CHAPTER 12
PRINTERS
INTRODUCTION
Printers have been around since the early days of the computer. The first
printers were actually typewriters and teletypewriters that were adapted to print
binary data. These printers were often slow and noisy. Today, there are printers
that print entire pages of text and/or graphics at astonishing speeds.
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
Define the terms character set, font, point, and orientation as they pertain
to printers
Describe impact and nonimpact printers
Describe the operation of line printers
Describe the operation of dot matrix printers
Describe the operation of daisy wheel printers
Describe the operation of laser printers
Describe the operation of electrothermal printers
Printers are classified as impact or nonimpact printers, depending on the method
used to print the characters on the paper. Impact printers use hammers or pins to
strike an inked ribbon and print the character on paper. Nonimpact printers print
characters using electricity, a chemical process, or a combination of both.
Impact and nonimpact printers can be sub-divided into three types:
Character printers
Line printers
Page printers
Character printers output data to the printed form one character at a time, line
printers print one line of information at a time, and page printers print one whole
page of data at a time. Character, line, and page printers can be either impact or
nonimpact printers.
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