| Printers - Index Printers |  | Navigation Icons Guide
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Computer printers are one of the most flexible ways to present information to people. Information on a screen might be preferable, but screens don't show much information, need batteries if they are to be the least bit portable, need local data stores or wireless network connections to update information. Screens are good for showing individual records, short texts and moving pictures. Print is better for portability, reading spontanaeity and can give enough information to have both detail and context - as with engineering diagrams and maps.
| About Print | How printing fits into a world of computerised information |
Disks are good at storing information
Search engines are good at finding information
Screens engage peoples interest - but aren't as effective as print for comprehension.
Screens hold fewer pixels, less information. They aren't as easily portable, can't be annotated and it's more difficult to find your place in book-length information.
| Print Concepts |
Pixels and colour handling. 
Printer Communications
| Print Mechanisms. | Printer Types.  |
Band Printers - High speed impact printers with low operating costs but no graphics. Expensive to buy but good for recording commercial transactions on multipart paper.
Dot Matrix Printers - Lower speed impact printers with low operating costs and graphics capabilities mainly used to record commercial transactions.
Photochemical - Microfilm output is used in commercial and government work where a lasting archive copy is vital.
Thermal Printers - Thermal printers are widely used in commercial work for label on demand tasks such as barcodes, mailing labels and ID passes. Dye Sub printers can be used for very good looking photographic material.
Solid Ink Printers - Xerox are front-runners with phase-change inkjet printers fed by solid ink sticks. Page production looks and feels like laser printer output and can cost less.
Laser Printers are the workhorses for office and commercial work. Laser printers can work in monochrome or colour relatively quickly - although page prices rise rapidly with page cover. Little personal printers can cost under £200. Big fast workgroup printers tend to have lower ownership costs - consumables cost less. The technology scales to machines that can be used for million page invoice runs and to print books more cheaply than could be done with a conventional press.
Inkjet Printers are common as home printers where their low purchase price and suitability for photographic work makes them popular. The printing mechanisms in an inkjet are almost entirely consumable cartridges so having a colour mechanism adds very little to the purchase price and personal printers cost as little as £50. Inkjet technology scales to print wide pages relatively easily so plotters tend to work this way. The inkjet mechanism can also deal with stiff materials like CDs.
| Paper. | Paper Making and how computer printers handle it. |
Paper Making - trees chipped and fed to the Kraft process, then a Fourdrinier machine.
Paper Styles & Use - people's expectations on the look of documents.
Paper & Recycling - office paper can go through recycling 5 times or more.
Advanced papers - e-paper etc.
| Print Markets - |
Personal & Home printers -