CompTIA A+ Prep: Understanding the Different Types of Printer Technologies

Printers are among the most essential components of an office. Despite the increasing use of soft copies to store data and information, printing faxes, documents and presentations continue to be a major way of communicating data. The advancement in technology has resulted in multiple types of printers being innovated, every type being in the office environment it is the most suitable for. In order to be complete your CompTIA training for A+ certification, it is crucial for you to be aware of these types, as it is included in the CompTIA A+ courses and syllabus.

Despite there is an extensive variety of printers that someone in the CompTIA A+ certification training should know about, here we discuss the ones that are most commonly used in the office environment.

• Laser
• Impact
• Inkjet
• Thermal printers
• Dye-sublimation printers

Laser printers

Laser printers are undoubtedly the most commonly used office printers when it comes to printing a huge bulk. It is due to their cost effectivity, quick speed and good quality that makes them suitable and affordable for office use. They are also among the few printers that require the least maintenance and can manage a significantly heavy workload.

They work on the principle of photoconductivity- that means they print using photoconductive powders that prints when exposed to LED or laser lights. Two major types- monochrome and colored printers are available. Monochrome printers can be used for documents without pictures, and are cheaper. While presentations and pictures could be printed with colored printers. The properties, components, and detailed mechanism of action of these printers is a part of the CompTIA A+ courses.

Impact printers

Impact printers have an ink ribbon placed against the paper and create printouts by striking against them. Dot matrix printers, which use this technology are still widely used in office (majorly for legal printouts).

While impact printers are not always regarded as ideal for office work due to their low-quality results, they are cheap to buy, maintain, and print. However, its low cost and ability to print a large number of papers simultaneously and little requirement to rest is helpful in printing rough documents for temporary use. They can also be used to print receipts, and duplicate copies. However, they can be regarded as slow in emergency situations.

Impact printers are very noisy and can disturb the office employees, which is why they should be kept in a separate space.

Inkjet printers

Inkjet printers are the favorite for most people and regarded as the best when it comes to their function! They give a high-quality result and are the fastest of all. Their high quality depends on the fact that each dot of ink is closely printer, giving a high density of ink particle per are. This means that it gives a high-resolution printout. The high resolution and the number of dots per inch (dpi) make it perfect for printing images.

 Not only are they fast to step up and send a printing job, but they also have a high number of ppm (papers per minute) thus print at a high speed, consequently ideal for every kind of office environment. They are also user-friendly.

The inkjet printers, however, are relatively expensive than the others. Not only that, they require more maintenance and their repairs cost a lot. They require constant replacement of cartridge as running out of ink is a very common concern. Also, if you need to print a large number of papers, it is advised to take breaks while doing so.

Your CompTIA A+ courses include its mechanism of work too. An inkjet printer has a roller that places the paper in the appropriate position, and a carriage that moves in left and right while printing the ink. The ink is Carried through small tubes to the paper.

As mentioned earlier, these use cartridges. While the newer models have at least four cartridges (black, blue, red, yellow), previously they had only two; one for the three colors and one for black. Some printers come with even extra cartridges to ensure a high-quality printout. A cartridge needs to be replaced or refilled when it runs out of ink, which can be costly. As someone preparing for the CompTIA A+ certification training, you should be aware of the old and newer printer models.

A variety of papers can be printed; matte, glossy, etc, due to the increasing improvement in their ink quality. Apart from this, they also support duplex printing.

Thermal Printers

They work using the principle of heat energy being used to generate an image and can be divided into two categories.

• Direct thermal
• Thermal wax

Your CompTIA A+ courses include the details on them.

Direct thermal printers: Much similar to fax machines, these use a heating element to print. A feed assembly keeps positioning the paper as it is being printed, while the thermal element burn dots of on the special thermal sensitive paper. This can be used to print receipt or draft documents, as it only provides a reasonable quality.

Thermal wax printers: They use wax that melts and is dried on the paper to form a picture. While it does not require a special paper and is cheaper, it compromises on quality, which is why it is only suitable for rough work. But it is still important to study it thoroughly for your CompTIA A+ certification training.

Dry-sublimation printers

These are the most high-quality and expensive printers. They are used in publishing, printing photos, medical imaging, and scans, etc. They use the concept of sublimation- solid turning into vapors and vice versa without turning into liquid. Thus, unlike other printers, the images constructed through them are not in the form of pixels, but in a continuous form.

It used the colors red, blue, yellow and black to form images of different colors. A printhead is used to heat up the dyed to their sublimation points to turn them into vapors, that is absorbed in the paper and eventually dried to the solid form. Some printers also apply a final transparent coat on the entire paper to protect the printout.

If you plan of achieving your CompTIA A+ certification training, you should give specific focus to the printers mentioned in this article as they are important according to the CompTIA A+ courses, however, make sure to study about other printers too.