How printers works

In the early centuries printing images and letters on papers, clothes, fibres or other materials is a novel thing.

Have you ever wondered how printers prints images and letters from a computer or smartphone just exactly how it looks like on the computer.

The way printers works is quite simple. Simply, printers works by converting  digital images and texts into physical copies.

They do this by using a driver or a specialized  software that has been designed to convert the files containing images and letters into what the printer can understand. 

 

The image or text is then recreated on to the page using a series of miniscule dots. The only real difference that separates the various types of machines available is the method in which the dots are transferred onto the page.  

Types of printers and how they works.

There are many types of printers, their working principle is quite different from one another. There are two types of printers which are inkjets and LASER printers.

1.Inkjet.

Inkjet printers condists of a print head which contains thousands of tiny holes. These tiny openings drop microscopic droplets of ink onto the paper in the printer at an high speed. An inkjet machine uses a liquid ink that is produced by a liquid that contains solid pigments in suspension or a colored dye.

As the print head moves horizontally in the machine, the paper passes perpendicularly through it. 

Also, as the page passes through, the individual holes in the print head are activated (usually by heating effect of  electric current depending on the manufacturer) and a small drop of ink is pushed out onto the page.

This process is performed at high speed with thousands of droplets that form together to recreate the digital text or image that is being transferred onto the media. To the naked eye, the overall image looks to be solid because the dots are so tiny.

 

2. LASER printers.

LASER printers work in a similar way as the inkjet type. As for the  inkjet type, the image is made up of lots of tiny dots, which, when viewed as a whole, appear to be a solid image. However, the method in which is adopted in creating those tiny dots is vastly different. So, where an inkjet uses liquid dots, a laser machine uses dots made up of toner. ( A toner is  a fine powder of solid particles.) When compared with an inkjet machine, lasers are much more complex. These machines rely on many more stages during the process than inkjet. In simple terms, the basic process uses a light source (LASER), drum (mono) or multiple drums (colour) and toner. In order to create an image on the page, the drum is first charged and then the laser or LED is shone onto the drum in the outline of the intended image. The toner itself is attracted to areas of the drum that have the charge knocked off and a series of rollers transfer the powder from the toner cartridge and presents it at the drum. The areas that are charged repel the toner and the area that is not attracts the toner particles which are pulled onto the drum and stick to the parts that make up the image. At the same time, the paper is also transported to meet the drum, which, in turn, transfers the image across to the page itself. The paper is then passed through a fuser unit (hot roller) which applies heat and pressure to melt the toner particles so that they stick to the page and create a finished image. Solid Ink Available only from Xerox, solid ink printers perform in a way that combines the printing methods of both inkjet and laser printers. Solid wax is melted and sprayed onto a large drum unit using a print head similar to that found on an inkjet printer. The image is created onto a large metallic roller that then transfers directly to the page. Once dry, you are left with an image made of a crayon-like substance. Solid ink printers are renowned for producing vibrant, colourful prints that really stand out.