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 | Bandprinter - print lines in under 1/20th of a second. More than 20 pages per minute. Low cost operation. Continual operation possible. Typical applications in commercial work, delivery notes, invoicing, bank statements - billing operations Fixed print from print band characters. Handles multipart paper. Big. Noisy. No graphics. Uses tractor feed paper. |
| Dot Matrix - print lines in under a second. Usually more than 5 pages per minute. Long duty cycles feasible. Low cost operation. Typical applications in commercial work - data recording, delivery notes, invoices, debt recovery worksheets. Limited graphics. Noisy. Normally uses tractor feed paper. |  |
 | Thermal - print transaction records and labels in a second or so. Continual operation feasible. Often high operating costs. Compensates for operating cost with reliability and simplicity. Typical application in POS, ATM and barcode labellers. Used in faxes and data recording equipment. Some graphical ability. Special "dye sub" thermal transfer printers handle photographs. |
| Laser - prints between 8 and 1500 A4 pages per minute. Ordinary office devices designed for two different duty cycles - workgroup which is high output, - personal which is low output. Exceeding the duty cycle leads to early failure. Graphics. Colour needs a complex mechanism. Photographic output generally excellent on ordinary paper. Operating costs range from low for text to fairly high for magazine -look pages and photographs. Typical use as general purpose office printers and copiers. |  |
 | Inkjet - prints between 4 and 60 A4 pages per minute. Designed for a duty cycle, exceeding it leads to high costs and early failure. Output rate relies heavily on computer support. Operating costs fairly high. Colour is easily added to the mechanism but operating costs quadruple. Typical use as home printers. Some are designed as workgroup colour printers. |
| Plotter. Most are actually inkjets. Prints an A1 + page over several minutes and some models are over 100 inches wide. Usually designed for continual operation as a workgroup printer. Colour print using inkjet cartridges - up to 12 cartridges in some photographic models. Variants have thermal transfer mechanisms and vinyl cutting abilities. |  |
 | Printer Copiers and multifunction printers integrate a scanner, printer, possibly a fax and sometimes photo-reproduction software into one convenient unit. The smallest are inkjet printers with a scanner on top and rely on a nearby Microsoft Windows computer for support. Larger models are freestanding laser and phaser printers with multiple paper trays, duplex and network support. |
| Phasers or Solid Ink Printers - Inkjets that build an image on a drum then transfer it to paper - or almost any other feedable material.
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