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 1440x720 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.
