REPORT ON PRINTERS.

PRESENTED BY;

1. Ann Mwangi SCIE/02161/2020

2. Frankline Kiprotich SCIE/02685/2020

3. Moses Wamuti SCIE/02152/2020

4. Eric Mudavadi SCIE/09882P/2018

5. Joseph Mbaru SCIE/03733P/2018

6. Brian Mukira SCIE/05023P/2020

7. Nixon Kioko SCIE/03398P/2020

FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATICS
SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

DATE:
 PRINTERS

Definition

Printers are output devices (peripherals) commonly used to produce a hard copy of document
stored in electronic form, i.e., they put information from computer on to paper. The data could
be image, text, picture or diagram.

A printer can also be said to be a device that accepts text and graphic output from a computer
and transfers the information to paper.

It prints out data being processed by the computer, and therefore a printer is simply a device that
converts a soft copy to a hard copy.

Factors to consider when purchasing a printer.

1. Print speed
For this case, one should consider the volume of paper you want to print or how much work
is printed in a day as the more the volume of paper work the more the chances to purchase a
printer with the capability to print faster.

2. Connectivity
A printer can be wired or wireless. A wired computer is connected to the PC using a USB
cable while the wireless one is just connected to a network. Therefore, when buying a printer,
the buyer will consider the print quality of the printer and purchase a printer of his or her
choice.

3. Ease of use
Depending on the print quality, the buyer should purchase a simple printer that’s easy to use
and operate rather than complex one.

4. Compactness or Office size

If the size of your room is bigger, you’ll go for a bigger printer depending on its print
quality.

5. Cost
One should go for an affordable printer and that one which is cheaper to maintain depending
on its print quality.

6. How many functions do you want?

For this, you have to go through and see what your office requires or what it uses often to
know on what kind of a printer you should decide to purchase. For example; one may need
an all-in-one printer where you can fax, print, photocopy considering the equipment you
 have in your office.

7. Image/Print out quality

The print out quality should be of good quality as desired.

EVOLUTION OF PRINTERS
The Printing Press (1439- Johann Gutenberg)
This technology was first invented in China in the year 200AD. It was later in the 15 th century
that this technology reached Europe and a German blacksmith by the name Johann Gutenberg
devised a machine that would apply pressure to an inked surface that was resting on a print
medium (such as paper or cloth), thus transferring the ink. He also added a hand mold to the
press, which made it possible to generate precise and quick movable types in large quantities.
This machine was the first Printing Press;
The Movable Type Press (1450 - Johann Gutenberg)
Later in the 15th century, Gutenberg invented the movable type where now the letters could be
moved around to create new words.
With this invention Gutenberg was able to mass produce his own book; ‘The Gutenberg Bible'.
The Rotary Press (1843 - Richard March Hoe)
Later on, in the 19th century an inventor by the name Richard Hoe invented the Rotary drum
printing press in which the impressions i.e., what is to be printed, were curved around a cylinder
so that the printing can be done on long continuous roll of paper.
Xerograph Printing/ Electrophotography (22nd October 1938 - Chester Carlson
Laser
Much Printing (1969
later in the - Gary Starkweather)
20th century, the first picture was
printed.
Later on,This was
in the madea project
1960s possibledevelopment
by the discovery
engineer at Xerox research lab, by the name Gary
of Xerographcame
Starkweather printing by anthe
up with American Physicist by
idea of employing a laser beam to “draw” a picture of what was
thebename
to Chesterdirectly
duplicated Carlson. This
onto thetechnique works
copier drum andon
thus invented the laser printer.
the basis of electrostatic charges: during the
process, an electrically charged photoconductor-
coated metal plate flashes out light and causes the
dry ink (toner) to stick to a light-sensitive drum. As
the drum rolls over the paper, both ink and copied
image are left behind
This process works almost the same way as the xerography printing, with one main difference
being that there is no original page to copy. The laser has to write it out from scratch using static
electricity.

Inkjet Printing (1976)

The concept of inkjet printing was first developed in the early 1950s and by the late 1970s inkjet
printers could reproduce digital images generated by computer. There was no single inventor;
the charge was led by numerous companies including Epson, HP, and Canon.
Inkjet printers each feature a print head containing thousands of tiny holes. These tiny openings
drop microscopic droplets of ink onto the paper in the printer at a speed. Inkjet machines use a
liquid ink produced either by either a colored dye or a liquid that contains solid pigments in
suspension. As the print head moves horizontally in the machine, the paper passes through
perpendicular to it. As the page passes through, the individual holes in the print head are
activated (usually by heat electrical current depending on the manufacturer) and a small drop of
ink is pushed out onto the page. 
This process if performed at high speed with thousands of droplets that form together to recreate
the digital text or image that is being transferred onto the media. To the naked eye, the overall
image looks to be solid because the dots are so tiny.

3D Printing (1984 – Charles Hull)

In 1984 an American inventor, Charles Hull discovered stereolithography, and through this new
technology, making 3-dimensional solid objectives from a digital file using additive processes
was now possible.
This gave birth to 3D printing, where an item is created by adding layers of a selected material
one on top of the other.

Wireless Printing (1993 – Andrew Clams)

This was a technology developed for modern printers by a developer; Andrew Clams.
He was now able to connect the printer to a computer, phone, or tablet by Bluetooth or Wi-Fi,
allowing anyone to print directly from their device without being plugged into the printer.

All in One Printers/MFPs

All-in-one printers, also known as multi-function printers (MFPs), include copying, scanning,
printing, and fax capabilities all in the same printing device. These printers are one of the most
popular ones on the market, as they provide convenience by eliminating the need for a separate
machine for each feature.

Uses of a Printer.
The printing methods are classified into six types.
They include:
a. Digital Printing
In digital printing, printers are used to reproduce digital images on the physical surface, such as
paper, film, cloth, plastic, etc. The printers that are widely used these days are inkjet and laser
printers.
b. Flexography
This type of printing is commonly used for packaging. The surface of the printing plate is coated
with ink and the print surface will rotate. This will contact the print material which will transfer
the ink.

c. Letterpress Printing
The text is printed with a movable type. The raised surface of the type is inked, and this will be
pressed against a smooth substance to obtain an image in reverse. They are used for printing
books, letterhead, posters, newspapers, and business cards.
d. Offset Printing
It is a commercial printing process used for desktop publishing on paper. They are also used in
sheet-fed and web offset presses.
e. Screen Printing
This type of printing is used on hats, CDs, DVDs, ceramics, polyethylene, polypropylene, glass,
T-shirts, paper, metals, and wood.
f. Rotogravure Printing
It is used in printing wallpaper, greeting cards, gift wrap and magazines.
Printing technologies
Types of printers
I. Impact printers - Typewriter
II. Non-impact printers – Inkjet (e.g., Epson Printers, HP Printers
- Laser/Xerographic (e.g., Kyocera)

Impact printers
These are kind of printers that when a printing instruction is executed, the ribbon directly strikes
the piece of paper to form a character.
E.g., Typewriters, Dot-Matrix, Daisy wheel
Typewriter
When a key or character is pressed on a typewriter machine, a key lever hits the ribbon which is
soaked with ink, causing it to strike the piece of paper rolled in the typewriter's paper holder
thereby resulting into an imprint of the character on the paper.
This therefore explains the hypothesis of impact printing whereby the ribbon makes direct
contact with the paper in order to print a character.
The typewriter ribbon also has a color scheme of black and red, mostly. So basically, it can print
in the two colors that is back and red. To achieve this, it has a ribbon selector whose function is
to allow the user to select the color they may want to type in. You can also use the ribbon
selector to put the typewriter on stencil mode (at the center i.e., not red or black). In stencil
mode, the ribbon does not make any movement, it remains intact. So, when a key is pressed on
the typewriter, the key lever directly hits the piece of paper.
Non-Impact Printers
These use ink spray, toner powder filled in their cartridges. In this, there is no direct impact or
contact between the paper and the ribbon or drum.
Printing technologies
-Inkjet
-Xerography (also called Dry Printing, Laser printing)
a) Xerography (Laser Printing)

Also, laser printing, it is a printing technology that the printer uses toner (a dry powder or dust, a
carbon black pigment). This printing mechanism was invented by Charles Carson in the year
1938. Xerography, formerly known as electrophotography, uses electrostatic, static electricity
(charges) which causes an imprint by charging a drum with light through a process called
photoelectric effect that was uncovered by a German physicist called Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.
Examples of laser printers: Kyocera
Printing process:
Charging - a laser printers have a photoconductor (which can either be a drum or a belt) that
usually gets charged by the photoelectric effect that’s mentioned above. Photoelectric effect is a
process whereby when matter (or a material) is exposed to light or rather illuminated, charged
particles are released from the material. These charged particles can be ions or electrons.
Upon charging the photoconductor, the variation of voltage induced to the drum determines the
strength of attraction between the toner and the piece of paper and therefore affecting the density
of color or fineness of the printout.
Expose - On charging the drum, the laser beams of the printer reads or scans the electronic data
from the computer and saves it on the drum. Through static electricity, the drum attracts the
toner from the cartridges, and it wounds up around the drum containing the information to be
printed. The information on the drum is latent, meaning, it is invisible until it is developed.
In old style copiers and printers used mirrors and lenses to produce latent images and any form
of information but modern-day copiers use the Light Emitting Diodes (LED) lasers.
Develop - In this stage, the oppositely charged toner on the drum is attracted to the latent image.
This is now the development process of the data. The next process is transfer of the toner to the
piece of paper or the printing material used.
Transfer - In this stage the paper adopts and opposite charge of the toner which is now
positively charged. Regarding the basic law of magnetism (that is coulombs law) stating that
like charges repel while unlike charges attract. This is how the toner will now be transferred to
the piece of paper, with the help of static electricity.
Fusion - Fusion happens when toner makes physical contact with the paper. A heated Teflon
fuser roller melts the toner onto the piece of paper thereby causing the imprint.
The final stage of the printing process is the cleaning. The printers usually have a brush-like
tool that removes the excess toner off the photoconductor (drum/belt). The cleaned toner is then
disposed or stored in a waste container that is also installed in the printer.
Plotters
These are the mostly used in digital printing technology. They are printers that print vector
graphics.
Vector graphics are images developed by a computer and which have their lines and shapes
placed in 2-D or 3-D. These images are mainly attained or created by the use of CAD
application software’s.
Plotters use automated pens or markers to print the 2-D and 3-D objects. It could be pictures,
photos, drawings or images.
Perfect examples of plotter print outs are the banners, huge posters and logos.

MAINTENANCE OF A PRINTER
1. Inkjet printer maintenance
An inkjet printer operates by placing small droplets of ink directly from a print cartridge onto
the printed page
 The ink used tend to clog very easily
 Clogged heads is a big issue
 Remove the print head from the printer and carefully clean the print head manually and most
of them are delicate so you have to be extra careful
 Replacing the inkjet cartridges/inkjet print heads since we mostly run out of ink all the time
 Colors of the ink are mostly separated so it makes it easy if one color is clogged or run out
you easily replace it.
 After replacing the cartridges look at the output and make sure that all of the colors are
printing properly and aligned on top of each other
 Do an alignment if the colors aren’t properly arranged.
Printheads.

Clogged printhead Clean print head

2. LASER PRINTER MAINTENANCE

 Replacing the toner cartridges. (There is always a warning message that the turner
cartridges are getting lower and lower so you basically replace it.)
  The toner cartridge contains the organic photoconductor drum (OPC) this drum is very
sensitive to light so you keep inside a bag until it’s time to replace it.

Toner cartridge

 Laser printer cleaning

 Laser printers tend to get very dusty you may find tones pf paper dust inside the printer.
 You may use isopropyl alcohol (IPA) to clean on the inside
 You can also use blower to blow of the dust on the inside after carefully opening the
printer.

PRINTER PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

1) Paper jams
This is an issue whereby a paper may fail to load into the printer.
Causes
- Loading paper that is stuck together.
- Faulty transfer rollers.
- The papers might not be properly aligned to ash trays.
- Not using correct type of paper for printouts.
- Using low quality paper.

Solution
a) Check if the papers are inserted correctly in the ashtray.
b) Check whether you are using correct type of paper for printouts. Different types of printouts
require different types of paper.
c) Check the transfer rollers to see if they are in good working condition.
d) Avoid using low quality paper. Low quality paper can shred and leave behind paper dust
which can cause clogging in transfer rollers.

2) Printer is not responding

 This is an issue whereby a computer fails to respond to commands.

Causes
I. Your printer might not be on.
II. Your printer might not be properly connected.

Solution
a) Check if the printer is on.
b) Check if the cables are properly connected to the printer. This includes the power cable
and the USB cable connecting your printer to your computer.
c) Make sure you have chosen your printer as the default printer in your computer.
d) Check the paper tray to see if your printer has paper.
e) Check if your printer has ink and toner cartridge. It may need to be replaced if it the
cartridge is empty.

3) Bad print quality

This is where your printer produces bad quality printouts.

Causes
i. Poor choice of paper selected for specific printouts.
ii. There might be an issue with ink or toner cartridge.
iii. Issues with the print head. It may be clogged.
iv. Incorrect media selected for printing.

Solution
a) Make sure you have selected the correct paper type for the desired printout.
b) Check on the ink or toner cartridge.
c) Ensure you have selected correct media for printing.
d) Check the print head and make sure it is in good working condition. You may need to
clean the print head.

4) Faded prints
 This is where a printer produces printouts that are faded.
Fig1.1 Example of a faded printout

Causes
I.

There might be an issue with the ink or toner cartridge.

II. The print head might be clogged.
III. The transfer roller might be faulty.
Solution
 Check on the ink or toner cartridge. You may need to replace it with a new one.
 Check on the print head. You may need to clean it.
 Check on the transfer roller to see if it is working in perfect condition.

5) Blurry and smeared pages.

A blurry page is one in which the contents printed on the page cannot be seen clearly.
A smeared page is one in which ink is smeared all over the printout.

Causes
I. Wrong choice of paper selected for printout.
II. Might be a clogged print head.
III. Issues with ink and toner cartridge.
IV. Issues with drum unit.

Solution
a) Make sure you are using correct type of paper for printout. Example; printouts such as
invitation or greeting cards require a special type of paper.
b) Make sure your print heads are clean.
c) Check your ink or toner cartridge.
d) Check on your drum unit.
6) Spotty printouts.
This is a problem in which a printer produces printouts with spots.

Fig1.2 Example of a spotty printout

Causes
I. There might be an issue with the print head.
II. There might be an issue with drum unit.

Solution
a) Check your print head. It may be clogged and may require cleaning.
b) Check on your drum unit. Debris such as paper dust can stick to the surface of the drum
and ink toner can stick to these areas causing black dots.

7) Printer is slow
This is where your printer is much slower than usual.

Causes
I. Your printer may be far positioned from the device connected to it.

Solution
a) Reset your printer by disconnecting it from the power and connecting it back again.
b) Check your printer preferences.

Steps
 Right click desktop and select control panel.
 Select devices and printers.
 Right click on your printer’s icon and select printing preferences.
 Restart print spooler service.

8) Your printer can’t pick up the paper

 This is an issue whereby your printer does not pick up paper from the ashtray.
 It may also display an error message ‘out of paper' yet there is paper in ashtray.

Causes
i. Paper selected in the print driver is different from the one in the paper tray.
ii. Might be an issue with the paper rollers.
iii. Paper in the paper tray may be wrinkled or bent.

Solutions
a) Check if the settings in the print driver match the paper loaded in the paper tray.
b) Check the paper rollers and clean them.
c) Check if the paper stack is wrinkled or bent. Bent paper stacks cannot be carried by
transfer rollers.