Types of printer

Printers and their technology 

Printing and Digital prints

Digital prints refer to images printed using a digital printer instead of a traditional printing press.
The majority of these printers are controlled by computers and software instructions to tell the printer how to print. The term digital comes from the technology of using "digits" and is based on 1's and 0's


Images  can be printed onto a variety of different media including paper,cloth, plastics, wood, canvas and even ceramics. Accurate colour reproduction and the type of ink used are key to distinguishing high quality from low quality digital prints

Printing materials can vary considerably and there are a vast range out there on the market. Most forms of digital printing are very easy to achieve as the technology and machinery is very fast and efficient and relatively in-expensive

There are various printing techniques available nowadays, I have listed below the most common types of printers and and an outline of their processes

Inkjet printers 

Inkjet printers are the most common type of consumer printers. They are used to print a variety of different products on a variety of services.The inkjet technology works by spraying very fine drops of ink on a sheet of paper. These droplets are "ionized" which allows them to be directed by magnetic plates in the ink's path. As the paper is fed through the printer, the print head moves back and forth, spraying thousands of these small droplets on the page.

While inkjet printers used to lack the quality and speed of laser printers, they have now become almost as fast as laser printers and some can even produce higher-quality images. Even low-budget inkjet printers can now print high-resolution photos. As the quality of inkjet printers has improved, the prices have continued to drop. However, for most people, refilling the inkjet cartridges a few times will often cost more than the actual printer itself.


This type of printer is also used by commercial printers for very large posters and advertising work and is also use by home computer users to print out course work or spreadsheets and photographs




My Printer and other methods of printing


Shown below is a photo of my Canon ip4300 inkjet printer which produces a maximum A4 colour or black and white print. This is an excellent printer which I have owned for about 3-4 years and all for £49.00. Out of a score of 10 I would rate this printer 9/10. It really does produce really exceptional prints that I think are second to none

Every time I print a new batch of photo's I first calibrate my printer by running the print calibration program that is built into the driver software. This alligns my print heads,removes blockages,cleans, and keeps the ink  flowing evenly through the print head nozels


If the process is not performed on a regular basis,streaks,banding and fading prints can occur


The only downside I have with this printer is the price of ink. My printer uses 5 ink toner cartridges,blue magenta,yellow,cyan and black but the cost of replacing these inks is approx £50 which is the same price of the printer.


I always buy the original Canon ink cartridges and the colours that these inks cartridges reproduce are excactly the same as what I see on screen. I have used cheaper none Canon brand ink cartridges but they produce less superior results,with wishy washy colours and colour casts.


I can normally produce  about 20 A4 prints from a full set of Canon inks and dependent on what paper I use to print on this works out at about £3 per print.


This does seem a little expensive compared to the prices of the online printers which can produce the same image at a fraction of the price.


However you can not always guarantee the quality,colours and quality of this type of printing and the end result will always be printed as a jpg image

Laser Printers

A laser printer is a printer that uses a focused beam or light to transfer text and images onto paper or other matrerials. As  paper passes through the printer, the laser beam fires at the surface of a cylindrical drum called a photoreceptor. 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 photoreceptor.

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 a lot longer than ink cartridges, which makes their cost per page cheaper 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.

Solvent Printers










These printers are usually ink jet printers which are very large in size and are able to print onto very wide or large items,they can be costly to buy but are mainly used for commercial printing


They use a solvent mixed into the ink which enables printing onto a whole host of products for commercial use which is also waterproof. The print heads can be changed to except water based inks or solvent based inks. These printers will print onto most surfaces including glass,wood,ceramics,fabrics,plastic,large posters etc

Shown here below is a mixture of some of the solvent printers that can be purchased nowadays

Thermal printer 

A printer that uses heated pins to "burn" images onto heat-sensitive paper. The pins are electrically heated and brought into contact with the specially treated paper easily, instead of with great impact. The coating on the paper discolors when heated in this way. These printers, used in calculators and many fax machines, are inexpensive, but produce low-quality, low resolution print. They are however, quiet and fast as they print.

This type of printer is still in use today in many ATM bank systems but the technology is now becoming more and more dated and successors are superceding this type of printing as we speak

Dot Matrix Printer


Dot Matrix Printers are still used today but not as much as in the old days.They are mainly used  for big batch printing runs and can print on a lot thicker paper than ink jets and laser printers 


This type of printer printer uses hammers and a ribbon to form images out of dots. It is widely used to print multipart forms and address labels. Also known as a "serial dot matrix printer," the tractor and sprocket mechanism in these devices handles thicker media better than laser and inkjet printers.

The dot matrix printer uses one or two columns of dot hammers that are moved across the paper. The hammers hit the ribbon into the paper, which causes the ink to be deposited. The more hammers, the higher the resolution. For example, 9-pin heads produce draft quality text, while 24-pin heads produce typewriter quality output. Speeds range from 200 to 400 cps, which is about 90 to 180 lpm.


Dot matrix printers fitted with a tractor feed are commonly used for printing continuous multi part forms and mailing labels. The tractor feed contains a sprocket that grabs the perforated holes at both sides of the form and pulls it through uniformly.


The downside of using these printers are they are very noisy and their costs have been overtaken by cheaper more efficient Inkjet and laser printers
The technology in these printers is very old and it's only time before they are condemned to the technology scrapheap