Describe the general features of printers.

General features of printers

General Features of Printer : Information stored in the computer's memory comes to the printer 8 through the input/output interface. The printer records incoming data permanently on paper. Hard copies of letters, numbers, symbols, images etc. are made with the help of printer. Printers with different features are manufactured by different companies. Following are some common features of the printer:

(i) Print speed: Print speed (Print speed) means the speed of printing. That is, how fast, how much information can be printed out, this amount is used to measure. Print speed is expressed as DPI (Do Per Inch), PPM (Page Per Minute) etc.

(ii) Print Quality: The print quality of the printer is called print quality. These print standards are based on four types of print. These are Draft Print, Letter Quality Print, Normal Print and Best Print. Generally, normal and best quality prints are available in laser printers.

(iii) Buffer size: The amount of data that can be stored simultaneously in the printer's buffer memory before printing is called the printer's buffer size (Buffer size).

(iv) Print size: How big a page or paper a printer can take for printing and the maximum number of lines per page and how many characters per line can be printed is determined by the print size.

(v) Print Direction: In case of document print out, the print head has to move continuously left and right. The direction from which the print will be completed during movement is indicated by the print direction.

(vi) Print Interface: The type of port through which the printer will be connected to the computer is expressed by the print interface. This connection is established by two types of ports, namely parallel port and serial port. Currently the USB port is used.

(vii) Print Mechanism: The use of technical technology in the printer, i.e. motor, gear, mechanical equipment, RAM, microcontroller chip, etc.

Describe the classification of printers

Printers can basically be divided into two categories, namely-

1. Impact Printer,

2. Non-Impact Printer

Impact printer: In the case of the printer, the print head is in external contact with the ribbon; It is called Impact Printer. The ribbon sits between the paper and the head. The impact printer can again be divided into two parts.

(A) Line printer

(B) Serial printer.

(A) Line printer: Line printer prints one complete line at a time. Line printers are very fast in push printers. Line printers are again of two types, namely-

1. Chain printer ,

2. Drum printer.

(B) Serial printer: Serial printer can print only one character at a time. Examples are daisy wheel printers and dot matrix printers.

(ii) Non-Impact Printer: The print head in the type of printer; Does not touch paper and ribbon, it is called non-impact printer. In this case, information is printed on paper with the help of heat, light, electricity or laser beam. Non-impact printers are again of different types, viz

(a) Thermal printer

(b) Electrostatic printer

(c) Ink-Jet Printer

(d) Bubble jet printer

(E) Laser printer 

Classification of printers according to print direction:

(i) Unidirectional printer

(ii) Bidirectional printer

Classification of printers based on speed, performance and quality:

(a) Character printer: This type of printer prints only one character at a time, its speed is low.

(b) Draft printer: In this type of printer, dots are printed. Its quality is expressed in dots per inch.

(c) Letter Quality Printer: The print quality of this type of printer is very good example - Daisy wheel printer.

(d) Page printer: This type of printer can print one page at a time like a photocopier.

(e) Black and white printer: This type of printer is used for black and white print out.

(f) Color printer: This printer is mostly used for printing graphics output.