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Printers
Selecting the right printer for your office can mean the difference between running your office efficiently and constantly having to contact your computer department for assistance.
The most common types of printers are:
- Bubblejet and Inkjet Printers: Inkjet printers (search) work in a similar manner to a dot matrix printer, but instead of pressing a dry ink against the page, the print head sprays drops of liquid ink onto the page. Bubblejet and inkjet printers have better image quality and are faster than dot-matrix printers; however, printouts have a tendency to smear if gotten wet.
- Laser Printers: Laser printers (search) work in a manner similar to a photocopier. A roller is charged with electricity, then a laser is used to remove the charge from portions of the roller. Powdered ink (toner) sticks to the parts of the roller that were hit by the laser, and this toner is transferred from the roller to the paper. Then the ink is baked into the paper using a heater. Laser printers produce very high quality output and are very fast.
- Dot matrix Printers(impact): In a dot matrix printer (search), a print head moves across the page. Characters or graphics are created by using a cluster of pins. These pins press an inked ribbon to the paper to create a dot. Each character or image is made out of a series of dots. These printers are usually cheap and durable, so they are still used by many businesses as invoice printers. They tend to be slow and noisy, and the output quality is the lowest of all types of printers.
IP or Locally Connected?
There are 2 types of printers that PC workstations can be connected to. The first is called a network printer.
Network printers (search) can be accessed by anyone using a PC workstation running terminal emulation software to connect to the mainframe. Network printers are always left powered on so that anybody can print mainframe documents to this type of printer.
A locally connected printer is a printer using a parallel printer cable to connect the printer directly to a PC workstation. The disadvantage of a locally connected printer is that other users who wish to print a mainframe document can only print to a locally connected printer if the owner of the locally connected printer has their PC workstation powered on and are also logged into their NT network account.
Some questions that should be asked when determining printer needs:
- Do you need a local or network printer?
- If networked, do you have an existing ethernet drop?
- If local, what is the justification for a dedicated printer?
- What applications will this printer support?
- How many pages per month do you need to print?
- Will you need to print labels? Envelopes?
- What size is the area you're planning to place the printer in?
- How many people will be using this printer?
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