Different types of printers

Table of Contents

Types of Printer

Printer is the most commonly used output device in a computer system. Different types Printers can be classified as follows- Click here to read this article in Hindi

(i) character printer or drum printer,
(ii) Dot matrix printer,
(iii) Line Printer.
(iv) page printer etc.

Character Printer or Drum Printer

These printers have one print allotment for each character. The characters are embossed in a type ball or wheel-like object. A hammer strikes this type ball and the character is printed on the page. The character printer is shown in the figure. The speed of these printers is very less. They can print 40 to 60 characters per second. This printer is a very popular printer in terms of printer.

Dot Matrix Printers

In these printers, characters are made from printing dots. Dots are placed side by side in a 7×5 matrix to form a character. The arrangement of dots is shown in the figure. Printing dots are formed by pins in the print head. The more the number of pins in the print head, the better the quality of the printing.

The print of the word DIGIT is displayed in the picture. Dot matrix printers are faster than character printers. Their speed is 100 to 600 characters per second.

Line Printer

These printers print a complete line at a time. They are faster than dot matrix printers and can print 150 to 2500 lines per minute. There are two types of line printers – (i) drum printers, and (ii) chain printers. Drum printers have a cylindrical drum with characters raised on its surface. The drum of the printer is rotated at high speed. A set of printing hammers are mounted in front of the drum. The characters are printed by striking the embossed characters on the surface of the drum.

In a chain printer, characters are embossed in a steel band. When the band rotates, the hammer opposite the character to be printed is activated.

Page Printer

Nowadays page printers are also available. It prints the entire page at a time. In these printers the output is obtained by laser beam. The laser beam writes the desired output onto the drum, then the written areas attract toner (ink powder). In this way characters are made on the drum with the help of ink. This ink powder is fused on the paper with the help of heat and pressure, which results in printing. Out of different types of Printers, this type of printer is very much in vogue.

Plotter

It is a device that converts data stored in a file into a hard copy drawing. It is of two types- (i) Flat bed and (ii) Drum bed plotter.

In a flat bed plotter, the drawing paper remains fixed on a flat surface. The paper is held flat due to the electrostatic charge and does not require any pins, etc. The plotter has an arm that holds the pen in a pen holder. The pan is moved along with the arm by a motor. The speed, time etc. required to make the drawing are decided by the programmer. At the time of drawing plotting, when the pen change command is received, the arm itself continues the work of drawing plotting by lifting the desired pen from the pen stand.

Drum plotter requires less space as compared to flat bed plotter. It has a rotating drum instead of a flat bed. In this plotter, the paper rolls over a drum. In a plotter, the pan moves in the Y-direction and the paper moves in the X-direction. The pan lowers to the area to be plotted and rises automatically where printing is not required.

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