PC Hardware A Beginner’s Guide

(^406) PC Hardware: A Beginner’s Guide
The laser printer, like the Epson printer shown in Figure 17-4, is just beginning to cap-
ture the home and small office markets. Manufacturers like Epson, Hewlett Packard, and
Brother are producing lower-end, good quality laser printers and multifunction printers
(combining a copier, scanner, fax, and printer into a single box) that are priced for the
home market.
Although this group of printers is collectively referred to as laser printers, other light
sources, such as liquid crystal displays (LCD) and light-emitting diodes (LED), are some-
times used in place of a laser. In general, LCD and LED printers produce the same print
quality as the laser printer but at a typically much lower price.
Line Printers
Larger systems, such as mainframes, that print thousands of pages of reports, checks, or
billing statements daily, are called line printers. The name indicates that an entire line of
text is printed in one strike. These printers are usually capable of printing 132 to 168 char-
acters per line. At each character position is a print chain that contains each of the charac-
ters in the printer’s font set. As each line is formed, the chain at each character position is
rotated to the proper character and the line is struck through the ribbon to the paper. The
character positions are then reset and the next line is printed.
Figure 17-4. A laser printer is excellent for printing graphics and text in the same document.
Photo courtesy of Epson America, Inc.