Output Devices : Printers & Plotters

People often prefer to get printouts of the work they have done rather than to look at it on a monitor. Printouts are called hard copy. Unlike images on a screen hard copy can provide a permanent record of work and can be looked at away from the computer. Hard copy can be obtained using a printer or a plotter. There are lots of different types of printers and plotters available. They vary in the method they use to produce hard copy and the cost and the quality of the hard copy they produce. Different devices are suitable for different applications.

The main types of plotters and printers are listed here :

Printers	Dot Matrix
	Laser
	Ink Jet
	Thermal
Plotters	Flatbed
	Drum

A dot matrix printer is known as an impact printer because it makes an image on the page by hitting a hammer against a ribbon. Printers which do not do this are known as non-impact printers.

GCSE ICT Companion 04 - (C) P Meakin 2004