Which Soho Printer? Part 3 of 3
Posted in Computers on December 12th, 2009 by ComputersOther Printers
Dot Matrix and other Impact Printers
We should not forget the “special case” use which many operations, such as warehousing still rely on. Remember the form you had to sign when Fedex delivered? At the top was a note which read “PRESS HARD YOU ARE WRITING FOUR COPIES”. Did that form come from a Laser or Inkjet Printer? No way – even if you could get the paper to feed without tractors, how many copies do you think would be printed? Just the top one!
To do this with a laser or inkjet printer we would have to print the same sheet FOUR TIMES! This makes it an expensive way to do business, especially as most of this type of printing requires at least one signature, which must be copied to other users. The process becomes more complicated if you need to have multiple pages going with one item, say a sale form for a car, and further complicated if you wish to produce a batch of these “blank” for later use. Some method of stacking the printer output, which can select groups of 4-6 of the same page, coupled with multiple instances of this. Otherwise think of the task of arranging say 50 multi part forms.
Enter the impact printer (Or more correctly Return). Either with hammers, pins or golfball etc. these printers strike the paper behind a black or color ribbon, to print on the top copy of the multi-part paper. The other copies are printed by either carbon paper between the sheets, or pressure sensitive paper, due to the impact of the character printing device. Varying success is achieved by this method of printing, but it is still a necessary part of business.
These printers print one character, or portion thereof at a time, and are thus comparatively slower than the laser/inkjet style. Apart from needing special forms, pre-printed, they have problems with paper feed, and print head wear etc. If these forms are what you need, forget the laser or inkjet, or redesign your forms!
Multi-Function or All-In-One Printers
These devices have come into their own for home users as well as one- or two- person offices. The space saving benefits are well worth it and for less than $100 you can get three or four devices. Starting out as scanners and printers, it soon became obvious you could make a color copier and even add a fax machine. Many home users no longer have a use for printing out faxes, as email has virtually superseded the necessity, not to mention the extra phone line and associated fees. Businesses still may prefer their “Hard Copy”.
Another problem with early versions was the fact that, if your printer broke, then so did your copier and fax. However, these devices are very reliable, much improved since the days of scanner printers these days, and this is now a rare occurrence.
Barcode Printers
There are various other special purpose printers, which we discuss at http://scannerprinters.net many a vital part of the industrial process, such as barcode printers. These print labels with barcodes on them them, a typical use is in a manufacturing setting, where various options may or may not be included. For example in a car assembly plant where options such as color, transmission, engine, trim level, etc. are usually different on each car produced. These options can be indicated on the barcode, or a series of barcode labels, to be read by the assembly line sensors. Not a SOHO example, but the principle is the same.