What is Printer?

A printer is basically an output device which prints a hard copy of the electronic data that is stored in the computer or any other devices. The electronic data may include documents, text, images or even the combination of all three. Particular printers are available for printing particular data types.

Today, in the market, there are a number of companies selling all types of printers. Hence, searching the right printer which suits you the best for you is a pretty tedious task. To make your work easy, we have brought this article.

Types of Printers


Printers are typically classified taking into account features such as the color scale that is capable of printing. That is, in colors or black and white, the type of connection, the number of pages per minute that are capable of processing and printing. And the specific type of technology used for it.

Concerning the type of connection, there are several protocols for printing. Such as Ethernet, wireless over Wi-Fi, parallel port and USB, the latter being the most modern and which we use today.

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In the following paragraphs, we will know the different types of printers that we can find in the market.

  1. Dot Matrix Printers
  2. Inkjet printer
  3. Laser printer
  4. Plotters
  5. Impact printers
  • Line printer
  • Daisy printer
  • Matrix printer

Histrory of Printer

  • Mechanical printer – Charles Babbage introduced the first mechanical printer in 1822.
  • Inkjet printer – Was developed in 1950. Till 1970 this printers were not capable of producing decent digital images. Epson, Canon, and Hewlett-Packard invented this printer.
  • Laser printer – Gary Starkweather invented laser printer. HP company developed HP LaserJet printers in 1984. in 1985 Apple LaserWriter printer was invented by Apple.
  • 3D printer – Chuck Hull introduced 3d printers in 1984
  • Dot-matrix printer – IBM created the first dot matrix printer in 1957

How Does Printer Work?

Printer works in a very simple way. Printers work by converting digital images and text into physical copies. They do this using a driver or specialised software that has been designed to convert the file into a language that the printer can understand.

The image or text is then recreated on to the page using a series of miniscule dots. The only real difference that separates the various types of machines available is the method in which the dots are transferred onto the page.

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Uses of Printer

The Usage of Printer devices depends on the type of printers and the purpose of using the printer, such as the below,

  • Personal Use: Printing images and personal documents for domestic purposes.
  • General Use: Printing documents for general purposes.
  • Business Use: Printing business-related documents requires high-end printers.
  • Marketing Use: Printing marketing signs & banners, using the printers that allows various materials.

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What is the Most Commonly Used Printer?

  • For home and family, inkjet printers are the most commonly used
  • For office environments, laser printers are the most common.

Printer have Memory?

Yes, almot all the printers have a small amount of memory in order to store print jobs, printer fonts, printer settings etc.

Friends today we have a history of printers, What is printer, and how many types? This information is given through this article.

To know more you can click here – Computer Solve Printer