Printer (computing)

A printer is a peripheral device that creates a lasting copy of text or images, typically on paper. Most output is meant for people to read, but barcode printers show how the technology can be used for other purposes. Common printer types include 3D printers, inkjet printers, laser printers, and thermal printers.

The first computer printer was a mechanical design by Charles Babbage for his difference engine in the 1800s, though it was not actually built until the year 2000. He also planned a curve plotter, which would have been the first computer graphics printer if constructed. In 1962, C. R. Winston of Teletype Corporation patented the first printing mechanism for applying a marking medium to a recording medium—specifically, an electrostatic inking apparatus that deposited ink on controlled areas of a receiving medium using continuous inkjet printing. The ink was a red stamp-pad ink called Clear Print, made by Phillips Process Company of Rochester, NY. This patent (US3060429) led to the Teletype Inktronic Printer, which shipped to customers in late 1966. According to Epson, the first compact, lightweight digital printer was the EP-101, invented by the Japanese company and released in 1968. Early commercial printers often used mechanisms from electric typewriters and Teletype machines. Demand for higher speed led to new systems built specifically for computers. In the 1980s, daisy wheel systems worked like typewriters, line printers produced similar output faster, and dot-matrix systems could mix text and graphics but gave lower-quality results. Plotters were used for high-quality line art such as blueprints. The low-cost laser printer arrived in 1984 with the first HP LaserJet, and the addition of PostScript in the Apple LaserWriter the following year sparked a desktop publishing revolution. Laser printers using PostScript mixed text and graphics like dot-matrix printers, but at quality levels previously only possible with commercial typesetting systems. By 1990, most simple printing tasks like fliers and brochures were created on personal computers and laser printed, while expensive offset printing systems were discarded. The HP Deskjet of 1988 offered similar flexibility to laser printers but produced somewhat lower-quality output (depending on the paper) from much cheaper mechanisms. Inkjet systems quickly replaced dot-matrix and daisy-wheel printers. By the 2000s, high-quality printers of this kind cost under $100 and became common. The rapid growth of internet email in the 1990s and 2000s largely reduced the need for printing to move documents, and reliable storage systems made physical backups less useful. Around 2010, 3D printing became a major area of interest, allowing physical objects to be created with effort similar to that of an early laser printer making a brochure. By the 2020s, 3D printing had become a widespread hobby thanks to cheap kits, with fused deposition modeling being the most common process.

Personal printers are designed for individual users and may connect to only one computer. They handle low-volume, short-turnaround jobs with minimal setup time. These printers are generally slow, from 6 to about 25 pages per minute, and have a relatively high cost per page, but this is balanced by on-demand convenience. Some can print from memory cards, digital cameras, or scanners. Networked, workgroup, or shared printers are built for high-volume, high-speed printing, usually shared by many users on a network. They print at speeds from 45 to around 100 ppm, with the Xerox 9700 reaching 120 ppm. Card printers, also called ID-card printers, produce plastic cards such as ID cards and can include features like holographic overlays, HoloKotes, and watermarks. They work either as direct-to-card printers (the more practical option) or retransfer printers. A virtual printer is software with a user interface and API similar to a printer driver, but not connected to a physical printer. It can create a file that is an image of the data that would be printed, for archiving or as input to another program—for example, to make a PDF or send to another system or user. A barcode printer is a peripheral for printing barcode labels or tags that can be attached to, or printed directly on, physical objects. These printers are commonly used to label cartons before shipment or to mark retail items with UPCs or EANs. A 3D printer makes a three-dimensional object from a 3D model or other electronic data using additive processes, where successive layers of material (such as plastics, metals, food, cement, wood, and others) are laid down under computer control. It is called a printer by analogy with an inkjet printer, which produces a two-dimensional document by depositing a layer of ink on paper.

The choice of print technology greatly affects the printer's cost, operating cost, speed, quality, document permanence, and noise. Some technologies do not work with certain physical media, such as carbon paper or transparencies.