Printers

Printers are generally classified by the underlying print technology they employ, the way inks dyes and other colours are applied to the printing medium. This article explains the differences between common printer types, how they work, some of the terminology used as well as the advantages and disadvantages of differing printer types . Some of the information here will help you achieve a better result when printing your own documents.

The Most Common Types Of Printer

Dot-matrix printers

These are also known as impact printers because they actually strike the paper with pins that have ink on the end of them or strike an ink ribbon like the old fashioned type writers.
These are one of the oldest types of computer printers you are likely to see still in use. Many retail outlets still use dot-matrix printers to print receipts because they are cheap, fairly reliable and low maintenance. The main disadvantages of this type of printer is that they can be noisy, and produce low quality prints. They are mostly suitable for text print outs.

Ink-Jet and Bubble-Jet printers 

Ink-Jet and Bubble-Jet printers are the most common type of printer available today. They are very affordable and are excellent printers for a wide variety of tasks such as printing documents or making copies of photographs. These types of printer have print-heads which contain a series of nozzles. They spray liquid ink onto the printing medium, usually paper, to form dots which creates the image or text.

There can be multiple ink tanks/cartridges in an ink-jet printer. The inks can seem expensive in comparison to the cost of the actual printer ( cheap printers of this kind can be found for as little as $50 ).

The inks are water based, and no matter how small the print-head nozzles, the ink will bleed into the paper and sharpness will be lost. To minimize this and produce the best prints possible special inkjet paper is available, however this will increase the print cost. Typically though Ink-jets are pretty cost-effective for small to medium print runs and the quality can be very good. They are at present the most popular printer type for home and small office use. If you're not after professional print quality one of these printers is probably what you should go for. 

Laser printers

Laser and LED printers are great for printing high-quality documents in black-and-white or in colour. Laser printers put images on a piece of paper by melting polymer toner powder onto the paper. No liquid ink is used - the powder toner is statically stuck to the paper when it passes over a set of rollers. Laser printers use a laser as a light/heat source to melt the toner. LED printers use a series of LED lights.

This class of printer creates sharp-looking text and excellent color graphics. They are generally more expensive to buy than ink-jet printers (although prices have been reducing) but in the long run are cheaper to own because toner cartridges can last a long time. (eg:HP claims its LaserJet cartridge will last for 2,000 pages) toner like normal ink-jet cartridges isn't cheap.

Because there is no liquid ink, there is nothing to bleed into the paper, so text and graphics come out looking sharp without the requirement of high quality paper that ink-jets need to achieve the best results. Laser printers are also a lot quieter than ink-jet printers

Thermal Printers

Thermal printers work by selectively heating regions of special heat-sensitive paper. Monochrome thermal printers are used in cash registers, ATMs and some older inexpensive fax machines. Colors can be achieved with special papers and different temperatures and heating rates for different colors. Prints from thermal printers tend to degrade and smear under certain conditions. You might have noticed this if you have ironed a pair of jeans with a receipt still in the pocket or if you have left a parking receipt on the dashboard of your car during summer for a few days.

All-in-One Printers (also known as a multifunction printers, or MFP)

These are generally printers that perform at least two of the following tasks.

• Scanning
• Printing
• Faxing
• Copying

Duplexing or Duplex Printers

Duplex printing is the ability to print automatically on both sides of a page (front and back). If you are looking to save paper or need to print brochures and menus etc then duplexing is a "must have" feature. Some duplex printers can print both sides of a document simultaneously.

Printers that only print one side automatically, simplex printers, can still print duplex jobs but the user has to manually turn the paper over and re-initialize the printing of the document.

Getting A Good Print

Dots Per Inch (Dpi)

Generally higher DPI produces clearer and more detailed output. The more dots you can squeeze into a square inch, the sharper the resulting image will be. DPI is one of the most common printer specs.

Optimized DPI
Some printers can put dots of different sizes, intensities, and even shapes, onto the page, which can change the way the finished product looks. Some printers use “optimized dpi,” The printing software manipulates the printheads to optimize the placement of ink drops. This can improve the quality of prints. 

If you see a printer that has a very high dpi, It is typically layering the dots by passing the same part of the page multiple times. This places several dots of different colors in one place. The final result will look very vibrant, however this technique requires more ink and increases page printing time.
 

What Is Good Enough?

For rough notes and personal drafts the lowest dpi that you can bare is obviously acceptable but for a letters or business documents ,even one containing simple images, 300 dpi is generally ok.

If it's a special document such as a resume' or you require a good quality print, 600 dpi should be sufficient. 

For good quality image prints 1,200 dpi  and above is the best choice, some cheaper printers have settings above 1,200 dpi but the software and printer quality above this level can make it so that there is very little difference in print quality.
 

Ink Makes a Difference

Print quality is more than just dpi, however. The kind of ink used can make a great difference. As said above laser printers will make text look sharp because they use toner which doesn't bleed into the paper like liquid ink does. Good quality inks can reduce the bleed in effect but If your main purpose in buying a printer is for printing black-and-white documents, a monochrome laser printer will produce a page of text that looks crisper than a high-resolution ink-jet printer.
 

Paper Does Make A Difference

Printing a photo on plain paper with an ink-jet is going to give you a limp, wet document. This is because the inkjet inks are water-based and they get absorbed by the papers fiber. This may result in colour bleed and poor image quality. That's why there are specific papers made for ink-jet printers. Ink-jet specific paper is available for various uses, there is even specific paper for printing photo's with ink-jets.  Plain copy paper still works well for laser printers because nothing is getting absorbed, however the choice of paper glossy or matte can still effect the tone of an image.

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