Types of Printers

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jason_Brookes]Jason Brookes

Fundamentally speaking, printers are electronic devices that can fabricate text and graphics onto a paper. They can be primarily divided into categories of being either impact or non impact printers. The first type employs the use of minute wire shaped pins which draw ink from a source and then produce text or an image by actually hitting the paper. On the other hand, non-impact printing devices can produce the same result without actually making contact with the paper. Similarly, we can also make categorization based upon the printing technology employed by certain devices.

However, companies have also made available convenient and resourceful products such as a printer scanner. It is basically a device which provides all of the abilities and facilities of both a printer and scanner. Scanner printers are available in different sizes and even provide additional facilities such as faxing. On the other hand, an ink jet printing device employs the methodology of spraying ionized drops of ink onto a piece of paper to produce the desired image. The direction and placement of the ink drops is controlled by magnetic plates within the printer. Such a device has a standard resolution of 300 dots per inch and is available in both grayscale and color.

Laser jet and LED/LCD printers produce somewhat the same quality image though the former uses a laser to produce an image on a drum to which charged ink drops attach themselves and are then transferred onto a paper using heat and pressure. LED/LCD uses a light source to achieve the same purpose. LED uses a light emitting diode while the LCD version uses liquid crystals. Such printing devices produce extremely high quality images and documents.

A dot matrix printer is based upon impact technology. It employs a set of evenly spaced pins as well as a band. Both components inherently make contact with the page to produce printed results. Speed and the number of pins primarily determine the quality of these appliances. Pins can vary within a range of 9-24 whereas speed is based upon 50-500 characters per second.

Then there are also portable and digital photo printers. The portable variety describes a device which can be carried around easily and is extremely mobile. They are useful for people who move around a lot and frequently need printing services. On the other hand, digital photo printers basically specialize in producing high quality images. They have extremely high resolution and color depth.

Visit [http://scannerprinters.org]scanner printer or [http://portableprinterscanner.org]portable printer scanners for more information.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Types-of-Printers&id=4297133] Types of Printers