Personal printers are primarily designed to support individual users, and may be

connected to only a single computer. These printers are designed for low-volume
, short-turnaround print jobs, requiring minimal setup time to produce a hard co
py of a given document. However, they are generally slow devices ranging from 6
to around 25 pages per minute (ppm), and the cost per page is relatively high. H
owever, this is offset by the on-demand convenience. Some printers can print doc
uments stored on memory cards or from digital cameras and scanners.
Networked or shared printers are "designed for high-volume, high-speed printing.
" They are usually shared by many users on a network and can print at speeds of
45 to around 100 ppm.[3] The Xerox 9700 could achieve 120 ppm.
A virtual printer is a piece of computer software whose user interface and API r
esembles that of a printer driver, but which is not connected with a physical co
mputer printer. A virtual printer can be used to create a file which is an image
of the data which would be printed, for archival purposes or as input to anothe
r program, for example to create a PDF or to transmit to another system or user.
A 3D printer is a device for making a three-dimensional object from a 3D model o
r other electronic data source through additive processes in which successive la
yers of material ( including plastics, metals, food, cement, wood, and other mat
erials) are laid down under computer control. It is called a printer by analogy
with an inkjet printer which produces a two-dimensional document by a similar pr
ocess of depositing a layer of ink on paper.
Technology[edit]
The choice of print technology has a great effect on the cost of the printer and
cost of operation, speed, quality and permanence of documents, and noise. Some
printer technologies don't work with certain types of physical media, such as ca
rbon paper or transparencies.
A second aspect of printer technology that is often forgotten is resistance to a
lteration: liquid ink, such as from an inkjet head or fabric ribbon, becomes abs
orbed by the paper fibers, so documents printed with liquid ink are more difficu
lt to alter than documents printed with toner or solid inks, which do not penetr
ate below the paper surface.
Cheques can be printed with liquid ink or on special cheque paper with toner anc
horage so that alterations may be detected.[4] The machine-readable lower portio
n of a cheque must be printed using MICR toner or ink. Banks and other clearing
houses employ automation equipment that relies on the magnetic flux from these s
pecially printed characters to function properly.
Modern print technology[edit]
The following printing technologies are routinely found in modern printers:
Toner-based printers[edit]
Main article: Laser printer
A laser printer rapidly produces high quality text and graphics. As with digital
photocopiers and multifunction printers (MFPs), laser printers employ a xerogra
phic printing process but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is p
roduced by the direct scanning of a laser beam across the printer's photorecepto
r.
Another toner-based printer is the LED printer which uses an array of LEDs inste
ad of a laser to cause toner adhesion to the print drum.
Liquid inkjet printers[edit]
Liquid ink cartridge from Hewlett-Packard HP 845C inkjet printer
Inkjet printers operate by propelling variably sized droplets of liquid ink onto
almost any sized page. They are the most common type of computer printer used b
y consumers.
Solid ink printers[edit]
Main article: Solid ink
Solid ink printers, also known as phase-change printers, are a type of thermal t
ransfer printer. They use solid sticks of CMYK-coloured ink, similar in consiste
ncy to candle wax, which are melted and fed into a piezo crystal operated print-
head. The printhead sprays the ink on a rotating, oil coated drum. The paper the
n passes over the print drum, at which time the image is immediately transferred
, or transfixed, to the page. Solid ink printers are most commonly used as colou
r office printers, and are excellent at printing on transparencies and other non
-porous media. Solid ink printers can produce excellent results. Acquisition and
operating costs are similar to laser printers. Drawbacks of the technology incl
ude high energy consumption and long warm-up times from a cold state. Also, some
users complain that the resulting prints are difficult to write on, as the wax
tends to repel inks from pens, and are difficult to feed through automatic docum
ent feeders, but these traits have been significantly reduced in later models. I
n addition, this type of printer is only available from one manufacturer, Xerox,
manufactured as part of their Xerox Phaser office printer line. Previously, sol
id ink printers were manufactured by Tektronix, but Tek sold the printing busine
ss to Xerox in 2001.
Dye-sublimation printers[edit]
Main article: Dye-sublimation printer
A disassembled dye sublimation cartridge.
A dye-sublimation printer (or dye-sub printer) is a printer which