In computing, a printer is a peripheral A peripheral is a device attached to a host computer but not part of it, and is more or less dependent on the host. It expands the host's capabilities, but does not form part of the core computer architecture which produces a hard copy (permanent readable text and/or graphics) of documents stored in electronic Electronics is the branch of science and technology which makes use of the controlled motion of electrons through different media and vacuum. The ability to control electron flow is usually applied to information handling or device control. Electronics is distinct from electrical science and technology, which deals with the generation, form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most newer printers, a USB Universal Serial Bus is a specification to establish communication between devices and a host controller (usually personal computers), developed and invented by Ajay Bhatt while working for Intel. USB is intended to replace many varieties of serial and parallel ports. USB can connect computer peripherals such as mice, keyboards, digital cameras, cable to a computer which serves as a document source. Some printers, commonly known as network A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of computers and devices connected by communications channels that facilitates communications among users and allows users to share resources with other users. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics. This article provides a general printers, have built-in network interfaces (typically wireless and/or Ethernet), and can serve as a hardcopy device for any user on the network. Individual printers are often designed to support both local and network connected users at the same time. In addition, a few modern printers can directly interface to electronic media such as memory sticks or memory cards, or to image capture devices such as digital cameras, scanners; some printers are combined with a scanners and/or fax machines in a single unit, and can function as photocopiers. Printers that include non-printing features are sometimes called Multifunction printers (MFP), Multi-Function Devices (MFD), or All-In-One (AIO) printers. Most MFPs include printing, scanning, and copying among their features.

A Virtual printer is a piece of computer software whose user interface and API resemble that of a printer driver, but which is not connected with a physical computer printer.

Printers are designed for low-volume, short-turnaround print jobs; requiring virtually no setup time to achieve a hard copy of a given document. However, printers are generally slow devices (30 pages per minute is considered fast; and many inexpensive consumer printers are far slower than that), and the cost per page is actually relatively high. However this is offset by the on-demand convenience and project management costs being more controllable compared to an out-sourced solution. The printing press naturally remains the machine of choice for high-volume, professional publishing. However, as printers have improved in quality and performance, many jobs which used to be done by professional print shops are now done by users on local printers; see desktop publishing. The world's first computer printer was a 19th century mechanically driven apparatus invented by Charles Babbage for his Difference Engine.[1]

Contents

Printing technology

Printers are routinely classified by the underlying print technology they employ; numerous such technologies have been developed over the years. The choice of print engine has a substantial effect on what jobs a printer is suitable for, as different technologies are capable of different levels of image/text quality, print speed, low cost, noise; in addition, some technologies are inappropriate for certain types of physical media (such as carbon paper Carbon paper is paper coated on one side with a layer of a loosely bound dry ink or pigmented coating, usually bound with wax. It is used for making one or more copies simultaneous with the creation of an original document. Manufacturing of carbon paper was formerly the largest consumer of montan wax or transparencies A transparency is a thin sheet of transparent flexible material, typically cellulose acetate, onto which figures can be drawn. These are then placed on an overhead projector for display to an audience. This system is being largely replaced by LCD projectors and interactive whiteboards).

Another aspect of printer technology that is often forgotten is resistance to alteration: liquid ink such as from an inkjet head or fabric ribbon becomes absorbed by the paper fibers, so documents printed with a liquid ink sublimation printer are more difficult to alter than documents printed with toner or solid inks, which do not penetrate below the paper surface.

Cheques should either be printed with liquid ink or on special "cheque paper with toner anchorage".[1] For similar reasons carbon film ribbons for IBM Selectric typewriters bore labels warning against using them to type negotiable instruments such as cheques. The machine-readable lower portion of a cheque, however, must be printed using MICR Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, or MICR, is a character recognition technology used primarily by the banking industry to facilitate the processing of cheques. The technology allows computers to read information off of printed documents. Unlike barcodes or similar technologies, however, MICR codes can be easily read by humans toner or ink. Banks and other clearing houses employ automation equipment that relies on the magnetic flux from these specially printed characters to function properly.

Modern print technology

The following printing technologies are routinely found in modern printers:

Toner-based printers

Main article: Laser printer A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers , laser printers employ a xerographic printing process but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser beam across the

Another toner based printer is the LED printer An LED printer is a type of computer printer. LED technology uses a light-emitting diode array as a light source in the printhead. The LED bar pulse-flashes across the entire page width and creates the image on the print drum or belt as it moves past which uses an array of LEDs A light-emitting diode (pronounced /ˌɛl.iːˈdiː/) is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices, and are increasingly used for lighting. Introduced as a practical electronic component in 1962, early LEDs emitted low-intensity red light, but modern versions are available across the visible, ultraviolet and instead of a laser Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation is a mechanism for emitting electromagnetic radiation, typically light or visible light, via the process of stimulated emission. The emitted laser light is (usually) a spatially coherent, narrow low-divergence beam, that can be manipulated with lenses. In laser technology, "coherent to cause toner adhesion to the print drum.

Recent research has also indicated that Laser Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation is a mechanism for emitting electromagnetic radiation, typically light or visible light, via the process of stimulated emission. The emitted laser light is (usually) a spatially coherent, narrow low-divergence beam, that can be manipulated with lenses. In laser technology, "coherent printers emit potentially dangerous ultrafine particles Ultrafine particles are nanoscale, less than 100 nanometres. There are two main divisions that categorize types of UFPs. UFPs can either be carbon-based or metallic, and then can be further subdivided by their magnetic properties. Electron microscopy and special physical lab conditions allow scientists to observe UFP morphology. Airborne UFPs can, possibly causing health problems associated with respiration [1] and cause pollution equivalent to cigarettes.[2] The degree of particle emissions varies with age, model and design of each printer but is generally proportional to the amount of toner required. Furthermore, a well ventilated workspace would allow such ultrafine particles to disperse thus reducing the health side effects.

Liquid inkjet printers

Inkjet printers operate by propelling variably-sized droplets of liquid or molten material (ink) onto almost any sized page. They are the most common type of computer printer for the general consumer.

Solid ink printers

Main article: Solid ink Solid ink is a technology used in computer printers and multifunction devices originally created by Tektronix in 1986. After Xerox acquired the Tektronix Color Printing and Imaging Division in 2000, the solid ink technology became part of the Xerox line of office printing and imaging products. Early offerings focused on the graphic arts industry

Solid Ink Solid ink is a technology used in computer printers and multifunction devices originally created by Tektronix in 1986. After Xerox acquired the Tektronix Color Printing and Imaging Division in 2000, the solid ink technology became part of the Xerox line of office printing and imaging products. Early offerings focused on the graphic arts industry printers, also known as phase-change printers, are a type of thermal transfer printer A thermal transfer printer is a printer which prints on paper by melting a coating of ribbon so that it stays glued to the material on which the print is applied. It contrasts with Direct Thermal printing where no ribbon is present in the process. It was invented by SATO corporation around the late 1940s. They use solid sticks of CMYK The CMYK color model is a subtractive color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four inks used in some color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key black. Though it varies by print house, press operator, press manufacturer and press run, ink is typically applied in the order Coloured ink (similar in consistency to candle wax), which are melted and fed into a piezo crystal operated print-head. The printhead sprays the ink on a rotating, oil coated drum. The paper then passes over the print drum, at which time the image is transferred, or transfixed, to the page.

Solid ink Solid ink is a technology used in computer printers and multifunction devices originally created by Tektronix in 1986. After Xerox acquired the Tektronix Color Printing and Imaging Division in 2000, the solid ink technology became part of the Xerox line of office printing and imaging products. Early offerings focused on the graphic arts industry printers are most commonly used as Colour office printers, and are excellent at printing on transparencies and other non-porous media. Solid ink Solid ink is a technology used in computer printers and multifunction devices originally created by Tektronix in 1986. After Xerox acquired the Tektronix Color Printing and Imaging Division in 2000, the solid ink technology became part of the Xerox line of office printing and imaging products. Early offerings focused on the graphic arts industry printers can produce excellent results. Acquisition and operating costs are similar to laser printers. Drawbacks of the technology include high power consumption and long warm-up times from a cold state.

Also, some users complain that the resulting prints are difficult to write on (the wax tends to repel inks from pens A pen is a long, thin, rounded device used to apply ink to a surface for the purpose of writing or drawing, usually on paper. There are several different types, including ballpoint, rollerball, fountain, and felt-tip. Historically, reed pens, quill pens, and dip pens were used. Modern-day pens come in a variety of colors, shapes and assortments), and are difficult to feed through Automatic Document Feeders In multifunction or all-in-one printers, fax machines, photocopiers and scanners, Automatic Document Feeder or ADF is a feature which takes several pages and feeds the paper one page at a time into the scanner, allowing the user to scan multiple-page documents without having to manually replace each page, but these traits have been significantly reduced in later models. In addition, this type of printer is only available from one manufacturer, Xerox Xerox Corporation is a Fortune 500 global document management company (founded in 1906) which manufactures and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (moved from, manufactured as part of their Xerox Phaser Xerox Phaser is the brand name for a line of color and black and white printers produced and sold by Xerox. Some Phaser printers use Xerox Solid Ink technology. Phaser printers were originally manufactured and marketed by Tektronix, of Wilsonville, Oregon. Xerox acquired the Tektronix Color Printing and Imaging Division, including the Phaser brand, office printer line is also available by various Xerox concessionaires [2].[3] Previously, solid ink Solid ink is a technology used in computer printers and multifunction devices originally created by Tektronix in 1986. After Xerox acquired the Tektronix Color Printing and Imaging Division in 2000, the solid ink technology became part of the Xerox line of office printing and imaging products. Early offerings focused on the graphic arts industry printers were manufactured by Tektronix Tektronix, Inc. is a North American company best known for its test and measurement equipment such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. As of November 2007, Tektronix is a subsidiary of Danaher Corporation, but Tek sold the printing business to Xerox in 2001.

Dye-sublimation printers

Main article: Dye-sublimation printer A dye-sublimation printer is a computer printer which employs a printing process that uses heat to transfer dye onto a medium such as a plastic card, paper, or fabric. The sublimation name is applied because the dye transitions between the solid and gas states without going through a liquid stage. Many consumer and professional dye-sublimation

A dye-sublimation printer (or dye-sub printer) is a printer which employs a printing process that uses heat to transfer dye to a medium such as a plastic card, paper or canvas A canvas print, also known as a stretched canvas or canvas art, is the result of an image printed onto canvas which is stretched, or gallery-wrapped, onto a frame and displayed. The process is usually to lay one Colour at a time using a ribbon that has Colour panels. Dye-sub printers are intended primarily for high-quality Colour applications, including Colour photography; and are less well-suited for text. While once the province of high-end print shops, dye-sublimation printers are now increasingly used as dedicated consumer photo printers.

Inkless printers

Thermal printers

Main article: Thermal printer A thermal printer produces a printed image by selectively heating coated thermochromic paper, or thermal paper as it is commonly known, when the paper passes over the thermal print head. The coating turns black in the areas where it is heated, producing an image. Two-color direct thermal printers are capable of printing both black and an

Thermal printers work by selectively heating regions of special heat-sensitive paper. Monochrome thermal printers are used in cash registers, ATMs An automated teller machine or automatic banking machine (ABM) is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public space without the need for a cashier, human clerk or bank teller. On most modern ATMs, the customer is identified by inserting a plastic, gasoline dispensers A fuel dispenser is a machine at a filling station that is used to pump gasoline, diesel, CNG, CGH2, HCNG, LPG, LH2, ethanol fuel, biofuels like biodiesel, kerosene, or other types of fuel into vehicles. Fuel dispensers are also known as bowsers ., petrol pumps (in Commonwealth countries), or gas pumps (in North America) and some older inexpensive fax machines. Colours can be achieved with special papers and different temperatures and heating rates for different Colours. One example is the ZINK technology.

UV printers

Xerox Xerox Corporation is a Fortune 500 global document management company (founded in 1906) which manufactures and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (moved from is working on an inkless printer which will use a special reusable paper coated with a few micrometres of UV light Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than x-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3eV to 124 eV. It is so named because the spectrum consists of electromagnetic waves with frequencies higher than those that humans identify as the colour violet sensitive chemicals. The printer will use a special UV light bar which will be able to write and erase the paper. As of early 2007 this technology is still in development and the text on the printed pages can only last between 16–24 hours before fading.[4]

Obsolete and special-purpose printing technologies

The following technologies are either obsolete, or limited to special applications though most were, at one time, in widespread use.

Impact printers rely on a forcible In physics, a force is any influence that causes a free body to undergo an acceleration. Force can also be described by intuitive concepts such as a push or pull that can cause an object with mass to change its velocity , i.e., to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform. A force has both magnitude and direction, making it a impact to transfer ink to the media, similar to the action of a typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with a set of keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. From their invention before 1870 through much of the 20th century, typewriters were indispensable tools for many professional writers and in business offices. By the end of the 1980s, word. All but the dot matrix printer A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer is a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth, or in an up and down motion, on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like a typewriter. Unlike a typewriter or daisy wheel printer, letters are drawn out of a dot matrix, and rely on the use of formed characters Typesetting is the composition of text material by means of types, letterforms that represent each of the characters that the printer was capable of printing. In addition, most of these printers were limited to monochrome printing in a single typeface at one time, although bolding and underlining of text could be done by overstriking, that is, printing two or more impressions in the same character position. Impact printers varieties include, Typewriter-derived printers, Teletypewriter-derived printers, Daisy wheel printers, Dot matrix printers and Line printers. Dot matrix printers remain in common use in businesses where multi-part forms are printed, such as car rental service counters. An overview of impact printing [5] contains a detailed description of many of the technologies used.

Pen-based plotters were an alternate printing technology once common in engineering and architectural firms. Pen-based plotters rely on contact with the paper (but not impact, per se), and special purpose pens that are mechanically run over the paper to create text and images.

Typewriter-derived printers

Main articles: Friden Flexowriter The Friden Flexowriter, or flexowriter as on its nameplate, was a teleprinter, a heavy duty electric typewriter capable of being driven not only by a human typing, but also automatically by several methods including direct attachment to a computer and by use of paper tape. It has also been referred to as the Flex-O-Writer, and colloquially and IBM Selectric typewriter The IBM Selectric typewriter was an influential model line of electric typewriters. It was introduced in 1961

Several different computer printers were simply computer-controllable versions of existing electric typewriters. The Friden Flexowriter The Friden Flexowriter, or flexowriter as on its nameplate, was a teleprinter, a heavy duty electric typewriter capable of being driven not only by a human typing, but also automatically by several methods including direct attachment to a computer and by use of paper tape. It has also been referred to as the Flex-O-Writer, and colloquially and IBM Selectric typewriter The IBM Selectric typewriter was an influential model line of electric typewriters. It was introduced in 1961 were the most-common examples. The Flexowriter printed with a conventional typebar mechanism while the Selectric used IBM's well-known "golf ball" printing mechanism. In either case, the letter form then struck a ribbon which was pressed against the paper, printing one character at a time. The maximum speed of the Selectric printer (the faster of the two) was 15.5 characters per second.

Teletypewriter-derived printers

Main article: Teleprinter A teleprinter is a now largely obsolete electromechanical typewriter that can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communications channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the use of radio and microwave as the transmission medium. They could

The common teleprinter A teleprinter is a now largely obsolete electromechanical typewriter that can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communications channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the use of radio and microwave as the transmission medium. They could could easily be interfaced to the computer and became very popular except for those computers manufactured by IBM International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) is a multinational computer, technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, North Castle, New York, United States. IBM is the world's fourth largest technology company and the second most valuable by global brand (after Coca-Cola). IBM is one of the few information technology companies. Some models used a "typebox" that was positioned (in the X- and Y-axes) by a mechanism and the selected letter from was struck by a hammer. Others used a type cylinder in a similar way as the Selectric typewriters used their type ball. In either case, the letter form then struck a ribbon to print the letterform. Most teleprinters operated at ten characters per second although a few achieved 15 CPS.

Daisy wheel printers

Main article: Daisy wheel printer Daisy wheel printing is an impact printing technology invented in 1969 by David S. Lee at Diablo Data Systems. It uses interchangeable pre-formed type elements, each with 96 glyphs, to generate high-quality output comparable to premium typewriters such as the IBM "Golfball" Selectric, but three times faster. Daisy-wheel printing was used

Daisy-wheel printers operate in much the same fashion as a typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with a set of keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. From their invention before 1870 through much of the 20th century, typewriters were indispensable tools for many professional writers and in business offices. By the end of the 1980s, word. A hammer strikes a wheel with petals (the daisy wheel), each petal containing a letter form at its tip. The letter form strikes a ribbon of ink Ink is a liquid that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill. Thicker inks, in paste form, are used extensively in letterpress and lithographic printing, depositing the ink on the page and thus printing a character. By rotating the daisy wheel, different characters are selected for printing.

These printers were also referred to as letter-quality printers because, during their heyday, they could produce text which was as clear and crisp as a typewriter (though they were nowhere near the quality of printing presses A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink. Typically used for texts, the invention and spread of the printing press are widely regarded as the most influential event in the second millennium AD, revolutionizing the way people conceive and describe). The fastest letter-quality printers printed at 30 characters per second.

Dot-matrix printers

Main article: Dot matrix printer A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer is a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth, or in an up and down motion, on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like a typewriter. Unlike a typewriter or daisy wheel printer, letters are drawn out of a dot matrix, and

In the general sense many printers rely on a matrix An item in a matrix is called an entry or an element. The example has entries 1, 9, 13, 20, 55, and 4. Entries are often denoted by a variable with two subscripts, as shown on the right. Matrices of the same size can be added and subtracted entrywise and matrices of compatible sizes can be multiplied. These operations have many of the properties of pixels In digital imaging, a pixel is a single point in a raster image. The pixel is the smallest addressable screen element; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be controlled. Each pixel has its own address. The address of a pixel corresponds to its coordinates. Pixels are normally arranged in a two-dimensional grid, and are often represented, or dots, that together form the larger image. However, the term dot matrix printer is specifically used for impact printers that use a matrix of small pins to create precise dots. The advantage of dot-matrix over other impact printers is that they can produce graphical images in addition to text; however the text is generally of poorer quality than impact printers that use letterforms (type).

A Tandy 1000 HX with a Tandy DMP-133 dot-matrix printer.

Dot-matrix printers can be broadly divided into two major classes:

Dot matrix printers can either be character-based or line-based (that is, a single horizontal series of pixels across the page), referring to the configuration of the print head.

At one time, dot matrix printers were one of the more common types of printers used for general use — such as for home and small office use. Such printers would have either 9 or 24 pins on the print head. 24-pin print heads were able to print at a higher quality. Once the price of inkjet printers dropped to the point where they were competitive with dot matrix printers, dot matrix printers began to fall out of favor for general use.

Some dot matrix printers, such as the NEC P6300, can be upgraded to print in Colour. This is achieved through the use of a four-Colour ribbon mounted on a mechanism (provided in an upgrade kit that replaces the standard black ribbon mechanism after installation) that raises and lowers the ribbons as needed. Colour graphics are generally printed in four passes at standard resolution, thus slowing down printing considerably. As a result, Colour graphics can take up to four times longer to print than standard monochrome graphics, or up to 8-16 times as long at high resolution mode.

Dot matrix printers are still commonly used in low-cost, low-quality applications like cash registers, or in demanding, very high volume applications like invoice printing. The fact that they use an impact printing method allows them to be used to print multi-part documents using carbonless copy paper (like sales invoices and credit card receipts), whereas other printing methods are unusable with paper of this type. Dot-matrix printers are now (as of 2005) rapidly being superseded even as receipt printers.

Line printers

Main article: Line printer

Line printers, as the name implies, print an entire line of text at a time. Three principal designs existed. In drum printers, a drum carries the entire character set of the printer repeated in each column that is to be printed. In chain printers (also known as train printers), the character set is arranged multiple times around a chain that travels horizontally past the print line. In either case, to print a line, precisely timed hammers strike against the back of the paper at the exact moment that the correct character to be printed is passing in front of the paper. The paper presses forward against a ribbon which then presses against the character form and the impression of the character form is printed onto the paper.

Comb printers represent the third major design. These printers were a hybrid of dot matrix printing and line printing. In these printers, a comb of hammers printed a portion of a 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 just eight cycles). The paper then advanced and the next pixel row was printed. Because far less motion was involved than in a conventional dot matrix printer, these printers were very fast compared to dot matrix printers and were competitive in speed with formed-character line printers while also being able to print dot-matrix graphics.

Line printers were the fastest of all impact printers and were used for bulk printing in large computer centres. They were virtually never used with personal computers and have now been replaced by high-speed laser printers.

Line printers, better known as linematrix printers are widely used in the automotive, logistic and banking world for high speed and barcode printing. They are known as robust and durable printers that have the lowest price per page (form). Companies as Printronix Inc. and TallyGenicom are the leading manufactures today.

The legacy of line printers lives on in many computer operating systems, which use the abbreviations "lp", "lpr", or "LPT" to refer to printers.

Pen-based plotters

Main article: Plotter

A plotter is a vector graphics printing device which operates by moving a pen over the surface of paper. Plotters have been used in applications such as computer-aided design, though they are rarely used now and are being replaced with wide-format conventional printers (which nowadays have sufficient resolution to render high-quality vector graphics using a rasterized print engine). It is commonplace to refer to such wide-format printers as "plotters", even though such usage is technically incorrect. There are two types of plotters, Flat Bed and Drum.

Sales

Since 2005, the world's top selling brand of inkjet and laser printers has been HP which now has 46% of sales in inkjet and 50.5% in laser printers.[6]

Other printers

A number of other sorts of printers are important for historical reasons, or for special purpose uses:

Printing mode

The data received by a printer may be:

  1. a string of characters
  2. a bitmapped image
  3. a vector image

Some printers can process all three types of data, others not.

Today it is common to print everything (even plain text) by sending ready bitmapped images to the printer, because it allows better control over formatting. Many printer drivers do not use the text mode at all, even if the printer is capable of it.

Monochrome, Colour and photo printers

A monochrome printer can only produce an image consisting of one Colour, usually black. A monochrome printer may also be able to produce various tones of that Colour, such as a grey-scale.

A Colour printer can produce images of multiple Colours.

A photo printer is a Colour printer that can produce images that mimic the Colour range (gamut) and resolution of photographic methods of printing. Many can be used autonomously (without a computer), with a memory card or USB connector.

The printer manufacturing business

Often the razor and blades business model is applied. That is, a company may sell a printer at cost, and make profits on the ink cartridge, paper, or some other replacement part. This has caused legal disputes regarding the right of companies other than the printer manufacturer to sell compatible ink cartridges. To protect the razor and blades business model several manufacturers invest heavily in developing new cartridge technology and patenting it.

Other manufacturers, in reaction to the challenges from using this business model, choose to make more money on printers and less on the ink, promoting the latter through their advertising campaigns. Finally, this generates two clearly different proposals: "cheap printer — expensive ink" or "expensive printer — cheap ink". Ultimately, the consumer decision depends on their reference interest rate or their time preference. From an Economics viewpoint, there is a clear trade-off between cost per copy and cost of the printer[7].

Printing speed

The speed of early printers was measured in units of characters per second. More modern printers are measured in pages per minute. These measures are used primarily as a marketing tool, and are not well standardised. Usually pages per minute refers to sparse monochrome office documents, rather than dense pictures which usually print much more slowly. PPM are most of the time referring to A4 paper in Europe and Letter (paper size) paper in the US, resulting in a 5-10% difference.

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Printers
  1. ^ Abagnale, Frank (2007). "Protection Against Cheque Fraud" (PDF). abagnale.com. http://www.abagnale.com/pdf/protection_b.pdf. Retrieved 2007-06-27.
  2. ^ Printers pose health risks: study – Technology – theage.com.au
  3. ^ http://www.xactuk.com
  4. ^ Xerox Inkless Printer - TFOT
  5. ^ J. L. Zable and H. C. Lee. "An overview of impact printing" (PDF). IBM Journal of Research and Development. http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/416/zable.pdf.
  6. ^ Lashinsky, Adam (March 3, 2009), "Mark Hurd's moment", CNN Money, http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/27/news/companies/lashinsky_hurd.fortune/index.htm .
  7. ^ Cost per Page versus Printer cost in currently available printers
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Pod a Porter, a 3D-Printed iPod Shuffle Necklace - Wired News
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Which computer printer technology would you go for?
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A . computer printer. is a device that produces human readable text or graphics in electronic form. The following . printer. technologies are found in modern . printers. . Toner based . printers. : Toner based . printers. are very similar to ...

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How do i share a printer with another computer?
Q. Hi, i have one computer that has XP on it the other has vista on it. The vista computer has a printer attached to it. Also the vista computer is wired direct to the router. The xp computer is also wired direct to the same router. What steps do i need to take so that the XP computer can share the Vista computers printer? Id really appreciate your help. Thankyou.
Asked by beaverman39 - Thu Jan 22 09:11:07 2009 - - 3 Answers - 0 Comments

A. First of all i recommend you to put the printer in the XP Computer. It would be much more easier. Once you have successfully installed the printer software Proceed to these steps. On the XP Computer go to start, control panel then if you have lots of little icons it all right if you don't change to classic view pressing change to classic view on the left of the screen. When done press printers &faxes. Right click the printer you want share then press sharing. Give your printer a name or just keep the default name.Then press allow sharing then press ok. When the printers and faxes screen comes up you should see a hand next to the printer that you want to share. Go to vista computer and go to the networking and sharing center. On the left… [cont.]
Answered by Mahbub K - Thu Jan 22 14:04:07 2009

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Wed Jul 28 23:27:06 2010