Discuss the classification of printers
Printer is an important text and graphics output device in computer system. It can output the required text or graphics from the computer and display them on various patterns. From the first printer to the present, printers related to printers have been changing rapidly. From the past can only output characters and simple graphics to the present multi-functional color graphics processing, printers have been playing a powerful role in more and more areas: such as photo printing, document output, industrial mapping, typesetting, and so on.
Common printers include dot matrix printer, laser printer, inkjet printer, thermal sublimation printer and so on.
1. Laser printer laser printing technology first appeared in 60s and 70s. The original laser printer used an electron laser tube filled with helium-neon gas as a laser emitter, and the volume was large. With the rapid maturity of laser printing technology, many technicians have designed semiconductor laser printers on the basis of electrostatic copier technology, combined with laser technology and computer technology. Compared with needle printer, laser printer not only has good printing quality, fast output speed, low noise, but also has high printing load, so it has been widely used. However, the initial investment cost of laser printers is high, the price of consumables is also relatively high, can not be multi-layer copy, and the requirements for printing media are relatively high. At present in the laser printer market, the relatively famous brands are HP, Epson, Canon, Limeng, Samsung, Xerox and other series.
2. Inkjet printer inkjet printing technology appeared in the early 80s. Inkjet printing is a process in which ink is sprayed intermittently or continuously through the nozzle to form a text or image on the printing medium. Inkjet printer has simple mechanical structure, light volume, low noise, low power consumption, high printing quality, but the shortcomings are high material consumption, no multi-layer copy ability, and the nozzle is easy to block. Inkjet printers are now the two giants of printer printers with laser printers. The common brands of inkjet printers are EPSON, Canon, HP, Lexmark and so on.
3. Dot matrix printer. In a long period of time, needle printers have occupied a very important position, the development of today has gradually faded out of the mainstream stage of printers. It has the characteristics of low price, printing cost and wide-format printing, but the disadvantages of low printing quality and high noise make it unable to adapt to high-quality, high-speed commercial printing. Nowadays, needle printer is rarely used in general office, mainly used for printing invoice reports and other bills; there is also a micro-needle printer, which is widely used in banks, supermarkets and other units. The common brand is EPSON.
4. Thermal sublimation printer, the sublimation technology of thermal sublimation printers has entered China for about ten years. Thermal sublimation printer is an instrument which transfers pigment to printing medium by using thermal energy. It can control the proportion and intensity of color by adjusting the temperature of semiconductor heating element. It has the characteristics of continuous color scale, so it performs very well in the fidelity and restorability of the image, especially suitable for color photo printing. Compared with other printers, thermal sublimation printer has the advantages of super color expression and long-term preservation of printed matter, but its disadvantages are high purchase price and printing cost, slow printing speed and high printing environment requirements.
5. Other types of printers include LED printers, magnetic printers, ionic printers, electrostatic printers and so on.
