About 10 years ago, the paperless office was vehemently propagated to the suffering of printer manufacturers. The printers were referred to as energy and raw material consumators. But, as so often, this experiment failed almost completely at the human being. With modern archive software, a wide range of electronic transmission possibilities, the Internet and the quantum leap in memory development, it is quite possible to process the document exchange on an electronic basis – and it is practiced by many companies.
1. The printer is a very important interface between PC and human
This may apply to archival mass documents (invoices, contracts, delivery notes, etc.). But if a document or a picture of a personal nature, be it private, for studying or of great interest, one would like to have something "black on white" in the hand. Furthermore, companies are not allowed to present their presentation or their products with presentations on paper. Therefore, the printer, whether large or small, is still the main peripheral device in the current IT world.
2. Printer types and their preferred areas of application
The printers were of course developed further. In addition to the print quality, almost all printer manufacturers have also succeeded in optimizing energy consumption. The printer control offers many possibilities to save consumables (paper, ink), for example with the reduction of the ink job for the printing job, the multi-page printing on one side and the duplex printing, the automatic two-sided printing. Furthermore, company printers can be set up by the IT administrator in such a way that each employee can only make the necessary printouts for his work.
Of course, it is also important to know that there are different types of printers. In the course of the development, which has now been going on for about 50 years, two large and one small printer species have crystallized out, which share the current print market. Whether company or private: Which type of printer you use should be well thought before buying. In the next chapter, we will introduce you to the most important characteristics of the individual printing techniques.
If we leave the needy printer, which still has its right to be used in medical practices, financial institutions or freight companies, there are three widely used printer technologies in the private as well as the economic sector with the inkjet, laser and thermal sublimation printers. Ink printers print small ink droplets onto the paper, which are a whole picture. The devices print almost all paper media (copy paper up to heavy photo paper).
Even specially coated CD / DVDs or plastic cards with a printable surface can be fed to the printing unit via special inserts. Due to its wide range of printing options, this type of printer is very popular in the private sector. However, special office ink devices with high page throughput or ink multifunction devices (print, scan, copy, fax) are also very popular in small to medium-sized companies. Since a multi-function device offers up to four units in one, these models are also the long-standing hit in the private sector, especially as the prices have already fallen below 100 euros.
The main producers for the United States are Brother, Canon, Epson, HP, Kodak and Lexmark. Laser printers, whether color or black and white, transfer their color powder (toner) to the paper by means of electrostatic charging. The color powder is fixed very hard on the paper by heat and pressure. The prints are long-lasting and therefore very suitable for important documents (contracts, certifications, etc.). Depending on the printing unit used, laser printers reach a large lateral throughput per minute and are therefore ideally equipped for large print jobs. There are also special photopapers for laser printers and current color printers offer a good color quality.
Just a few years ago, color laser printers are now in the entry segment for 200 to 300 euros and thus also for the private sector a conceivable alternative. Almost every well-known printer manufacturer offers a variety of different models. Thermal sublimation printers vaporize color particles from a carrier film onto a special paper. This small printing device is most often found as a mobile photoprinter. Most models print in 10 x 15 cm format.
Other formats, if at all, are often only possible with special paper originals. The advantage of these printers is the small size and the possibility to print photos directly on the spot directly from the camera or the memory card. An A4 ink jet printer or even a laser printer are not competitive due to their size in this mobile case. Well-equipped thermal sublimation printers are already available for under 200 Euros. Manufacturers for the private sector include Canon, Sony and Olympus.
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