The Printer Laser Printers

Laser Printers
Ink-Jet printers
Dot Matrix Printers

Advantages/Disadvantages
The six parts of Laser Printing
Laser Printers
Advantages Disadvantages 1. Cleaningelectrical & mechanical & Optical!
Fast Expensive cartridge 2. Conditioningdrum charged very negative
Good image Quality Single copy at a time
Reliable Expensive hardware
3. Writinglaser writes image on drum
Durable water resistant Need warm-up time 4. Developingtoner to drum where laser been
image Cant do continuous 5. Transferringtoner transferred from drum to
Excellent quality color forms
paper
6. Fusingtoner melted into paper

The six steps of Printing

1. Cleaning
To remove all residual charge a bright light
is applied universally to the entire surface.
Then the drum is cleaned of residual toner
by scraping old toner off with a blade and
then a brush.

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 Cleaning the drum 2. Conditioning
Now, in the dark, a strong negative charge
is applied to the surface of the drum with
the Primary Corona Wire
This is about negative 600 volts.

Writing
3. Writing
A laser beam traces the image to be printed
onto the drum.
Where the laser strikes, that area becomes
conductive causing the surface voltage to be
100 volts. (Less negative than 600 volts)
Physical principle is photoelectric
conductivity.
There is no visible image on the drum.

Close up of Laser Writing 4. Developing

Toner particles are charged to a voltage
about -300 volts so that they are attracted to
the area where the laser has been.
The tiny ink particles are attracted to the
relatively positively charged areas of the
drum that were exposed to the laser light.

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Developing 5. Transferring
The strongly positive transfer Corona wire
attracts the toner particles from the drum
and onto the paper.
The image is now on the paper, but it is
highly charged, and like dust on the paper.

Transferring 6. Fusing
The image is now present on the paper, but
can be easily smudged. Therefore the paper
with the loose image on it is passed through
two heated rollers.
The ink particles are melted and fused into
the paper with the heat & pressure of the
rollers.

Summary
Laser Printer Problems
First Defense

Check for power on

Check that printer is on line
Do printer self test
Print test Page

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 More Complicated Problems Paper Feed Problems
Paper Feed Problems Buy quality paper for laser printers
Image Problems Copier paper is frequently thinner
Driver Problems Avoid vertical feed devices L
Misc. Problems Fluff paper before inserting in printer
Avoid bent, crumpled or folded paper
Dont let dust accumulate in the feed
Sticky labels are problematic

Image Problems Driver Problems

Entirely Black Page Primary corona wire System crashes when the printer is used
Entirely White Page Transfer corona Run SCANDISK
Image does not stick to page Fusing roller Update the Printer Driver
Re-install printer driver
Vertical streakiness Refill/Replace toner
cartridge

Misc. Problems Ink-Jet Printers

Check Cables for looseness Advantages Disadvantages
Small size Expensive cartridge
Bi-directional Print Cables
Costs less than Laser Lesser Image quality
Have enough memory for print buffer New technology: photo- Not water resistant
Do a cold reboot quality ink-jet printers Slower than Laser

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 Ink-Jet Printers
How an Ink-Jet Printer Works
A print head moves across the paper,
creating one line of text at a time
Puts ink on paper using a matrix of small
dots
Tiny plates at the ends of ink tubes heat up
Tiny air bubble of ionized ink is ejected onto
the paper

Supporting an Ink-Jet Printer

Ink-jet Cartridges
Cleaning print cartridges and their cradles
Frequently software routine to clean jets
Consider graceful power off for printer
Correcting missing lines or dots on the
printed page
Using software to align heads

Computer Color Dot-Matrix Printers

Printing Color Video Monitor Advantages Disadvantages
Reflective Color Luminescent Color Old reliable Poor image quality
CMYK RGB Multiple copies Noisy!
Tractor feed Messy Ribbon change
Cyan Red
Maroon Green Less expensive Slow
Daisy Wheelgood Poor/Awful Quality
Yellow Blue
quality print Graphics
Black (#RRGGBB) in hex!

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How a Dot-Matrix Printer Works Dot-Matrix Printers
Uses a print head that moves across the
width of the paper using pins to print a
matrix of dots on the page
Print head pins shoot against an ink soaked
cloth ribbon, which hits the paper behind
the ribbon, depositing the ink to the paper
*Can make several carbon copies*

Common Pin counts Printing Using Windows 9x

9poorest print quality Spooling (Like Buffering)
18intermediate Placing print jobs in a print queue so that an
application can be released from the printing
24the sharpest quality
process before printing is completed
An acronym for Simultaneous Peripheral
Operations On-Line
Click on the Printer icon in the System Tray

Printing a Test Page & END

Improving Printer Performance Start | Settings | Printers | Alt+Click Printer | Properties

Improve printer speed by

Adding more memory to the printer buffer
Lowering the printer resolution
Lowering the print quality
Effect of paper quality high quality paper
especially important in color ink jet