PRINTERS

KELTRON KNOWLEDGE CENTRE,

Chundakkayil Complex,
Manjakkulam Road, Palakkad-14
PH: 0491-2504599
 Printers
• The most commonly used output devices to get
the hard copy of results.
• A printer is connected to a parallel port or USB
port of system unit by a cable.
• It is an electro-mechanical device. The electronic
circuits control the mechanical assemblies.
• Electronic circuits to decode the command,
generate control signals and activate the printer
mechanism to print the data received from the
computer.
• The mechanical assemblies include print head
assembly, ribbon assembly, sensor assembly etc.
• spooling refers to the process of placing data
in a temporary working area for another
program to process
• The most common spooling application is
print spooling: documents for printing are
stored usually into an area on a disk and
retrieved and printed by a printer
 Printers
The output quality of a printer is measured by Dots
per inch (DPI).
Printers are classified into two types according to
printing techniques.

• Impact printer : characters are printed by the

physical contact of the print head against the
ribbon and hence onto the paper.
– Eg. dot matrix
– Letter Quality Printer
– Daisy wheel printer
• Non impact printer : there is no physical contact
of the print head with the paper.
– Laser Printer
– Inkjet Printer
 Dot matrix printer

• Dot matrix has little pins that strike a ribbon

(much like a regular typewriter) to print a dot of
ink onto a page.
• The cheaper dot matrix printers have 9 pins and
these pins are close together and the
combination of dots forms the picture.
 Dot matrix printer
Advantages Disadvantages

• Simple mechanism • Noisy.

• Can produce different • Print only one character
fonts at a time.
• Cost is not high • Poor print quality.
• Conversion to other • Less speed
type is also possible
• Graphic capacity
 Inkjet printer
An ink-jet printer squirts tiny drops of ink directly onto the paper.
it can print in color.

Advantages Disadvantages
•Lower price • Cartridges need to be
•Portable replaced periodically
•Simple mechanism • Requires special type of
ink
•Can print color documents
• Resolution is not high
•Print quality is high
• Low speed
•No Noisy
 Laser Printer
Laser printers use laser beams to produce an
image on a photosensitive drum.
A laser printer uses a special ink called toner,
which is coated onto the page in the form of
whatever you are printing. The page with ink then
moves over a very hot metal roller which burns
the ink to the page.

KELTRON KNOWLEDGE CENTRE,

Chundakkayil Complex,
Manjakkulam Road, Palakkad-14
PH: 0491-2504599
 Laser Printer
Advantages Disadvantages

• Very excellent quality • High initial cost

output • Toner cartridge is to be
• Very high speed replaced frequently.
• Different fonts of
characters
• No mechanical
movements and hence
noiseless