Computer Printing: How It Got Here

Printing on paper has been one of the computer’s foremost tasks. A hardcopy of, for instance, your documents or photographs is essentially more functional than their softcopy counterparts. Although the computer technology has evolved so much since its dawn, the printer underwent not as much.

Printing derived from typewriters

The first computer printers evolved from manual typewriters. A typewriter stamps characters on paper by metal hammers hitting an inked ribbon placed before the paper. These hammers contain the molded letters, numbers, punctuation marks and others. Eventually the manual kind was replaced by electric typewriters. Electric typewriters made printing on paper much faster because it used single element mechanism – a ball, cylinder or daisy wheel – where the characters are molded. The element moves along the paper, and not the other way around. The first printers were derived from this mechanism, only that the computer directs the machine, instead of human fingers.

Line after line

As computers became better and better, the first few types of printers could not keep up. The line printer was developed, which prints and entire line at a time instead of its predecessor’s one character at once. What makes printing much faster this time is the mechanism – composed of drums, bars or trains – which hit the ribbon almost all together, so the entire line is printed on paper in one maneuver. Line printers are still in use today. Much of the bills or receipts you get are most likely still printed using this technology. They are also, by the way, among the last of the impact type printers – printing characters on paper by means of a striking mechanism.

Making the most of matrix

Since the miniaturization of computers, peripherals too need to match their shrinking size. Printing need not be extremely fast all the time; they also need to be inexpensive and highly functional – much like the matrix printer. A matrix printer uses a pattern of dots located on the print head, which glides smoothly across each line on the paper to imprint characters. Given that the pattern of dots is controlled by the computer, the number of different characters that may be printed is almost limitless. They can also manage graphics and line drawings.

The coming out of ink-jet

Ink-jet printers can be found in just about any home or office with a desktop computer. Among the many advantages of printing with the ink-jets: they do not cost much since their structure and mechanism is fairly simpler; they operate almost silently compared to their predecessors; they can print on almost any type of paper, including transparent plastic sheets; color is reproduced on paper with exceptional accuracy. Ink-jet printers work by ejecting tiny bubbles of ink towards the paper, which dries instantly upon hitting the surface. One of the most common methods of ejecting the ink is thermal, where the ink is heated rapidly to produce a steam bubble.

Lately it’s laser

A laser printer works by using a pattern of dots. This time, however, the dots are much more consistent and precise than its predecessors. Printing, since the dawn of laser printers, became faster, indelible and more accurate. Good desktop laser printers can print characters that, even under magnification, no ink dots are perceptible. The downside to the print quality of lasers is the cost. Color laser printers, although astounding at reproducing photographs, cost way above than most of their counterparts.