off, contrast of screen too low, display broken
• Printer won’t print large/complex jobs - not enough memory
• Laser printer prints vertical lines on every page - drum damaged, uneven toner
• Printed pages ghosted - drum scratched/dirty, drum blade dull
• Toner not fusing - defective fuser
• Network printer restarted -> “Document failed to print” - Printer’s IP through DHCP, duplicate
IP addresses on the same network
• Multiple failed jobs in the logs - printer off/out of paper/out of toner or ink/corrupt

Abbreviations

• PPM - pages per minute

• Dpi - dots per inch
• CMY - Cyan Magenta Yellow
• CMYK - Cyan Magenta Yellow Key
• MTBF - Mean time between failures
• TCO - Total cost of ownership
• ADF - automatic document feeder
• EPP - Enhanced Parallel Port
• ECP - Enhanced Capabilities Port
• PS - Adobe PostScript
• PCL - HP Printer Language
• GDI - Graphical Device Interface
• NLQ - near letter quality
• PDF - portable document format
• XPS - XML Page Specification
• OCR - optical character recognition
• HEPA - High Efficiency Particulate Air