Printers

Printers produce hard copies printed on permanent material. It is called hard copy because it is tangible and can not be easily changed.  

There are two categories of printers, 

• impact and 
• non impact printers.

  Impact Printers
The Dot matrix printer is an example of an impact printer because it uses tiny dots to produce letters and graphics. They make a lot of noise and are slow.  

Some examples of Dot matrix printers are the Epson LX300, Epson LX780 and the Citizen Prodot 24.

Ink Jet printers.

 These are examples of a non-impact printer since they use nozzles to spray characters on to the page. They are between the dot matrix and laser printers in terms of speed and quality. Some examples are Canon BJC 620, HP 610C, HP 590C, Epson Stylus Colour 300 and the HP 859Cix.

Laser Jet printers use the principle of a photocopier and use a laser beam to print characters on to a page. They are faster and more expensive. They are also an example of a non-impact printer. High quality text and graphics are produced. Some examples are HP LaserJet 1100, HP LaserJet 2100, HP LaserJet 4L, HP LaserJet 5L and the Epson EPL 5700.

 

Do the following activity after learning about the mouse and list the printers that are installed in your computer.

 

3D Laser Printer