HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST PRINTER FOR YOUR ORGANISATION.

Printers

A device that prints text or illustrations on paper. There are many different types of printers. In terms of the technology utilized, printers fall into the following categories:

· daisy-wheel: Similar to a ball-head typewriter, this type of printer has a plastic or metal wheel on which the shape of each character stands out in relief. A hammer presses the wheel against a ribbon, which in turn makes an ink stain in the shape of the character on the paper. Daisy-wheel printers produce letter-quality print but cannot print graphics. 

·  dot-matrix: Creates characters by striking pins against an ink ribbon. Each pin makes a dot, and combinations of dots form characters and illustrations. 

Thermal Printer: An inexpensive printer that works by pushing heated pins against heat-sensitive paper. Thermal printers are widely used in calculators and fax machines.

Direct thermal: The direct thermal printer prints the image by burning dots onto coated paper as it passes over the heated print-head  Direct thermal printers do not use ribbons. Early fax machines used direct thermal printing.
Thermal wax transfer: This type of printer uses a thermal transfer ribbon that contains wax-based ink. Heat is applied to the ribbon using a thermal print-head that melts the ink transferring it to the paper where it is permanent after it cools. A typical thermal transfer ribbon consists of three layers: the base material, the heat melting ink, and the coating on the print side of the base material. The coating and base material help keep ink from adhering to the print-head which can cause poor print quality. Monochrome and color thermal transfer ribbons are available. It is recommended that the print-head be cleaned between each ribbon change with a cotton swab and isopropyl alcohol.

1..      Old models. In older thermal printers, a heat-sensitive or thermal paper is used. This paper is fed into the thermal printer; a thermal transfer then occurs as the paper reacts with the printer’s print head. An image is produced as the heated areas turn black.

2.      Newer models. Newer models work with ribbon cartridges, which contain wax-like ink. Paper is fed inside the thermal printer.  Once heat is applied to the ribbon cartridges, the ink melts and forms the desired image on the paper. Color images may also be produced through the use of colored panels (CMY or CMYK). 

Advantages and disadvantages

Two main advantages of a thermal printer would be the relative affordability of the machine and its quietness when printing. However, thermal machines have more disadvantages than advantages: for one, they are considered to be inefficient since too much heat would mean too much ink is used on an image. Aside from the waste, this could also mean that the image would smudge before the ink dried.

Another disadvantage is that the images produced are of poor quality (that is, generally grainy and blotchy), since thermal printers are unable to vary the intensity and dot sizes that make up the produced images.

The thermal paper should also be handled carefully and must be protected from moisture, light and heat. The printer itself requires constant maintenance since the regular use of heat in its mechanism makes it more vulnerable to damage.

Additionally, because direct thermal printers only have the ability to print just one or two colors, they are not ideal for more detailed print jobs. Also, direct thermal printers require special paper, which tends to be more expensive than normal paper.

In the past, images generated from direct thermal printers were prone to distortion or fading when exposed to water, heat, light or friction, however recent technological advancements have made them readable for periods of up to 50 years or more. Another advantage of direct thermal printers is that they have no other supply needs except for paper.

All these are reasons that make thermal printers not so widely used as other printer technologies, and why they are considered to be special use printers. However, thermal printers are useful for specific retail applications such as printing labels for CDs or DVDs, barcodes or receipts

A printer that uses heat to transfer an impression onto paper. There are two kinds of thermal printers:

• thermal wax transfer: a printer that adheres a wax-based ink onto paper. A thermal printhead melts wax-based ink from the transfer ribbon onto the paper. When cool, the wax is permanent. This type of thermal printer uses an equivalent panel of ink for each page to be printed, no matter if a full page or only one line of print is transferred. Monochrome printers have a black page for each page to be printed, while color printers have either three (CMY) or four (CMYK) colored panels for each page.
• Unlike thermal dye transfer printers , also called dye sublimation printers, these printers print images as dots, which means that images must be dithered first. As a result, images are not quite photo-realistic, although they are very good. The big advantages of these printers over thermal dye transfer printers are that they don't require special paper and they are faster.
• direct thermal: a printer that prints the image by burning dots onto coated paper when the paper passes over a line of heating elements. Early fax machines used direct thermal printing.

·  ink-jet:(Ink dispersion ) Sprays ink at a sheet of paper. Ink-jet printers produce high-quality text and graphics.

An inkjet printer is any printer that places extremely 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 can have different colors combined together to create photo-quality images. Mostly 4, 6, 8 colors 

Advantages & Disadvantages of Inkjet Printers

Advantage: Good for Small Offices

·         Inkjet printers typically are smaller than laser jet printers, so they can save you valuable space. Laser printers, on the other hand, are often bulky. Also, inkjet printers usually have quieter operation than laser printers, which tend to be noisy. In a small office, both of these inkjet features are distinct advantages.

·         Inkjet printers are often cheaper than laser printers. If you need nothing more than a basic printer that can accomplish common printing tasks at a reasonable level of quality, an inkjet printer is likely the best choice.

·         High-end inkjet printers produce high-quality photos that border on professional photofinishing, according to Cnet.com. It recommends that serious photography hobbyists purchase a letter-sized inkjet for best image-quality results. Those who not only want good photo printouts, but also need the printer for home-office work should purchase a multi-function inkjet printer.

Disadvantage:

Sometimes inkjet cartridges get clogged or dirty, which either blocks the ink droplets or causes them to land incorrectly. To fix this, you must initiate a lengthy self-cleaning process, which uses up valuable ink. Laser jet printers do not have this problem.

You can't use all types of paper with an inkjet. With the wrong type of paper, the printed ink may smear and get all over your hands or clothes. Also, certain types of printouts, such as color images, may take a long time to dry. Finally, moisture may cause printed ink to smudge.

Requires regular cleaning of the Maintenance station

·  Laser: Uses the same technology as copy machines. Laser printers produce very high quality text and graphics.

A laser printer is a printer that uses a focused beam or light to transfer text and images onto paper. Though contrary to popular belief, the laser does not actually burn the images onto the paper. Instead, as paper passes through the printer, the laser beam fires at the surface of a cylindrical drum called a photo-receptor. This drum has an electrical charge (typically positive), that is reversed in areas where the laser beam hits it. By reversing the charge in certain areas of the drum, the laser beam can print patterns (such as text and pictures) onto the photo receptor.
Once the pattern has been created on the drum, it is coated with toner from a toner cartridge. The toner is black in most cartridges, but may be cyan, magenta, and yellow in color laser printers. The positively charged toner clings to areas of the drum that have been negatively charged by the laser. When the paper passes through the printer, the drum is given a strong negative charge, which allows the toner to transfer and stick to the paper. The result is a clean copy of the image written on the paper.
Because laser printers do not use ink, they have less image smearing problems than inkjet printers and are able to print pages faster. While laser printers and toner cartridges typically cost more than inkjet printers and ink cartridges, most laser toner cartridges last several times longer than ink cartridges, which makes their cost per page about equal. For this reason, businesses tend to use laser printers, while consumers are more likely to use inkjet printers. Laser printers typically have a resolution of 600 dpi (dots per inch) or higher.

INSTALLATION Of Local PRINTER

Ø  Drivers and software First

-          CD or WEB

Ø  Check shipping TAPE etc

Ø  USB PnP

Ø  TCP / IP

Ø  UPDATING DRIVERS

Ø  UPDATING FIRMWARE

INSTALLATION Network Printer PRINTER

·         Installing Network printer that is attached to another PC

-        Share printer the installed printer

-        From Run: specify the share path

-        From a web browser specify the printer name (IP) base

-        Start Devices and Printers

·         IP base ?

·          

Printer Languages

Printer languages are commands from the computer to the printer to tell the printer how to format the document being printed. These commands manage font size, graphics, compression of data sent to the printer, color, etc. The two most popular printer languages are Postscript and Printer Control Language .

Postscript is a printer language that uses English phrases and programmatic constructions to describe the appearance of a printed page to the printer. This printer language was developed by Adobe in 1985. It introduced new features such as outline font s and vector graphics . Printers now come from the factory with or can be loaded with Postscript support. Postscript is not restricted to printers. It can be used with any device that creates an image using dots such as screen displays, slide recorders, and image setters.

PCL (Printer Command Language) is an escape code language used to send commands to the printer for printing documents. Escape code language is so-called because the escape key begins the command sequence followed by a series of code numbers. Hewlett Packard originally devised PCL for dot matrix and inkjet printers. Since its introduction, it has become an industry standard. Other manufacturers who sell HP clones have copied it. Some of these clones are very good, but there are small differences in the way they print a page compared to real HP printers. In 1984, the original HP Laserjet printer was introduced using PCL. PCL helped change the appearance of low-cost printer documents from poor to exceptional quality.

Fonts

A font is a set of characters of a specific style and size within an overall typeface design. Printers use resident fonts and soft fonts to print documents. Resident fonts are built into the hardware of a printer. They are also called internal fonts or built-in fonts. All printers come with one or more resident fonts. Additional fonts can be added by inserting a font cartridge into the printer or installing soft fonts to the hard drive. Resident fonts cannot be erased unlike soft fonts. Soft fonts are installed onto the hard drive and then sent to the computer's memory when a document is printed that uses the particular soft font. Soft fonts can be purchased in stores or downloaded from the Internet.

There are two types of fonts used by the printer and screen display, bitmap fonts and outline fonts. Bitmap fonts are digital representations of fonts that are not scalable. This means they have a set size or a limited set of sizes. For example, if a document using a bitmap font sized to 24 point is sent to the printer and there is not a bitmap font of that size, the computer will try to guess the right size. This results in the text looking stretched-out or squashed. Jagged edges are also a problem with bitmap fonts. Outline fonts are mathematical descriptions of the font that are sent to the printer. The printer then rasterizes (see raster graphics ) or converts them to the dots that are printed on the paper. Because they are mathematical, they are scalable . This means the size of the font can be changed without losing the sharpness or resolution of the printed text. TrueType and Type 1 fonts are outline fonts. Outline fonts are used with Postscript and PCL printer languages.

The four printer qualities of most interest to most users are:

• Color: Color is important for users who need to print pages for presentations or maps and other pages where color is part of the information. Color printers can also be set to print only in black-and-white. Color printers are more expensive to operate since they use two ink cartridges (one color and one black ink) that need to be replaced after a certain number of pages. Users who don't have a specific need for color and who print a lot of pages will find a black-and-white printer cheaper to operate.
• Resolution: Printer resolution (the sharpness of text and images on paper) is usually measured in dots per inch ( dpi ). Most inexpensive printers provide sufficient resolution for most purposes at 600 dpi.
• Speed: If you do much printing, the speed of the printer becomes important. Inexpensive printers print only about 3 to 6 sheets per minute. Color printing is slower. More expensive printers are much faster.
• Memory: Most printers come with a small amount of memory (for example, one megabyte ) that can be expanded by the user. Having more than the minimum amount of memory is helpful and faster when printing out pages with large images or tables with lines around them (which the printer treats as a large image).