Uses of printer

= Introduction of Printers: = In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a text and/or graphics of documents stored in electronic 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 cable to a computer which serves as a document source. Some printers, commonly known as network printers, have built-in network interfaces, typically wireless and/or Ethernet based, and can serve as a hard copy 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 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.

= What is Printers: = Printers are hardware devices that allow you to create a hard copy of a file. Today a printer is a necessary requirement for any home user and business. Allowing individuals to save their work in the format of paper instead of electron. A device that prints text or illustrations on paper. There are many different types of printers. In terms of the technology utilized, printers fall into the following categories

= Printers types = Ink-jets (bubble-jets) | Laser | LED/LCD | Impact (Dot-matrix) | Solid Ink | Dye Sublimation | Portable | Plotters | Digital Photo | Network printers | Multifunction printers | The Bravo AutoPrinter | Printers for banking | EZ CD/DVD Printers | Label Printers | VersaLaser | 3D Printers |

= Types of printers = The main categories are: - laser printers, ink-jets, dot-matrix, multifunctional, etc. Normally home computer users will use ink-jets as they are relatively cheap but superior in quality to dot-matrix. Laser jets and other printers created by new technology are more expensive and more commonly found in the offices.

1. Ink-jets(bubble-jets) printers:
printers spray ionized tiny drops of ink onto a page to create an image, This is achieved by using magnetized plates which direct the ink's path onto the paper in the desired pattern. Almost all ink-jets offer a color option as standard, in varying degrees of resolution. Ink-jet printers are capable of producing high quality print which almost matches the quality of a laser printer. A standard ink-jet printer has a resolution of 300 dots per inch, although newer models have improved on that. As a rule color link-jet printers can also be used as a regular black and white printer.

2. Laser printers
operate by shining a laser beam to produce an image on a drum. The drum is then rolled through a pool, or reservoir, or toner, and the electrically charged portions of the drum pick up ink. Finally, using a combination of heat and pressure, the ink on the drum is transferred onto the page. Laser printers print very fast, and the supply cartridges work a long time. Color laser printers use the same toner-based printing process as black and white ( B/W) laser printers, except that they combine four different toner colors. Color laser printers can also be used as a regular black and white laser printer.

3. LED/LCD printers:
are types of electro photographic printers that are identical to laser printers in most ways. Both LCD (liquid crystal display) and LED (light-emitting diode) printers use a light source instead of a laser to create an image on a drum. In most contexts, "laser printer" covers LCD and LED printers as well. The print process is almost identical, but LED printers use Light Emitting Diodes to charge the drum, and the other uses Liquid Crystals. These printers produce a very high quality text and graphics print out.

4. Impact (Dot-matrix) printers:
use a set of closely spaced pins and a ribbon to print letters or other characters on a page. These printers actually impact the page to print a character, much like a typewriter. Dot-matrix printers vary in terms of speed and the number of pins they have. They can run at a speed anywhere between 50 and 500 CPS (Characters Per Second). The number of pins, which can vary between 9 to 24, determines the quality of the print job. Dot matrix printers are commonly used for printing invoices, purchase orders, shipping forms, labels, and other multi-part forms. Dot matrix printers can print through multi-part forms in a single pass, allowing them to produce more pages than even high-speed laser printers.

5. Solid Ink printers:
are page printers that use solid wax ink sticks in a "phase-change" process. They work by liquefying wax ink sticks into reservoirs, and then squirting the ink onto a transfer drum, from where it is cold-fused onto the paper in a single pass. Solid-ink printers offer better color consistency than do most technologies, with little variation caused by changes in temperature, humidity, or type of paper. Solid ink machines have better reliability, because they have fewer components in comparison, for example with color laser printers.

6. Dye Sublimation printers:
are professional devices widely used in demanding graphic arts and photographic applications. True these printers work by heating the ink so that it turns from a solid into a gas. The heating element can be set to different temperatures, thus controlling the amount of ink laid down in one spot. In practice, this means that color is applied as a continuous tone, rather than in dots, as with an inkjet. One color is laid over the whole of one sheet at a time, starting with yellow and ending with black. The ink is on large rolls of film which contain sheets of each color, so for an A4 print it will have an A4-size sheet of yellow, followed by a sheet of cyan, and so on. Dye sublimation requires particularly expensive special paper, as the dyes are designed to diffuse into the paper surface, mixing to create precise color shades.

7. Portable printers:
are usually fairly lightweight and sometimes carry the option of using a battery instead of drawing power from the computer. Usually they realize basic print resolutions suitable for plain text printing. You can find on the market the following types of the portable printers: Thermal printer, Thermal transfer printer and Ink-Jet printer.

8. Plotters are large-scale printers:
that are very accurate at reproducing line drawings. They are commonly used for technical drawings such as engineering drawings or architectural blueprints. The two basic types of plotters are called flatbed plotters and drum plotters. Flatbed plotters are horizontally aligned with a flat surface to which a piece of paper is attached. The paper remains stationary and the printer moves pens across the paper to draw the image. Drum plotters, also called upright plotters, are vertically positioned. They have a drum that the paper rolls on. Drum plotters usually make more noise and are more compact than flatbed plotters.

9 . Digital Photo printers:
Many middle range printers are now able to print photo quality images. Usually an option with color printers, specialist photo print heads allow a greater resolution to be achieved to improve photo image quality. Photo ink jet printers expand their gamuts by adding additional ink colors, usually light cyan and light magenta.

10. Multifunction printers:
combine top-quality color ink-jet or laser printing with plain-paper and PC faxing, color copying and color scanning, telephoning- all in one convenient, space-saving machine. If you work from home or have a small office a multifunctional device may be ideal.

11. The Bravo AutoPrinter:
is the worlds first automated CD/DVD printing system that can truly be called innovative. It combines automatic, robotic-based CD or DVD printing along with full-color, 2400 dpi disc printing all in one compact, desktop unit.

12. Printers for banking:
these printers realize innovative technology and functionality to increase productivity, and reduce costs.

13. EZ CD/DVD Printers:
provide a low cost way to create professional printed CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. Instead of writing on the CD or applying labels, you can print directly on the CD surface! With high speed capabilities, a full color image can be printed directly on the top surface of your CDs in less than 1 minute.

14. Label Printers:
are the smartest way to print labels one at a time. The printers allow easy installation. You can get high-quality, professional results every time.

15. 3D Printers ( Z corporation):15
The ZPrinter 310 System creates physical models directly from computer-aided design system (“CAD”) and other digital data in hours instead of days. The printer is fast, versatile and simple, allowing engineers to produce a range of concept models and functional test parts quickly and inexpensively. The system is ideal for an office environment or educational institution, providing product developers easy access to a 3D Printer.

16. Typewriter-derived printers:
Several different computer printers were simply computer-controllable versions of existing electric typewriters. The Friden Flexowriter and IBM Selectric typewriter 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.

17. Teletypewriter-derived printers:
The common teleprinter could easily be interfaced to the computer and became very popular except for those computers manufactured by IBM. Some models used a "typebox" that was positioned, in the X- and Y-axes, by a mechanism and the selected letter form 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.

18. Daisy wheel printers:
Daisy-wheel printers operate in much the same fashion as a typewriter. 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, 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. The fastest letter-quality printers printed at 30 characters per second.

19. Line printers:
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.

= Uses Of Printer: =

1.Personal Uses
These printers are designed to handle low volume and high quality images at specific speeds. Printers are rated by their ability to print at a given speed and still generate acceptable quality prints. The inkjet printers that fall under the personal use category are designed to be used at home on small household projects like family greeting cards, personal letters, occasional pictures of family. These printers are generally small, compact and relatively quiet. These printers are broken down into two sub categories Photo or Professional or General use.

2.General Use
These general use printers are designed to print a wide variety of print jobs. Simple text letters, email and kids term paper. A flyer for a garage sale or a notice of a lost animal with a picture. These type of things that don?t require high quality pictures are perfect for these type of general use printers. Now, again these printers are very capable of print photo quality pictures but not anywhere near a good quality as the photo or professional grade printers.

3.Business purpose:
These printers are generally wide format printers, but they are capable of printing on most sizes of media. The wide format means that they are not limited to 81/2? wide media. These are rugged and can handle the larger volume of printing found in most business environments. One reason they are able to handle the larger volume of printing is because the ink cartridges are larger and hold more ink. These printers generally don?t have the cartridges that load on the print carriage, they generally plugged into slots in the front or top behind a cover and tubes there are used to deliver the ink to the printheads. Because of that fact these printer will have a slower warm up time, with having to prime the ink pump and all it can take time.

1.Party banners :
. Party planners and events coordinators always opt for professional-looking banners to decorate the venues for their parties and events. Party banners made using wide format printers are produced much faster and are more economical than other commercial printing processes. But such is not limited to party planners and events coordinators. Even people who host parties in the privacy of their own homes opt for party banners made with wide format printers because they are prettier.

2.Promotional banners and signage
. Promotional banners and signage are more often more attractive and appealing when created using wide format printers. They are also more durable to the elements. Engineering and architectural plans. The plans produced by engineering and architectural firms need to be detailed, and printing them the regular way would not cut it. These firms use wide format printers to produce their plans, drawings and diagrams. Education. Wide format printers are sometimes used to print out visual aids in lectures and

3.educational programs.
Materials printed for this purpose often include maps and copies of valuable art. There are museums that make use of wide format printers to produce copies of the art objects and artifacts in their keeping and use them on traveling lectures. It is much better than transporting the original pieces all the time.

4. Graphic design
Graphic design artists often use wide format printers to create samples of their work, especially when they are put on display for presentations, exhibitions and such. Interior design and decoration. There are people who can get creative with how they decorate their house with the use of wide format printers. Some print their own posters and wall hangings using fabric that is friendly with wide format printers. People who cannot afford buying real art can make do with copies made using wide format printers and display them at home. Wide format printers are printers that are commonly found only in offices and in printing shops. Their uses are special. The main advantage of thermal and thermal transfer printers is that they can be very small. The smallest thermal and thermal transfer printers weigh approximately one pound. Usually the ink-jet portable printer weighs more than 2 pounds. Thermal printers require a special type of paper.