Different Types of Printers (With Pros & Cons)

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When looking at different types of printers, it is important to consider the use to which you will put them. Some types of printers are better for businesses, some for home use, and some for school work. Some types of printers are easier to use than others, and some are faster, or more economical in terms of the amount of ink they use. In this post “Types of Printers”, we’ll understand the different types of printers and their advantages.

What is a Computer Printer?

A printer is a device that accepts text and graphic output from a computer and transfers the information to paper. Printers vary in size, speed, sophistication, and cost. In general, more expensive printers are used for more frequent printing or high-resolution color printing.

Prints are also referred to as hard copies as the data are physically accessible and are a more permanent output type than the one displayed in the VDU (Visual Display Unit).

Printer Interfaces

There are a few different ways a printer can connect to and communicate with a computer (referred to as interfaces). Today, the most common connection types are by USB cable (wired) or via Wi-Fi (wireless). Below is a full list of cables and interfaces used to connect a computer to a printer.

Parallel Port

A parallel port is a type of interface on a personal computer (PC) transmitting or receiving data to a peripheral device such as a printer. The data is transmitted over a parallel cable extending no more than the standard 6 feet. If the cable is too long, the integrity of the data can be lost. The parallel port was designed to be used with printers and could transfer only a total of 300 Kbits/sec. 

The standard for the unidirectional printer port was the standard printer port (SPP) or normal port developed in 1981. In 1987, the introduction of PS/2 connected other peripheral devices such as mice and keyboards. The PS/2 was a bidirectional parallel port (BPP), which could simultaneously transmit and receive eight bits of data. Today, the universal serial bus (USB) has replaced the parallel port.

Serial Port

A serial port is an interface that allows a PC to transmit or receive data one bit at a time. It is one of the oldest types of interfaces and at one time was commonly used to connect printers and external modems to a PC. Modern serial ports are used in scientific instruments, shop till systems such as cash registers and applications like industrial machinery systems. Compared to a parallel port, the data transfer rate of a serial port is slower.

USB Port

A USB (Universal Serial Bus) port on a computer is a small port that allows a variety of USB compatible devices to be connected to it. Some examples of devices that connect to a USB port include printers, computer mice, keyboards, MP3 players and external hard drives. The majority of computers feature at least one USB port with many containing multiple USB ports. Nowadays, it is the most common type of port used with printers.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) is a wireless network that utilizes one of the IEEE 802.11 wireless standards to achieve a wireless connection to a network. A home wireless network uses a wireless access point or router to broadcast a signal using WAP or WEP encryption to send and receive signals from wireless devices on the network. 

If the desktop computer or laptop does not have wireless built-in, an adapter is required to connect to the wireless network. Below are examples of the different Wi-Fi adapters that can be used with a computer to connect to a wireless network.

Cat 5

Also known as an Ethernet cable or LAN cable, a Cat 5 or category 5 is a network cable that consists of four twisted pairs of copper wire terminated by an RJ-45 connector. A Cat 5 cable contains 8 wires and has a specific wire order. If the wires are in a different order, the cable does not work. Cat 5 cable is generally used in home and business networks, providing data transmission speeds of up to 100 Mbps. 

The maximum recommended length of a Cat 5 cable is 100 meters. Exceeding this length without the aid of a bridge or other network device could cause network issues, including data packet loss and data transmission speed degradation. There are two standards, T568A and T568B, for the order of the wires. Each standard is similar in performance and does not provide an advantage over the other. However, you must use the same wire order on each end of the Cat 5 cable.

Firewire

Also referred to as IEEE-1394, FireWire is a digital bus with a bandwidth of 400-800 Mbps and higher. It can handle up to 63 units on the same bus, is hot-swappable, and supports PnP (plug-and-play) devices. Users more familiar with USB can consider FireWire similar to USB, as they have some similarities. Like USB, FireWire has several devices, such as removable drives and cameras.

MPP-1150

The MPP-1150 is an interface used with the Atari computer serial interface that connects to a printer 36-pin Centronics connector. This Interface allows you to connect an IBM-compatible parallel printer up to an Atari 800 Computer.

SCSI

Short for Small Computer System Interface, SCSI is pronounced as “Scuzzy” and is an interface for disk drives that was first completed in 1982. Unlike competing standards, SCSI is capable of supporting eight devices, or sixteen devices with Wide SCSI. However, with the SCSI host adapter on ID number 07 and booting from ID 00. This leaves the availability of six device connections. Once installed in the computer, this adapter would allow multiple SCSI devices to be installed in the computer.

Categories of Printers Based on the Printing Technology

The way printer prints” or create text or graphics output on paper, they are divided into two categories:

• Impact Printers
• Non-Impact Printers

1. Impact Printers

An impact printer consists of one or many printing heads some similar to that used with old-fashioned (traditional) Remington typewriters. An impact printer forms characters and images on a piece of paper by hitting an ink ribbon mechanism that contacts the paper physically.

Some examples of Impact Printers are Dot-matrix printers, Daisy-wheel printers, and line printers.

2. Non Impact Printers

A non-impact printer forms characters and graphics on a piece of paper without hitting the paper. It does not contain a printing head but uses several different techniques to create text or images on paper. In general, non-impact printers are much quieter. Maintenance or repair is less likely than earlier impact printers.

Some examples of Non-Impact Printers are Inkjet printers and Laser printers.

Difference Between Impact and Non-Impact Printers

Following are the differences between impact and non-impact printers:

Advantages and Disadvantages of Impact and Non-Impact Printers

Listed below are the advantages and disadvantages of impact and non-impact printers:

Categories of Printers Based on Speed

Based on the speed the printers are classified as:

1. Character Printers

These are printers that print one character at a time much like a typewriter. They are also known as serial printers. Daisy wheel printers and dot matrix printers are examples of character printers. Character printers are slower than line and page printers.

2. Line Printers

These are high-speed printers capable of printing an entire line at one time. A fast line printer can print as many as 3,000 lines per minute. The disadvantages of line printers are that they cannot print graphics, the print quality is low, and they are very noisy. They are used with mainframe computers where high speed is vital for the large volume of printed output required. Examples of line printers include drum printers, band printers and chain printers.

3. Page Printers

These printers print a whole page at a time. They are therefore even faster and deal with very large volumes of printed output. A laser Printer is an example of a page printer.

Different Types of Printers

Following is the list of different types of printers and their advantages that are either impact/non-impact or character/line/page printers.

1. Daisy Wheel Printers

A daisy wheel printer is a specific type of mechanical impact printer popular in the 1970s that used individual letters, numbers, and symbol keys to imprint text on paper.

An important feature of a daisy wheel printer was that it would produce what was called a “letter-quality” print. Another popular type of printer of that time, the dot matrix printer, usually did not produce letter-quality text but produced a rather rough output of text characters generated by sequences of small dots. Because the daisy wheel printer used a letter-quality imprint, the print results were letter-quality. 

The working of daisy wheel printers is very similar to typewriters. A circular printing element (known as a daisy wheel) is the heart of these printers that contains all text, numeric characters, and symbols molded on each petal on the circumference of the circle. The printing element rotates rapidly with the help of a servo motor and pauses to allow the printing hammer to strike the character against the paper.

This innovation in the electric typewriter became popular for its speed and quality but later fell out of fashion in the 1990s. In the 1980s, manufacturers started coming up with laser printers and inkjet printers that would provide letter-quality printing, and daisy wheel printers largely became obsolete.

Pros of Daisy Wheel Printer

• It is cheap to buy and maintain.
• Can create carbon copies.
• Low maintenance.
• Low cost.
• It is better quality.
• Can use fanfold paper and heavy paper grades.
• Better print quality than dot matrix printer.
• More reliable than DMP.
• The font of the character can be easily changed.

Cons of Daisy Wheel Printer

• The printing speed is very slow.
• Cannot print graphics.
• Produce distortion of paper printing
• A limited number of characters.
• Slower than DMP.
• It is noisy.
• More expensive than DMP.

2. Drum Printers

The term “drum printer” refers to different types of printer designs throughout the modern digital age that have featured drum installations or setups.

An older form of printer that is now considered obsolete was called a “drum printer” because it had printed characters etched on a physical drum that spun around and impacted paper in specific ways. A series of hammers behind the paper would press the paper onto the drum at the right time, to create text on a page. This mechanical and analog type of printer has long been out of date as newer inkjet and laser jet printers use more sophisticated imaging and printing technology.

A newer kind of drum printer is a laser printer that uses a drum to hold paper in place. In this newer type of drum laser printer, the drum receives an image from the laser and transfers it onto the paper. The drum is coated with photoreceptor materials. The drum gets an electrostatic charge, and light from the laser removes that charge to create positive and negative areas to which the toner sticks.

Pros of Drum Printer

• Very high speed

Cons of Drum Printer

• Very expensive
• Characters fonts cannot be changed

3. Chain/Band Printers

An early line printer that used type slugs linked together in a chain as its printing mechanism. The chain spins horizontally around a set of hammers. When the desired character is in front of the selected print column, the corresponding hammer hits the paper into the ribbon and onto the character in the chain. Chain and train printers gave way to band printers in the early 1980s. When the required character in the chain has revolved to the selected print column, the hammer pushes the paper into the ribbon and against the type slug of the letter or digit.

4. Laser Printers

A laser printer is a type of printer that uses a laser and electrical charge model instead of the traditional printing of ink onto paper. Laser printers have increased the neatness and sophistication of print projects, with typical resolutions of 600 dots per inch or higher.

In a laser print operation, a laser beam fires on a mechanical cylinder known as a photoreceptor. This results in a pattern on the photoreceptor that gets coated with toner. Because of electrical charges, the toner sticks to the paper in patterns that are dictated by the software used to print. Finally, the paper is heated in order to fuse the toner to the paper.

One of the biggest differences with laser printers is that instead of liquid ink, they use a powdered toner element for printing. While laser printers have brought higher capability to printing, they have also introduced new cost elements.

Pros of Laser Printer

• Performance: Laser printers are designed for printing large volumes. They are able to print multiple pages without experiencing jams and other problems. In the future, it is expected to see more performance while the reduction in the price.
• Speed: The laser beam which the laser printer uses is known to move at a very fast rate, thus making the printing process faster. Compared to an inkjet or a dot matrix printer, laser printers are way faster. Especially if you need to print high volumes of paper, then laser printers will be the best option. Even the slowest versions of laser printers are able to print around 20 sheets of paper per minute. High speed in essence can lead to more productivity and efficiency as well.
• Reliability: Even though laser printer is a mechanical devices, they are more reliable and durable. Unlike ink cartridges, toners are free from drying out and evaporating. They are by default built to last. The toners can generally last for printing 1500-60,000 pages. If used with proper care, a laser printer can last for many years.
• Overall Cost: Although the initial cost of a laser printer is higher, a laser printer can print more papers for a cheaper price. Unlike inkjet printers, there are no ink cartridges used here. The laser printers use toners that can print more paper than an ink cartridge of the same price.
• Quality: In terms of sharpness and quality, there is nothing that can beat a laser printer. Especially texts can be seen more sharp and precise. This is mainly due to the usage of laser technology that uses toners to get fused into the paper directly. Hence, it is completely free from smears and smudges.
• Noise Emission: Most of the time while in operation, a laser printer produces no noise. It is optimized in such a way that rarely emits noises. However, unless it is a quiet room the noises are barely noticeable. While working these noises can be disturbing and distracting.

Cons of Laser Printer

• Implementation Cost: Laser printers involve high implementation costs. The average price of a laser printer is almost 3 times that of an inkjet printer. That is the reason why inkjet printers are more often preferred for home and personal use where there are lower levels of printing. Especially for those that are color printers since they come with all-in-one functions.
• Paper Options: Not all types of paper can be utilized on a laser printer. There are specifically designed laser papers for this purpose. If any low-quality papers are used, you will get at risk of damaging your printer. And also heat sensitive media are known to cause jams on a laser printer.
• Physical Size: Generally laser printers are much heavier and bulkier compared to inkjet printers. They contain imaging drums and other delicate components that make them larger. Therefore, this limits their portability making them discourages to carry around.
• Graphics Handling: Although laser printers are able to produce simple color prints, they cannot handle high-quality graphics images. This makes them not recommended for printing photographs and other complex graphics materials. The only preferred option here is the inkjet printer.
• Power Consumption: Laser printers consume a high amount of power even when it is idle. This is because the fuser element inside the printer can get hot releasing heat. Eventually, your room may get very warm. That is the reason why laser printers are not preferred use in hot and humid climate conditions. However, the latest models of laser printers come with a” Power Saver ” mode that helps printers save some power.
• Health Issues: Toners that the laser printer uses are dangerous to humans. This toner contains powder particles that can be inhaled causing some health risks including respiratory diseases. Additionally, since a high amount of voltage is required for the printer to function, there is also ozone released constituting ozone layer depletion.

5. Solid Ink Printers

Solid ink is the ink used in solid ink printers. Before transferring to the printing head, solid ink is stored in a hopper. When it is time to print, it is melted and used to apply the images to the paper. Sold ink sticks are non-toxic and convenient to handle. In addition to being environmentally friendly, solid ink can print on a wide range of media, it is low cost and the printouts are completely recyclable.

As solid ink solidifies on the printing surface, it does not dry out the nozzles of the inkjet. Unlike liquid ink, solid ink does not stain clothes or skin and is conveniently small, making storage easy. Due to the reduction in waste output (no cartridges to dispose of) and the fact that it is mostly made of organic matter, solid ink is considered more environmentally friendly.

Apart from being less sensitive to changes in the media type, another advantage that solid ink printers have over laser printers is that they are more durable due to fewer moving parts. There are a few disadvantages to using solid ink printers, like the time needed to heat the ink, fading of the printed ink in sunlight, the possibility of the printer heads getting clogged, and the initial expense of the solid ink printer. Solid ink technology is well favored for workgroup and office users.

Pros of Solid Ink Printer

• They’re Cheap to Run: While replacement inks for solid ink printers are fairly pricey, the high page yield of each cartridge more than makes up for this relatively high price tag. The average solid ink printer can produce hundreds of printouts from a single stick of ink, meaning you rarely find yourself having to stop printing to top up the tank.
• They’re Eco-Friendly: If you’re conscious of your carbon footprint and like to keep your waste to a minimum, a solid ink printer could be just the type of machine you’re looking for. The Xerox solid ink sticks used in each printer don’t come with any other packaging other than what they’re wrapped in, and once they’re used up, there are no empties to dispose of — meaning less harmful waste sent to landfill.
• They’re Excellent for Printing Photographs: Rivalling inkjet printers in terms of accurate colour reproduction, solid ink printers are ideal for printing full-colour images. Due to the solid ink melting down during the print process, this lends itself perfectly to the production of accurate colour when printing photographs and other graphics.

Cons of Solid Ink Printer

• They Take a While to Warm Up and Cool Down: If speed is at the top of your new printer wish list, you might want to look elsewhere. Before solid ink printers start chucking out sheets, they need time to warm up and melt the solid ink sticks into liquid form. This takes time and can impact the overall first-page rate.
• They’re Expensive to Buy: Given solid ink printers are manufactured by a single supplier (Xerox), the company has free rein to charge what they like for the technology. This means solid ink printers can be expensive to buy outright, particularly when compared with the equivalent inkjet or laser alternative.
• They’re Vulnerable to Low Melting Temperatures: Though solid ink won’t melt in the sun after it’s been applied to a sheet of paper, it’s by no means a permanent fix. Some solid ink printer users have noted that when laminating a sheet of paper, the heat can distort and smudge the ink on the page due to its relatively low melting temperature. So if you do a lot of laminating, a solid ink printer may not be suitable for your requirements.

6. LED Printers

LED printers are most similar to laser printers, using a drum, toner, and fuser system to apply coloured or black toner to the paper. There is one key difference between the two – laser printers use a laser and mirror to create a toner-attracting static charge on the printing drum while LED models use a strip of LEDs.

Just like laser printers, LED printers contain a photoreceptive drum whose surface is positively charged with static electricity by a high-voltage wire. In a laser printer, a laser would then use data sent to it from a circuit board to draw the image (or text) that needs to be printed into a mirror which moves on its axis to transfer the beam onto the drum. In an LED printer, however, the negative static charge is instead created by a strip of LEDs that are positioned above or below the drum.

The pattern of light from the LEDs hits the positively charged drum and erases the charge where it lands, instead creating a negative charge in the image of the page that’s printing. Positively charged powdered printer toner is then dispersed onto the drum, sticking where the negative charge has been created by the LEDs. 

As paper enters the printer’s mechanism it is positively charged by a separate high-voltage wire and, as it’s pushed past the printing drum, attracts the toner from the negatively charged parts where it has stuck. The sheet of paper then passes between two heated rollers, fusing the toner to the page before it comes out of the printer.

Because they use a completely different method to create a static charge, they have different benefits that distinguish them from laser printers. They’re quieter as there are no moving parts required to transfer the image onto the photoreceptive drum, unlike in laser printers where a mirror is rotated. The lack of moving parts also means that they can be more compact. They’re more reliable as there are no moving elements that are likely to break through regular use. Printing is faster as there are fewer steps to creating the negative charge on the photoreceptive drum. As LEDs are generally considered highly energy-efficient, LED printers save energy compared to lasers.

Pros of LED Printer

• Reliable and efficient
• Cheaper to manufacture than laser printers
• They often include free warranty extensions

7. Inkjet Printers

Inkjet printers are a category of the printer in which printing is done with the help of inkjet technology. The technology works by spraying ionized ink directed by magnetic plates onto the paper, which is fed through the printer. As inkjet printers are more affordable than other types of printers, they are commonly used as home and business printers. Inkjet printers are also known simply as inkjets.

An inkjet printer consists of a print head, ink cartridges, paper feed assembly, belt, and stabilizer bar. Inkjet printers are capable of creating high-quality images and high-resolution photos with vivid colors. They can work with most types of papers, although they work best with high-quality papers.

Inkjet printers have many advantages. Compared to most printers, they are affordable and easy to use. Similar to laser printers, inkjet printers are inherently quiet. They are great image printers and are quick starters. They are ready to print and do not require any warm-up time. They are also compact, generally requiring less space. With these features, they are more popular as home printers.

There are certain disadvantages to inkjet printers. The print head is less durable in most cases. Inkjet printer ink is expensive and can potentially dry up, causing not only wastage of ink but also blockages within the printer. Also, compared to laser printers, they are slow to work and thus are not considered suitable for high-volume printing.

Pros of Inkjet Printer

• More cost-effective than inkjet printers
• Increase productivity
• High printing speed
• Larger paper capacity
• Often expandable with paper trays, finishers, etc.
• Grow with your business

Cons of Inkjet Printer

• May require short ‘warm-up times’
• largest footprint
• Using high voltage leads to little carbon emissions

8. Dot Matrix Printers

A dot matrix printer (DMP) is a type of printer which uses pins impacting an ink ribbon to print. These printers are generally considered outdated, as they cannot create high-quality prints and are costly as well. However, they have a certain specialty that other printers like inkjet and laser printers do not have: as they use impact for printing, they can be used to print multiple copies of text at the same time with the help of carbon copying. Therefore, they are mostly used in places where multipart forms are required.

A dot matrix printer is a type of impact matrix printer. In a dot matrix printer, the characters and letters are formed by a matrix of dots. A print head, which has many pins in it, moves in the required direction and strikes against a cloth ribbon that is soaked in ink, making a mark on the paper. The dots are spaced closely in a particular shape to make the intended character.

This looks quite similar to the printing mechanism of typewriters and daisy-wheel printers. However, dot matrix printers are different in the sense that many different characters and graphics can be printed. A character printed by a DMP is actually an accumulation of many such dots on a small area of the paper.

Pros of Dot Matrix Printer

• Can print on multi-part forms or carbon copies
• Low printing cost per page
• Can be used on continuous form paper, useful for data logging
• Reliable and durable

Cons of Dot Matrix Printer

• Noisy
• Limited print quality
• Low printing speed
• Limited color printing

9. Thermal Printer

A thermal printer is a printer that makes use of heat in order to produce an image on paper.

Due to the quality of the print, speed, and technological advances it has become increasingly popular and is mostly used in airline, banking, entertainment, retail, grocery, and healthcare industries. Thermal printing does not make use of ink or toner unlike many other printing forms but largely depends on thermal papers for producing the images.They are also quite popular in creating labels owing to the speed of printing.

Pros of Thermal Printer

• No involvement of cartridges or ribbons and thus organizations can save investment by using thermal printers.
• Easier to use as there are fewer buttons and use of software involved.
• Popular in noise-free environments and are great for offices.
• Largely inexpensive and come in various models and sizes.
• More efficient and faster in printing monochromic ones compared to other forms of printing.
• More durable compared to other printers.

Cons of Thermal printer

Limitations of a thermal printer are:

• Unlike standard printers, thermal printers usually do not print out colors well.
• If they become too heated to operate, the ink consumed would be more and the printing may not be precise.
• Printhead could be harmed by the high heat used while printing, often resulting in cost to repair when it breaks down.

10. Plotter Printer

A plotter is a computer hardware device much like a printer that is used for printing vector graphics. Instead of toner, plotters use a pen, pencil, marker, or another writing tool to draw multiple, continuous lines on paper rather than multiple dots, like a traditional printer. Plotters produce a hard copy of schematics and other similar applications. Though once widely used for computer-aided design, these devices were more or less phased out by wide-format printers.

Pros of Plotter Plotter

• Plotters can work on very large sheets of paper while maintaining high resolution.
• They can print on a wide variety of flat materials including plywood, aluminum, sheet steel, cardboard, and plastic.
• Plotters allow the same pattern to be drawn thousands of times without any image degradation.

Cons of Plotter Printer

• Plotters are quite large compared to a traditional printers.
• Plotters are also much more expensive than traditional printers.

Types of Plotter Printers

Based on their working, the plotter printers are of the following types:

• Drum Plotter: Also known as Rolling Bed  Plotter is a pen plotter that wraps the paper around a drum with a pin feed attachment. The drum then rotates the paper as pens move across it and draw the image. It was the first output device used to print graphics and large engineering drawings. There are two types of drum plotters, external and internal. With an external drum plotter, the paper is wrapped around its external surface, while the internal drum plotter uses a sheet of paper wrapped around its internal surface.
• Flat-Bed Plotter: A flat-bed plotter is a mechanical drafting device used with many CAD programs for designers. The paper remains stationary on a flat surface while a pen moves across it horizontally and vertically. This plotter may use several different pen colors to create the graphics. The size of the graphic is limited to the size of the flatbed plotter’s surface.
• Inkjet Plotter: The inkjet plotter creates an image by spraying small droplets of ink onto paper. A popular choice for advertising agencies and graphic designers, inkjet plotters are used generally for large outputs, such as banners and billboards, and large signs often seen along roadsides. They are available in thermal or piezoelectric models. Thermal inkjet plotters use heat to apply droplets of ink, while piezoelectric plotters use charged crystals to apply the ink. Inkjet plotters typically produce better-quality graphics than other plotter types.
• Cutting Plotter: The cutting plotter is a large-scale cutting device that produces ready-cut mylar or vinyl lettering and graphics. Automated plotter knives cut into a sheet of the material lying on the plotter’s flat surface area, carving out the design stored in the attached computer. Used for sign making, billboard advertising and vehicle graphics, the devices offer far greater speed and precision than can be achieved with the traditional method of creating sign lettering and logos by hand.

Practice Problems

1. What is a Printer?
2. What is a Plotter?
3. What is the difference between a printer and a plotter?
4. What are impact and non-impact printers?
5. What are the different types of printers based on their speed?

FAQs

Conclusion

It goes without saying that technology has improved a lot in the last decade or so. Most people now have their own computers, but many of them do not know how to use some of the numerous features that come with them. There are a lot of different types of printers that are available for computers, and the purpose of this article was to tell you about the most popular printer types.

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