Compare two different types of printers discussed in this chapter. How is print quality determined? What qualities are used to determine printer speed?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

This chapter introduces students to ink-jet and laser printers. Ink-jet printers are small, light-weight, and inexpensive, but can require expensive ink cartridges. Ink-jet printers use two cartridges: black ink and colored inks. The ink is sprayed using a print head on to paper. Laser printers produce dots of light on a light-sensitive drum. Toner, a fine powder, is used to create the image on the page. Laser printers are good for situations that require high-volume or good-quality output. Toner cartridges are expensive, but produce more printed pages than ink-jet cartridges.

Print quality is determined by measuring the printer resolution in dpi (dots per inch). Good-quality printers are rated from 2400 to 4800 dpi. The resolution is the density of the grid of dots that create an image.

Printer speed is measured in ppm (pages per minute). Color printouts typically take longer to print than black-and-white printouts. Pages that contain mostly text tend to print more rapidly than pages that contain graphics. Memory capacity is another factor. Because printers print while you are working on other tasks, a printer with more memory allows you to be more efficient with your other tasks.