1

LINE PRINTER

A high-speed printer capable of printing an entire line at one time. A fast line printer can print
as many as 3,000 lines per minute

Line printers are high-speed, business-oriented printing machines that were developed initially
for punch-card business machines, before the dawn of the computer age. They print a line of
text at a time, the full width of the page, rather than using a printhead that moves back and
forth.

They've largely been replaced by high-speed laser printers but remain useful in some business
applications because of their low cost and ability to print multi-part carbonless forms.

Types

1. Drum printer
2. Chain (train) printer
3. Bar printer
4. Comb printer
5. Daisy Wheel printers

Line Printer Technologies

Earlier Technologies

 The earliest line printers used a rotating drum covered with letters. When the correct
letters lined up with the ribbon, a series of hammers would imprint them against the
paper. Later models improved speed and reliability by placing the letters on a series of
rotating bands or chains.
 They also used improved electromagnetic technology to move the hammers.
 Line matrix printers used a printing method similar to the smaller dot matrix printers
used with PCs.
 An array of small pins struck the ribbon, forming characters on the paper.
 Although line matrix printers have lower print quality, their ability to integrate text and
graphics was frequently useful.

Modern Line Printers

 Drum, chain, and band printers were made obsolete by high-speed laser printers, which
offered superior print quality for applications such as utility bills and check printing.
 However, line matrix printers are still available from longtime manufacturers including
Printronix and IBM. Modern line matrix printers are significantly more sophisticated
 2

than their predecessors, offering adequate print quality at 180 X 180 dots-per-inch
resolution and often laser-printer emulation, including the ability to print PostScript
fonts.
 They're designed for low energy usage and utilize modern, long-lasting ribbons and inks
for better print quality and longer consumables life.

Advantages and Disadvantages

 High speed is one of the advantages of line printers.
 Line matrix printers remain a viable option for high-speed business printing.
 Line printers are physically more durable than laser printers, and their consumables are
both less costly and less harmful to the environment.
 Laser printers are limited in the number of pages they can print in a given time frame.
By contrast, line printers are limited only by the number of hours in a day.
 Their primary disadvantages are their noisiness and their reliance on continuous-feed
forms, which aren't as widely available as they were a few decades ago.

Considerations

 Line printers typically have a higher purchase price than laser printers, and the devices
might need additional soundproofing in an office.
 However, their lower operating costs and sterling "green" credentials can outweigh
those factors.
 Line printers are especially well-suited to shop floors and industrial environments,
where dust, humidity, temperature extremes, and other factors can quickly bring laser
printers to a standstill.
 For cost-conscious businesses, a mixture of laser printers for quality correspondence
and line matrix printers for volume output can be a winning combination.

COMB PRINTERS

 Comb printers, also called line matrix printers, printed a matrix of dots instead of
individual characters in the same way as single-character dot matrix printers, but using a
comb of hammers to print a portion of an entire row of pixels at one time (for example,
every eighth pixel).
 By shifting the comb back and forth slightly, the entire pixel row could be printed
(continuing the example, in eight cycles).
 The paper then advanced and the next pixel row was printed.
 Because far less print head motion was involved than in a conventional dot matrix
printer, these printers were much faster, and competitive in speed with formed-
 3

character line printers without being restricted to a set of available characters, thus
being able to print dot-matrix graphics and variable-sized characters.

Thermal Transfer Printer

A thermal transfer printer is a type of printer that creates labels and signs by melting wax or
resin-based “ink” onto paper, tape (made of nylon, polyester or vinyl).

Thermal transfers printers are known for their smear-proof images and resistance to fading,
and are particularly well suited for creating barcodes.

How do thermal transfer printers work?

The main functional component of a thermal transfer printer is its printhead, which spans the
width of whatever tape or printing medium the printer is built to handle. The thermal printhead
is made up of tiny heating pins, each of which represents a single pixel.

The key material used in thermal transfer printing is wax or resin-based ink, which is loaded into
the printer in the form of a ribbon: in a solid state, applied in a very thin layer to a backing of
polyester film. This “ink” ribbon is drawn through the printer between the printing medium and
the printhead.

The printhead is controlled by a microprocessor, which determines which heating pins need to
be activated in order to form a specific image. From there, signals are sent to the selected pins,
causing them to rapidly heat and cool against the ink ribbon, melting and transferring ink off of
its backing film and onto the blank label surface.

What are the benefits of a thermal transfer printer?

Durable and Fade-Proof: When you hold them up against traditional ink-on-paper and direct
thermal labels, thermal transfer labels – especially the resin ribbon / plastic tape combinations
– can't be beat for durability and fade resistance. While regular ink bleeds easily, and direct
thermal media can darken and become unreadable in the presence of sunlight and heat
sources, thermal transfer images offer far greater stability in the face of destructive elements.

Superior Barcodes: If you're going to invest time and money into bar-coding your business, you
want to be confident that – in the end - the barcodes will actually be readable. Because they're
able to cleanly and precisely print exact bar widths, thermal transfer printers produce the most
accurate and easily scan-able barcodes.
 4

PC Compatible: Many thermal transfer printers on the market are PC-compatible, allowing you
to quickly import images and text from your computer to the label printer.

Many Print Media Choices: With thermal transfer printers, your choice of print media isn't
limited to plain old paper. Thermal transfer manufacturers offer an impressive variety of
materials to print on, ranging from reflective and tamper-resistant tapes to self-laminating
labels and heat shrink tubing.

BAR CODE PRINTER

A barcode printer is a computer peripheral for printing barcode labels or tags that can be

attached to, or printed directly on, physical objects.

The most common barcode printers employ one of two different printing technologies.

 Direct thermal printers use a printhead to generate heat that causes a chemical reaction
in specially designed paper that turns the paper black. Direct thermal printers are
generally less expensive, but they produce labels that can become illegible if exposed to
heat, direct sunlight, or chemical vapors.

 Thermal transfer printers also use heat, but instead of reacting the paper, the heat
melts a waxy or resin substance on a ribbon that runs over the label or tag material. The
heat transfers ink from the ribbon to the paper.

Barcode printers are designed for different markets. Industrial barcode printers are used in
large warehouses and manufacturing facilities. They have large paper capacities, operate faster
and have a longer service life. For retail and office environments, desktop barcode printers are
most common.

Electrostatic Printer

 A type of printer in which the required image is first written as a pattern of

electrostatic charge, and is then made visible by bringing the pattern into contact with
particles of pigment that carry a charge of opposite polarity. The pigment is only
attracted to the charge pattern and is subsequently fused or bonded to the paper.
 A line printer in which high-intensity lamps project images of characters onto a
sensitized drum to form electrostatic patterns that attract ink powder; the images are
then transferred to paper and fused.
 5

 Electrostatic printing is a printing technique done without any plate, ink or type form.
The paper is coated with a thin layer of zinc oxide, making it an insulator in the dark and
simultaneously a conductor of electricity when exposed to light.
 These machines are used for printing of geographic maps. With the advancement in
technology and higher speed, the machines are also being used to print small books.
Electrostatic printers are used for short run printing as they are faster and also do not
cost much.

Process

Electrostatic printing use a positively charged toner/inks that is attracted to paper which in turn
is negatively charged. The paper is moved through a digital ink bath; positively charged particles
in ink stick to the negative charge on the paper. The printers print in black and white or color as
the case may be, and some handle paper up to six feet wide.

Application of Electrostatic Printing:

Electrostatic printers are widely used in different industries for short run printing. They are
popular for photocopying jobs both black & white and colored. These printers are faster than
inkjet printers