Term | Definition |
printer | A device used to produce hard-copy output on paper or another physical medium, such as transparency film. |
nonimpact printer | A type of printer that forms the characters and images without actually striking the output medium; it creates print using electricity, heat, or photographic techniques. |
impact printer | A type of printer that forms characters and images by physically striking an inked ribbon against the output medium, like an old-fashioned typewriter. |
inkjet printer | A nonimpact printer that forms characters and images by spraying thousands of tiny droplets of ink through a set of tiny nozzles and onto a sheet of paper as the sheet passes through it. |
thermal inkjet printer | An inkjet printer that heats the ink to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit, which creates a vapor bubble that forces the ink out of its cartridge and through a nozzle, which in turn creates a vacuum inside the cartridge, drawing more ink into the nozzle. |
piezoelectric inkjet printer | A printer that moves ink with electricity; each nozzle contains piezoelectric crystals, which change their shape when electricity is applied to them and then force out the ink. Also called piezo printer. |
pages per minute (ppm) | A measurement of printing speed. |
laser printer | A nonimpact printer that uses a laser to write an image on a drum and then transfers the drum image to paper using powdered toner. |
drum | A large cylinder, contained in a laser printer, that carries a high negative electric charge on which the page’s image is written with a laser, neutralizing the areas that should pick up toner. |
toner | A powdered combination of iron and colored plastic particles that is contained within a reservoir inside a printer. |
fuser | The heating element in a laser printer that melts the plastic particles in the toner and causes the image to stick to the paper. |
multifunction device (MFD) | A printer that also functions as a copier and a scanner (and sometimes a fax machine). Also called all-in-one-device. |
fax machine | A combination of a modem and a printer designed to send and receive copies of documents through a telephone line. The word fax is short for facsimile, which means “exact copy.” |
thermal printer | A printer that uses heat to transfer an impression onto paper. |
direct thermal printer | A thermal printer that prints an image by burning dots into a sheet of coated paper when it passes over a line of heading elements; its quality isn’t very good and it can’t produce shades of gray or colors. |
thermal wax transfer printer | A thermal printer that adheres a wax-based ink onto paper, using a thermal print head that melts the ink from a ribbon onto the paper; images are printed as dots, so they must be dithered to produce shades of colors. |
dye sublimation printer | A thermal printer that produces an image by heating ribbons containing dye and then dispersing the dyes onto a specially coated paper or transparency. Also called thermal dye transfer printer. |
plotter | A type of printer that produces large-size, high-quality precision documents, such as architectural drawings, charts, maps, and diagrams; used to create engineering drawings for machine parts and equipment. |
label printer | A small specialty printer that holds a roll of labels and feeds them continuously past a print head. |
postage printer | A printer that is similar to a label printer but may include a scale for weighing letters and packages, and may interface with postage-printing software. |
portable printer | A lightweight, battery-powered printer that can be easily transported. |
3-D printer | A printer that uses a special kind of plastic, metal, or other material to create a three-dimensional model of just about any object you can design in a 3-D modeling program on a computer. |