Starter What Is This?!?
an early printer
Impact Printers Daisywheel Works like a typewriter - bangs a metal imprint against an ink-soaked ribbon Slow, but simple
Impact Printers Dot Matrix Dots instead of letters - can now manage crude drawings Reliable, not easily affected by dust or debris
Small nozzles spray liquid ink - high quality images but ink can smudge Cheap to buy but expensive to replace ink Inkjet Printers
Uses toner instead of ink - very quick and does not smudge Expensive to buy but cheap to replace toner Laser Printers
One or more moving arms draws on the paper Good for drawing patterns or shapes Plotter
Scenario Paulo needs a printer in his pizza restaurant to print customers’ orders. The printouts will be used by the chefs so they know what to prepare. Andrea needs a printer for her new business making cakes. She wants to be able to print a couple of small brochures with pictures of the best ones - the pictures need to be high quality but she won’t be printing hundreds of copies.
Scenario Colin has been asked to buy a printer for ‘Oxygym’. They send a monthly newsletter out to customers as well as leaflets and flyers that are posted up in the reception area. Cheryl is an architect and needs to buy a printer to print out her technical drawings. These printouts will be pretty big, highly detailed and need to be very accurate.