Printers and Plotters

Printers

Printers produce a hard copy of the output on paper. There are three main types of printer: Dot matrix, Inkjet and Laser. The following table compares the three types.

	Dot Matrix	Inkjet	Laser
Initial cost	Low	Medium	High
Cost per printed page	Low	High	Medium
Speed	Low	Medium	High
High volumes	No	No	Yes
Noise level	High	Low	Low
Print quality	Low	Medium	High
Print graphics	No	Yes	Yes
Print in colour	No	Some	Some
Print source	Ink ribbon	Ink	Toner powder

Plotters

A plotter consists of a device that can move paper both backwards and forwards. On the top of the device one or more pens are able to move horizontally across the paper. The combined movement of the pens horizontally across the paper and the vertical movement of the paper allows complex continuous diagrams to be drawn.

Some plotters allow different colour pens to be used to create diagrams in multiple colours.

In other types of plotters, the paper lies on a flat bed. The mechanics of the plotter are so designed that the pens can move both across and down the paper to create the diagram.