Laser Printers Information: The Basics
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An Overview of Printers
One of the most indispensable peripheral appliances for computers are printers. Homes, schools, government offices, and businesses need them; professionals, amateurs, and students alike use them in their respective trades. Whether it is a document you have prepared or a web page downloaded from the Internet, you can easily have a hard copy with a printer.
Aside from being attached to a computer, a single printer can also be used by a whole network of computers (this printer may be called a "network printer"). Recently, you don't even have to have a desktop/laptop computer to use a printer – you can hook it up with a digital camera, scanner, or memory card. Many modern printer models are a fusion of different devices, such as scanners and fax machines (see related article: All In One Laser Printers).
There are many types of printers, varying in speed, cost, quality, and other traits one must consider when shopping around for them. The broadest classification of printers splits them into either monochrome or color printers. Their names are self-explanatory – monochrome printers can only produce images consisting of one color (usually black) and graduations of that color’s tone (usually gray-scale). Color printers can be photo printers, which produce higher-quality images.
Printers can also be classified according to technology; do the names dot matrix, ink jet, solid ink, wax, dye sublimation, and laser printers ring a bell? In this information website, we discuss the last type – the popular and versatile laser printers.
Laser Printers
A laser printer is a popular type of computer printer that can reproduce high quality text and graphics with excellent flexibility, good speed, and moderate cost. Unlike other printers, laser printers use a xerographic process employed by photocopiers. This technology and the laser printer's various advantages have elicited great excitement from people in and around the industry, with some calling the devices the next printing milestone after Gutenberg's invention of the movable type in the 1400s.
Laser printers can be monochrome or color devices. Laser printers use toner, a black or colored powder, rather than liquid inks. In the case of color laser printers, four different color toners are used.
Laser printers are usually compared with inkjet printers, and they boast of several advantages – higher resolution, lower cost per page, and faster print speed. Laser printers also do not need special paper for high quality images, and there's little to no chance of smearing.
Consumers can choose from low-end to high-end models of laser printers. So, what makes a certain printer low-end or high-end? Well, it's a combination of several factors, such as toner replacement, speed, quality, drum replacement, and paper costs. A good indicator (but just one of many!) of a laser printer's capabilities is PPM, or the pages per minute that it can produce. The fastest laser printers can churn out 200 monochrome PPM, while the faster color models can go as far as 100 PPM.
Laser Printer Technology
As mentioned earlier, laser printers use the same technology as photocopy machines – xerography. Also called electrophotography, the process involves six steps. First, the photoreceptor, a revolving photosensitive drum or belt, is charged. Second, lasers (usually laser diodes) write the image to be printed on the photoreceptor. Third, the image is developed as the surface containing it is exposed to toner.
Fourth, the photoreceptor is either pressed or rolled over paper (the transferring phase). Fifth, a fuser assembly applies heat and pressure to bind the plastic powder to the paper. Lastly, excess toner is cleaned from the photoreceptor and is deposited into a waste reservoir.
Laser printers can be color devices. These models use the CMYK color model – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and blacK – as opposed to the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) model.
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