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Ink Ribbon Buying Guide

While laser printers and inkjet printers have mostly conquered the mainstream market, printers using ink ribbons still have a solid hold on the business world, especially when it comes to industrial printing types. . Many businesses large and small, including retailers and manufacturers, use ink ribbon printers on a daily basis. This guide describes some types of ink ribbon printers, as well as the types of ribbons needed to print on these printers.

Types of ink ribbon printers
Printers using ink ribbons are typically not found in the homes of many consumers, but they can still be found in many office buildings, retail stores, and manufacturing facilities. The most common examples of ink ribbon printers include the following types: dot matrix printers and other impact printers, used in many offices where specific forms and documents are printed on duplicate or triplicate paper; cash registers and point-of-sale systems, which typically contain small thermal transfer printers used to print receipts; and large thermal transfer printers, which are used for many industrial purposes, such as barcode printing and clothing labels.
Types of ink ribbons
In some cases, different types of printers use entirely different types of ribbons. In other cases, the type of ribbon to use is determined by the type of print job in progress. For example, a thermal transfer printer might use several different types of ink ribbon, but the type of ink ribbon best suited for printing clothing labels is different from the type of ink ribbon that would be used to print labels. price.

Ink ribbons for dot-matrix printers
Dot-matrix printers use fabric or plastic ribbons, depending on the printer model. These types of printers are often referred to as impact printers because the printhead hits the ribbon to transfer the ink to the paper. Although these printers were largely discontinued in the mainstream market after the growing popularity of inkjet and laser printers, they are still often found in many offices that perform high volume label printing or printing. a large number of duplicate / triplicate form prints.

Ink ribbon for cash register and point of sale
Simple cash registers may contain low impact printers using nylon ribbons, but most modern and sophisticated POS systems use small thermal transfer printers to print receipts, coupons, and other items. related to the store on special thermal paper for customers. Most of these systems use thermal wax ink ribbons, but some systems may use wax / resin combination ink ribbons for added durability.

Ink ribbons for thermal transfer printers
So it’s no surprise that thermal transfer printers use heat to melt ink and transfer it to the printed media. Durability requirements can vary widely when it comes to items printed with thermal transfer printers. This is why three different types of ink are manufactured for these printers: thermal wax ink ribbons, thermal wax / resin ink ribbons, and thermal resin inkers. ink ribbons.

Thermal wax ink ribbons
Thermal wax ink ribbons are mainly used for printing on paper products. The wax ink adheres to matte and semi-gloss finishes and is designed to last smudge-free for years. However, the ink must be kept dry and cannot be scratched or rubbed. Chemicals and oils can also easily destroy ink, including skin oils. This type of ink will only last for years if the printed item has been stored in a dry place and is rarely handled. This is why it is generally used for printed articles intended only for a short period of time. period of time.

Wax / Resin Thermal Ink Ribbons
Combination resin / wax ribbons contain more durable and durable ink than their pure wax counterparts. Due to the resin content, these inks are more resistant to chemicals, smudges and scratches than wax ink, which makes these ink ribbons much more suitable for printing.

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Ink Ribbon Buying Guide

Ink Ribbon Buying Guide

While laser printers and inkjet printers may have predominantly taken over the consumer market, printers that use ink ribbons still have a firm grip on the business world, particularly when it comes to industrial types of printing. Many small and large businesses, including retailers and manufacturers, use printers with ink ribbons on a daily basis. This guide will outline some of the various types of ink ribbon printers, as well as the types of ribbons that are needed for printing on those printers.

Types of Ink Ribbon Printers
Printers that use ink ribbons are not usually found in the homes of many consumers these days, but they can still be found in many office buildings, retail stores, and manufacturing facilities. The most common examples of ink ribbon printers include the following types: dot matrix and other types of impact printers, which are used in many offices where specific forms and documents are printed on duplicate or triplicate paper; cash registers and point of sale systems, which typically contain small thermal transfer printers used for printing receipts; and large thermal transfer printers, which are used for many industrial purposes, such as printing barcodes and labels for clothing.
Types of Ink Ribbons
In some cases, the different types of printers use entirely different types of ribbons . In other cases, the type of ribbon that should be used is determined by the type of printing task that is being done. As an example, a thermal transfer printer can use several different types of ink ribbon, but the type of ink ribbon that works best for printing clothing labels is different from the type of ink ribbon that would be used for printing price tags.

Dot Matrix Printer Ink Ribbons
Dot matrix printers use either cloth or plastic ink ribbons, depending on the model of the printer. These types of printers are often called impact printers because the printhead strikes the ribbon to transfer ink onto the paper. Although these printers were mostly phased out in the consumer market after inkjet and laser printers grew in popularity, they are still often found in many offices that do a high volume of label printing or a high volume of duplicate/triplicate form printing.

Cash Register and Point of Sale Ink Ribbons
Simple cash registers may contain small impact printers that use nylon ribbons for printing, but most modern, elaborate point of sale systems use small thermal transfer printers to print receipts, coupons, and other store-related items on special thermal paper for customers. Most of these systems use wax thermal ink ribbons, but some systems may use a wax / resin combination ink ribbons for greater durability.

Thermal Transfer Printer Ink Ribbons
Not surprisingly, thermal transfer printers use heat to, in essence, melt the ink and transfer it onto the printed medium. Durability needs can vary dramatically when it comes to items that are printed with thermal transfer printers, which is why there are three different types of ink that are made for these printers: wax thermal ink ribbons, wax/resin thermal ink ribbons, and resin thermal ink ribbons.

Wax Thermal Ink Ribbons
Wax thermal ink ribbons are primarily used for printing on paper products. The wax ink adheres to both matte and semi-gloss finishes and is designed to last without smudging for years. However, the ink has to be kept dry, and it cannot be subjected to scratching or rubbing. Chemicals and oils can also easily destroy the ink, and this includes the oils from skin. This type of ink will last for years only if the item that has been printed with it is tucked away in a dry location and is rarely handled, which is why it is most commonly used for printed items that are only intended to last for a short period of time.

Wax/Resin Thermal Ink Ribbons
Wax / resin combination ink ribbons contain ink with greater durability and longer life spans than their pure wax counterparts do. Because of the resin content, these inks are more resistant to chemicals, smudges, and scratches than wax ink is, which makes these ink ribbons much more appropriate for printing items that could potentially be exposed to a good deal of human contact. Wax/resin inks are still susceptible to water, however, and are not typically used on items that could be exposed to moisture.

Resin Thermal Ink Ribbons
Resin thermal ink ribbons produce the highest quality of the three types of thermal ink ribbons, as well as the most durable print of all of the types of thermal ink ribbons. These inks are extremely resistant to heat, chemicals, scratching, and many other environmental hazards. Because of their high level of durability, resin inks are typically used in industrial fields, such as manufacturing, but there are smaller scale business uses for them as well.
Common Uses of Ink Ribbons
The different types of ink ribbons outlined in the section above are each generally suitable for certain, specific uses and not for others. Some of the most common uses for the different types of ink ribbons are noted in the chart below:

Type of Ink Ribbon
Common Uses
Dot Matrix Printer Ink Ribbon

Shipping/mailing and other labels

Some cash register receipts

Some credit card receipts

Duplicate/triplicate Forms

Cash Register and Point of Sale Ink Ribbons

Cash register receipts

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Accuprint ERC23 5.00 box of 6 best on the web erc 23 ERC23 ERC-23

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Looking for ERC23BR Ribbon online? From now on you will be able to order Epson cartridges online with the cheapest price from ACCUPRINT.
This economical yet high quality compatible ERC23BR Ribbon will be the perfect solution to help you to save the printing cost. The cartridge is made from all new components, and it will be compatible to your printer models without any problem when you are replacing your current Epson ERC23BR Ribbon. As an environmental friendly company, our manufacturers have passed ISO14001 certificate, and have passed ISO9001 for their quality.
Our new compatible ERC23BR Ribbon offers you the same printing quality as good as OEM Epson ERC23BR cartridges. Moreover,it will also print at least the same amount of pages as its OEM counterparts.
Our company, ACCUPRINT, ensures that all of its compatible products are guaranteed to meet all of your satisfactions. We ship to all of Canada from our Western warehouse located in Vancouver and our Eastern warehouse located in Montreal. The delivery is as quick as ever.

The replacement for ERC-23 ribbons are used in the following printers:
Canon TX50III

DTS Datachecker NTN Roll Printer

Epson 250, 267, 270, 280 Series, 300 D, M-250, M-252, M-255, M-257, M-260, M-262, M-264, M-280 Series, TM-267 Series, TM-300 A, 252, 255, 257, 260, 262, 264, 265, 280, 635, ERC-23, M-265, M-267, M-2720, M-280, OM-267, RM-267, RP-265, RP-265ii

Esper 874 Remote, 875 Kitchen

Gilbarco G-Site Verifone

IBM 4651, 4655, 4661, 4655 Bond

IPC M-1731-P, PRT-267, PRT-267-081, PRT-270

Kingtron CL Series, CL-280

Micros 400344 Slip

NCR 280, 2174, 2190, 2550, 7161, 7445, 7454, 2170 W/2173 Kitchen Printer, 2170 W/7160 Kitchen , 2174 Remote, 250 ECR, 250 ECR – 20 Column, 255 Terminal, 255 Terminal – 20 Column, 7161 Kitchen – New, 7445 – 100X

Nurit 2040

Omron RS-4541-R

Panasonic 7000 – P100 WP, JS-8000 Main, PM-300, RKP-265, RP-265
Printer Products Print Point

Royal 9170, CMS-9160, P-250

Sanyo 595, ECR-590, ECR-595, ER-3210

Sharp ER-2100, ER-2975, ER-3210, ER-4400, ER-4400 Epson, ER-4410, ER-4410 Epson, ER-4420, ER-4420 Epson, ER-4430

TEC RE-3500 Slip

Teknika G-3800 Slip

Towa R-1

Unisys Tranz-330

Uniwell TP-420, TP-460

Verifone 220, 250, 380, 480, 500, CRM-009 Series, Diamond, Diamond Supersystem, Emerald, Emerald Supersystem, Gemstone, Gemstone Line, Gemstone Ruby 150, Gemstone Ruby 200, Gemstone Ruby 560, Gemstone Ruby 562, Gemstone Ruby 930, P-220, P-250, P-500, PT50,
Sapphire, Sapphire Supersystem, Tranz 330 w/ P-250, VRP 2000, XJ, XPE, Zon Jr

Victor 360, ER-360

Epson – Other Series
250 252 255 257 260 262 264 265 267 270 280 300 D 635
Epson – ERC
ERC-23
Epson – M
M-250 M-252 M-255 M-257 M-260 M-262 M-264 M-265 M-267 M-2720 M-280
Epson – OM
OM-267
Epson – RM
RM-267
Epson – RP
RP-265 RP-265 II
Epson – TM
TM-267 TM-300 A
Specifications

Page Yield Question-mark Shelf Life Capacity Color Quantity Product Type Question-mark
Same as OEM 2 Years Same as OEM Black/Red 6 Ribbons New Compatible

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About Matrix Printer

The cover removed (for photo shot), Dot matrix printer Impact type. EPSON VP-500 sold in 1989. 80 character/line, Speed: 67 character/second. Centronics IEEE 1284 interface. ASCII and Japanese character set up to Kanji. Print head with 43 x 43 X 22mm size heat sink. ESC/P 24-J84, Inmac ink ribbon cartridge with black ink.

Dot matrix printing or impact matrix printing is a type of computer printing which uses a print head that moves back-and-forth, or in an up-and-down motion, on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like the print mechanism on a typewriter. However, unlike a typewriter or daisy wheel printer, letters are drawn out of a dot matrix, and thus, varied fonts and arbitrary graphics can be produced.

Design
Each dot is produced by a tiny metal rod, also called a “wire” or “pin”, which is driven forward by the power of a tiny electromagnet or solenoid, either directly or through small levers (pawls). Facing the ribbon and the paper is a small guide plate named ribbon mask holder or protector, sometimes also called butterfly for its typical shape. It is pierced with holes to serve as guides for the pins. This plate may be made of hard plastic or an artificial jewel such as sapphire or ruby.

The portion of the printer containing the pins is called the print head. When running the printer, it generally prints one line of text at a time. There are two approaches to achieve this:

The common serial dot matrix printers use a horizontally moving print head. The print head can be thought of featuring a single vertical column of seven or more pins approximately the height of a character box. In reality, the pins are arranged in up to four vertically or/and horizontally slightly displaced columns in order to increase the dot density and print speed through interleaving without causing the pins to jam. Thereby, up to 48 pins can be used to form the characters of a line while the print head moves horizontally.

In a considerably different configuration, so called line dot matrix printers use a fixed print head almost as wide as the paper path utilizing a horizontal line of thousands of pins for printing. Sometimes two horizontally slightly displaced rows are used to improve the effective dot density through interleaving. While still line-oriented, these printers for the professional heavy-duty market effectively print a whole line at once while the paper moves forward below the print head.

The printing speed of serial dot matrix printers with moving heads varies from 30 to 550 cps. In contrast to this, line matrix printers are capable of printing much more than 1000 cps, resulting in a throughput of up to 800 pages/hour.

Because the printing involves mechanical pressure, both of these types of printers can create carbon copies and carbonless copies.

These machines can be highly durable. When they do wear out, it is generally due to ink invading the guide plate of the print head, causing grit to adhere to it; this grit slowly causes the channels in the guide plate to wear from circles into ovals or slots, providing less and less accurate guidance to the printing wires. Eventually, even with tungsten blocks and titanium pawls, the printing becomes too unclear to read, a common problem when users failed to maintain the printer with regular cleaning as outlined in most user manuals.

A variation on the dot matrix printer was the cross hammer dot printer, patented by Seikosha in 1982.[1] The smooth cylindrical roller of a conventional printer was replaced by a spinning, fluted cylinder. The print head was a simple hammer, with a vertical projecting edge, operated by an electromagnet. Where the vertical edge of the hammer intersected the horizontal flute of the cylinder, compressing the paper and ribbon between them, a single dot was marked on the paper. Characters were built up of multiple dots.

Although nearly all inkjet, thermal, and laser printers also print closely spaced dots rather than continuous lines or characters, it is not customary to call them dot matrix printers.

Early history

Upper: Inmac ink ribbon cartridge with black ink for Dot matrix printer. Lower: Inked and folded, the ribbon is pulled into the cartridge by the roller mechanism to the left

Print head of a used 9-pin printer (Star NL 10)
The first dot matrix printer was introduced by the Japanese manufacturer OKI as OKI Wiredot in 1968. For this achievement, OKI received an award from the Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ) in 2013.

The DEC LA30 was a 30 character/second dot matrix printer introduced in 1970 by Digital Equipment Corporation of Maynard, Massachusetts. It printed 80 columns of uppercase-only 5Ă—7 dot matrix characters across a unique-sized paper. The printhead was driven by a stepper motor and the paper was advanced by a somewhat-unreliable and definitely noisy solenoid ratchet drive. The LA30 was available with both a parallel interface and a serial interface; however, the serial LA30 required the use of fill characters during the carriage-return

The LA30 was followed in 1974 by the LA36, which achieved far greater commercial success, becoming for a time the standard dot matrix computer terminal. The LA36 used the same print head as the LA30 but could print on forms of any width up to 132 columns of mixed-case output on standard green bar fanfold paper. The carriage was moved by a much-more-capable servo drive using a DC electric motor and an optical encoder / tachometer. The paper was moved by a stepper motor. The LA36 was only available with a serial interface but unlike the earlier LA30, no fill characters were required. This was possible because, while the printer never communicated at faster than 30 characters per second, the mechanism was actually capable of printing at 60 characters per second. During the carriage return period, characters were buffered for subsequent printing at full speed during a catch-up period. The two-tone buzz produced by 60 character-per-second catch-up printing followed by 30 character-per-second ordinary printing was a distinctive feature of the LA36 quickly copied by many other manufacturers well into the 1990s. Most efficient dot matrix printers used this buffering technique.

Digital then broadened the basic LA36 line onto a wide variety of dot matrix printers including:

LA180: 180 c/s line printer
LS120: 120 c/s terminal
LA120: 180 c/s advanced terminal
LA34: Cost-reduced terminal
LA38: An LA34 with more features
LA12: A portable terminal
In 1970, Centronics (then of Hudson, New Hampshire) introduced a dot matrix printer, the Centronics 101. The search for a reliable printer mechanism led it to develop a relationship with Brother Industries, Ltd of Japan, and the sale of Centronics-badged Brother printer mechanisms equipped with a Centronics print head and Centronics electronics. Unlike Digital, Centronics concentrated on the low-end line printer marketplace with their distinctive units. In the process, they designed the parallel electrical interface that was to become standard on most printers until it began to be replaced by the Universal Serial Bus (USB) in the late 1990s.

Printer head positioning[edit]

Mechanism with two wheels with rubber band and metal bar
The printer head is attached to a metal bar that ensures correct alignment, but horizontal positioning is controlled by a band that attaches to sprockets on two wheels at each side which is then driven with an electric motor. This band may be made of stainless steel, phosphor bronze or beryllium copper alloys, nylon or various synthetic materials with a twisted nylon core to prevent stretching. Actual position can be found out either by dead count using a stepper motor, rotary encoder attached to one wheel or a transparent plastic band with markings that is read by an optical sensor on the printer head (common on inkjets).

Uses
Personal computers[edit]

An Epson MX-80, a classic model that remained in use for many years
In the 1970s and 1980s, dot matrix impact printers were generally considered the best combination of expense and versatility, and until the 1990s they were by far the most common form of printer used with personal and home computers.

The Epson MX-80, introduced in 1979,[2] was the groundbreaking model that sparked the initial popularity of impact printers in the personal computer market.[citation needed] The MX-80 combined affordability with good-quality text output (for its time). Early impact printers (including the MX) were notoriously loud during operation, a result of the hammer-like mechanism in the print head. The MX-80 even inspired the name of a noise rock band.[3] The MX-80’s low dot density (60 dpi horizontal, 72 dpi vertical) produced printouts of a distinctive “computerized” quality. When compared to the crisp typewriter quality of a daisy-wheel printer, the dot-matrix printer’s legibility appeared especially bad. In office applications, output quality was a serious issue, as the dot-matrix text’s readability would rapidly degrade with each photocopy generation. IBM sold the MX-80 as IBM 5125.

Initially, third-party software (such as the Bradford printer enhancement program) offered a quick fix to the quality issue. The software utilized a variety of software techniques to increase print quality; general strategies were doublestrike (print each line twice), and double-density mode (slow the print head to allow denser and more precise dot placement). Such add-on software was inconvenient to use, because it required the user to remember to run the enhancement program before each printer session (to activate the enhancement mode). Furthermore, not all enhancement software was compatible with all programs.

Early personal computer software focused on the processing of text, but as graphics displays became ubiquitous throughout the personal computer world, users wanted to print both text and images. Ironically, whereas the daisy-wheel printer and pen-plotter struggled to reproduce bitmap images, the first dot-matrix impact printers (including the MX-80) lacked the ability to print graphics. Yet the dot-matrix print head was well-suited to this task, and the capability, referred to as “dot-addressable” quickly became a standard feature on all dot-matrix printers intended for the personal and home computer markets. In 1981, Epson offered a retrofit EPROM kit called Graftrax to add the capability to many early MX series printers. Banners and signs produced with software that used this ability, such as Broderbund’s Print Shop, became ubiquitous in offices and schools throughout the 1980s.

Progressive hardware improvements to impact printers boosted the carriage speed, added more (typeface) font options, increased the dot density (from 60 dpi up to 240 dpi), and added pseudo-color printing. Faster carriage speeds meant faster (and sometimes louder) printing. Additional typefaces allowed the user to vary the text appearance of printouts. Proportional-spaced fonts allowed the printer to imitate the non-uniform character widths of a typesetter. Increased dot density allowed for more detailed, darker printouts. The impact pins of the printhead were constrained to a minimum size (for structural durability), and dot densities above 100 dpi merely caused adjacent dots to overlap. While the pin diameter placed a lower limit on the smallest reproducible graphic detail, manufacturers were able to use higher dot density to great effect in improving text quality.

Several dot-matrix impact printers (such as the Epson FX series) offered ‘user-downloadable fonts’. This gave the user the flexibility to print with different typefaces. PC software uploaded a user-defined fontset into the printer’s memory, replacing the built-in typeface with the user’s selection. Any subsequent text printout would use the downloaded font, until the printer was powered off or soft-reset. Several third-party programs were developed to allow easier management of this capability. With a supported word-processor program (such as WordPerfect 5.1), the user could embed up to 2 NLQ custom typefaces in addition to the printer’s built-in (ROM) typefaces. (The later rise of WYSIWYG software philosophy rendered downloaded fonts obsolete.)

Single-strike and Multi-strike ribbons were an attempt to address issues in the ribbon’s ink quality. Standard printer ribbons used the same principles as typewriter ribbons. The printer would be at its darkest with a newly installed ribbon cartridge, but would gradually grow fainter with each successive printout. The variation in darkness over the ribbon cartridge’s lifetime prompted the introduction of alternative ribbon formulations. Single-strike ribbons used a carbon-like substance in typewriter ribbons transfer. As the ribbon was only usable for a single loop (rated in terms of ‘character count’), the blackness was of consistent, outstanding darkness. Multi-strike ribbons gave an increase in ribbon life, at the expense of quality.

The high quality of single-strike ribbons had two side effects:

At least 50% and up to 99.9% of the given ribbon surface would be wasted per character, since an entire fresh new region of ribbon was needed to print even the smallest font shapes. Ribbon advance was fixed to always span the largest character shape, so a row of periods would consume as much fresh ribbon as a row of W’s, with a large span of unused carbon between each dot.
Single-strike ribbons created a risk of espionage and loss of privacy, because the used ribbon reel could be unwound to reveal everything that had been printed. Secure disposal was required by shredding, melting, or burning of used ribbon cartridges to prevent recovery of information from garbage bins.
Pseudo-color[edit]
Several manufacturers implemented color dot-matrix impact printing through a multi-color ribbon. Color was achieved through a multi-pass composite printing process. During each pass, the print head struck a different section of the ribbon (one primary color). For a 4-color ribbon, each printed line of output required a total of 4 passes. In some color printers, such as the Apple ImageWriter II, the printer moved the ribbon relative to the fixed print head assembly. In other models, the print head was tilted against a stationary ribbon.

Due to their poor color quality and increased operating expense, color impact models never replaced their monochrome counterparts.[citation needed] As the color ribbon was used in the printer, the black ink section would gradually contaminate the other 3 colors, changing the consistency of printouts over the life of the ribbon. Hence, the color dot-matrix was suitable for abstract illustrations and piecharts, but not for photo-realistic reproduction. Dot-matrix thermal-transfer printers offered more consistent color quality, but consumed printer film, still more expensive. Color printing in the home would only become ubiquitous much later, with the ink-jet printer.

Near Letter Quality (NLQ)
Text quality was a recurring issue with dot-matrix printers. Near Letter Quality mode—informally specified as almost good enough to be used in a business letter[4]—endowed dot-matrix printers with a simulated typewriter-like quality. By using multiple passes of the carriage, and higher dot density, the printer could increase the effective resolution. For example, the Epson FX-86 could achieve a theoretical addressable dot-grid of 240 by 216 dots/inch using a print head with a vertical dot density of only 72 dots/inch, by making multiple passes of the print head for each line. For 240 by 144 dots/inch, the print head would make one pass, printing 240 by 72 dots/inch, then the printer would advance the paper by half of the vertical dot pitch (1/144 inch), then the print head would make a second pass. For 240 by 216 dots/inch, the print head would make three passes with smaller paper movement (1/3 vertical dot pitch, or 1/216 inch) between the passes. To cut hardware costs, some manufacturers merely used a double strike (doubly printing each line) to increase the printed text’s boldness, resulting in bolder but still jagged text. In all cases, NLQ mode incurred a severe speed penalty. Not surprisingly, all printers retained one or more ‘draft’ modes for high-speed printing.

NLQ became a standard feature on all dot-matrix printers. While NLQ was well received in the IBM PC market, the Apple Macintosh market did not use NLQ mode at all, as it did not rely on the printer’s own fonts. Mac word-processing applications used fonts stored in the computer. For non-PostScript (raster) printers, the final raster image was produced by the computer and sent to the printer, which meant dot-matrix printers on the Mac platform exclusively used raster (“graphics”) printing mode. For near-letter-quality output, the Mac would simply double the resolution used by the printer, to 144 dpi, and use a screen font twice the point size desired. Since the Mac’s screen resolution (72 dpi) was exactly half of the ImageWriter’s maximum, this worked perfectly, creating text at exactly the desired size.

Due to the extremely precise alignment required for dot alignment between NLQ passes, typically the paper needed to be held somewhat taut in the tractor feed sprockets, and the continuous paper stack must be perfectly aligned behind or below the printer. Loosely held paper or skewed supply paper could cause misalignments between passes, rendering the NLQ text illegible.

24-pin printers[edit]
By the mid-1980s, manufacturers had increased the pincount of the impact printhead from 7, 8, 9 or 12 pins to 18, 24, 27 or 48, with 24 pins being most common. The increased pin-count permitted superior print-quality which was necessary for success in Asian markets to print legible CJK characters.[5] In the PC market, nearly all 9-pin printers printed at a de facto-standard vertical pitch of 9/72 inch (per printhead pass, i.e. 8 lpi). Epson’s 24-pin LQ-series rose to become the new de facto standard, at 24/180 inch (per pass – 7.5 lpi). Not only could a 24-pin printer lay down a denser dot-pattern in a single-pass, it could simultaneously cover a larger area.

Compared to the older 9-pin models, a new 24-pin impact printer not only produced better-looking NLQ text, it printed the page more quickly (largely due to the 24-pin’s ability to print NLQ with a single pass). 24-pin printers repeated this feat in bitmap graphics mode, producing higher-quality graphics in reduced time. While the text-quality of a 24-pin was still visibly inferior to a true letter-quality printer—the daisy wheel or laser-printer, the typical 24-pin impact printer printed more quickly than most daisy-wheel models.

As manufacturing costs declined, 24-pin printers gradually replaced 9-pin printers. Twenty-four pin printers reached a dot-density of 360Ă—360 dpi, a marketing figure aimed at potential buyers of competing ink-jet and laser-printers. 24-pin NLQ fonts generally used a dot-density of 360×180, the highest allowable with single-pass printing. Multipass NLQ was abandoned, as most manufacturers felt the marginal quality improvement did not justify the tradeoff in speed. Most 24-pin printers offered 2 or more NLQ typefaces, but the rise of WYSIWYG software and GUI environments such as Microsoft Windows ended the usefulness of NLQ.

Contemporary use

This section does not cite any references (sources). Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2012)
The desktop impact printer was gradually replaced by the inkjet printer. When Hewlett-Packard’s patents expired on steam-propelled photolithographically produced ink-jet heads,[when?] the inkjet mechanism became available to the printer industry. For applications that did not require impact (e.g., carbon-copy printing), the inkjet was superior in nearly all respects: comparatively quiet operation, faster print speed, and output quality almost as good as a laser printer. By the mid-1990s, inkjet technology had surpassed dot-matrix in the mainstream market.

As of 2005, dot matrix impact technology remains in use in devices such as cash registers, ATMs, fire alarm systems, and many other point-of-sales terminals. Thermal printing is gradually supplanting them in these applications. Full-size dot-matrix impact printers are still used to print multi-part stationery, for example at bank tellers and auto repair shops, and other applications where use of tractor feed paper is desirable such as data logging and aviation. Some are even fitted with USB interfaces as standard to aid connection to modern computers without legacy ports. Dot matrix printers are also more tolerant of the hot and dirty operating conditions found in many industrial settings. The simplicity and durability of the design, as well as its similarity to older typewriter technology, allows users who are not “computer literate” to easily perform routine tasks such as changing ribbons and correcting paper jams.

One often overlooked application for dot-matrix printers is in the field of IT security. Various system and server activity logs are typically stored on the local filesystem, where a remote attacker – having achieved their primary goals – can then alter or delete the contents of the logs, in an attempt to “cover their tracks” or otherwise thwart the efforts of system administrators and security experts. However, if the log entries are simultaneously output to a printer, line-by-line, a local hard-copy record of system activity is created – and this cannot be remotely altered or otherwise manipulated. Dot-matrix printers are ideal for this task, as they can sequentially print each log entry, one entry at a time, as they are added to the log. The usual dot-matrix printer support for continuous stationery also prevents incriminating pages from being surreptitiously removed or altered without evidence of tampering.

Some companies, such as Printek, DASCOM, WeP Peripherals, Epson, Okidata, Olivetti, Lexmark, and TallyGenicom still produce serial printers. Printronix is now the only manufacturer of line printers. Today, a new dot matrix printer actually costs more than most inkjet printers and some entry level laser printers. However, not much should be read into this price difference as the printing costs for inkjet and laser printers are a great deal higher than for dot matrix printers, and the inkjet/laser printer manufacturers effectively use their monopoly over arbitrarily priced printer cartridges to subsidize the initial cost of the printer itself. Dot matrix ribbons are a commodity and are not monopolized by the printer manufacturers themselves.

Advantages and disadvantages

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Dot matrix printers, like any impact printer, can print on multi-part stationery or make carbon-copies. Impact printers have one of the lowest printing costs per page. As the ink is running out, the printout gradually fades rather than suddenly stopping partway through a job. They are able to use continuous paper rather than requiring individual sheets, making them useful for data logging. They are good, reliable workhorses ideal for use in situations where low printing cost is more important than quality. The ink ribbon also does not easily dry out, including both the ribbon stored in the casing as well as the portion that is stretched in front of the print head; this unique property allows the dot-matrix printer to be used in environments where printer duty can be rare, for instance, as with a Fire Alarm Control Panel’s output.

Impact printers create noise when the pins or typeface strike the ribbon to the paper.[6] Sound-damping enclosures may have to be used in quiet environments. They can only print lower-resolution graphics, with limited color performance, limited quality, and lower speeds compared to non-impact printers. While they support fanfold paper with tractor holes well, single-sheet paper may have to be wound in and aligned by hand, which is relatively time-consuming, or a sheet feeder may be utilized which can have a lower paper feed reliability. When printing labels on release paper, they are prone to paper jams when a print wire snags the leading edge of the label while printing at its very edge. For text-only labels (e.g., mailing labels), a daisy wheel printer or band printer may offer better print quality and a lower risk of damaging the paper.

The advantages are: low purchase cost, can handle multipart forms, cheap to operate, only needs fresh ribbons, rugged, low repair cost and the ability to print on continuous paper. This makes it possible to print long banners that span across several sheets of paper.

The disadvantages are: noisy, low resolution (you can see the dots making up each character), not all can do color, color looks faded and streaky, slowness and more prone to jamming – with jams that are more difficult to clear. This is because paper is fed in using two sprockets engaging with holes in the paper. A small tear on the side of a sheet can cause a jam, with paper debris that is tedious to remove.

See also
Character matrix printer
Daisy wheel printing
Dye-sublimation printer
Typeball printer
Line printer
Printer (computing)
Thermal printer
IBM Proprinter

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