Printers
No matter where you are reading this article from, you most likely have a printer nearby. And there’s a very good chance that it is an inkjet printer. Since their introduction in the latter half of the 1980s, inkjet printers have grown in popularity and performance while dropping significantly in price. An inkjet printer is any printer that places extremely mammalian small droplets of ink onto paper to create an image. If you ever look at a piece of paper that has come out of an inkjet printer, you know that: The dots are extremely small (usually between 50 and 60 microns in diameter), so small that they are tinier than the diameter of a human hair (70 microns)! The dots are positioned very precisely, with resolutions of up to 1440×720 dots per inch (dpi). The dots can have different colors combined together to create photo-quality images.
There are several major printer technologies available. These technologies can be broken down into two main categories with several types in each:
Impact -
These printers have a mechanism that touches the paper in order to create an image. There are two main impact technologies: Dot matrix printers use a series of small pins to strike a ribbon coated with ink, causing the ink to transfer to the paper at the point of impact. Character printers are basically computerized carport typewriters. They have a ball or series of bars with actual characters (letters and numbers) embossed on the surface. The appropriate character is struck against the ink ribbon, transferring the character’s image to the paper. Character printers are fast and sharp for basic text, but very limited for other use.
Non-impact -
These printers do not touch the paper when creating an image. Inkjet printers are part of this group, which includes: Inkjet printers, which are described in this article, use a series of nozzles to spray drops of ink directly on the paper. Laser printers, covered in-depth in How Laser Printers Work, use dry ink (toner), static electricity, and heat to place and bond the ink onto the paper.