Discourse as Culture

PRINTERS FOCUS ON…

In this section we describe the main types of printer used for business and home use and criteria for selecting them.

Laser printer

In a laser printer, a laser is used to charge sections of a rotating drum. The pattern of charged and uncharged areas on the drum corresponds to the image that will be printed.

As the drum rotates, particles of dry toner powder are picked up. Heat is used to transfer the toner powder to the paper.

Some advantages of the laser printer are as follows:

n Print quality. Laser printers are capable of producing documents at a quality appropriate for business correspondence.

n Speed. A typical laser printer will be able to print at a rate of up to 45 pages per minute or more. This compares well against other printing methods, for example a typical inkjet printer may only be capable of printing 20 pages per minute.

n Volume. Laser printers are normally capable of dealing with large volumes of work.

Manufacturers often provide ratings for their printers that describe the typical workload appropriate for a given model. Laser printers are capable of a workload of 5000 pages or higher per month, with some models capable of 30,000 copies per month.

n Noise. Laser printers are almost completely silent in operation.

However, laser printers also suffer from a number of disadvantages:

n Cost of printing. The cost of printing via a laser printer is considered high. One reason for this is that all documents – including drafts – are usually printed at a high quality.

In addition, unlike other types of printer, laser printers usually need relatively expensive components replacing at regular intervals.

n Colour printing. Although colour laser printers are available and have fallen in price significantly in recent years, they remain expensive to use and maintain. Expensive colour toner, for instance, may mean print costs of up to £0.30 per page. Despite this, the

Laser printer A laser is used to charge sections of a rotating drum which is then used to print using toner powder achieving a combination of speed with high print quality.

increased availability of colour laser printers – and inkjet printers – means that they have largely replaced other forms of colour printing, such as wax printers.

n Cost. Laser printers are considered relatively expensive to purchase, operate and maintain in comparison with other types of printer.

Inkjet printer

An inkjet printer uses a print-head containing 50 or more small nozzles that squirt ink onto paper by varying electrostatic charges produced by the printer.

Multi-function devices (MFDs)

In recent years manufacturers have started to develop new printers that offer additional functions such as scanning, faxing and photocopying. These printers, called multi-function devices (or MFDs), often come with an automatic document feeder, allowing them to scan, copy or fax as many as fifty pages at a time.

MFDs hold many attractions for business users, including low purchase cost, space-saving designs and new features, such as low-cost colour photocopying. Sophisticated models also offer network features, such as a built-in Wi-Fi connection, or bundled software for controlling print queuing. As might be imagined, tremendous cost savings can result from replacing numerous printers, scanners, photocopiers and fax machines with a smaller number of MFDs, especially in environments where facilities like photocopying are not used frequently.

However, MFDs also have a number of disadvantages. For instance, if the device breaks down users lose access to all of its functions and work may grind to a halt. In

Inkjet printer

Although initially considered expensive and unreliable, inkjet printers have rapidly gained acceptance and are now found in many organisations and homes. Changes in technology have resulted in models that are inexpensive to purchase, reliable in operation and capable of excellent results.

An inkjet printer uses a print-head containing 50 or more small nozzles. Each nozzle can be controlled individually by electrostatic charges produced by the printer. Characters are formed by squirting small droplets of ink directly onto the paper. Bubble jet printers work in a similar manner but transfer the character by melting the ink droplets onto the paper.

Some advantages of inkjet printers include:

n Cost. Inkjet printers can be purchased at low cost and are relatively inexpensive to operate.

n Reliability. Since inkjet printers have very few moving parts, they are considered reliable and robust.

n Colour printing. Inkjet printers provide a relatively inexpensive means of printing in colour at an acceptable quality.

n Versatility. Inkjet printers are able to produce a variety of different documents, including overhead transparencies, cards, labels and envelopes.

n Noise. Inkjet printers are almost completely silent in operation.

Some of the disadvantages of inkjet printers include the following:

n Permanence. The ink used by some printers is not waterproof, meaning that documents can become smudged or blurred easily. In addition, some inks fade over time or with exposure to bright sunlight.

n Print quality. Printing at the highest possible quality requires the use of special paper.

This increases the cost of printing significantly.

n Speed. Although considerably faster than older technologies, inkjet printers are still unable to compete with laser printers in terms of speed. Colour printing can be particularly slow, with some models taking 6–8 minutes to produce a single page.

network environments, there may also be problems when users compete for access to the device, especially if different people want to use different functions, such as printing or photocopying. Finally, many MFDs are designed for home users or small businesses, making them unsuitable for dealing with large volumes of work.

Despite these issues, MFDs have slowly increased in popularity since 2000 and new models are released regularly. Manufacturers producing MFDs include Hewlett-Packard, Epson, Canon, Xerox, Brother and Samsung.

Selecting a printer

A number of factors should be considered when selecting a printer for business use. The aim should be to acquire equipment that meets the business needs of the organisation and ensures high print quality at minimum cost. Some of the factors that should be considered include printing costs, print quality, speed, volume, any requirement to print in colour, and paper handling. Each of these factors is described in the following sections.

Printing costs

The cost of printing is normally described in terms of cost per page. Two separate figures are usually given for the cost per page: the typical cost of a page containing only text and the typical cost of a page containing a large graphic image.

The cost per page provides a simple means of determining the overall running costs of a given printer. The figures given usually refer to the costs of consumables such as ink and replacement components (toner cartridges, drums and so on).

In general, laser printers and inkjet printers have slightly higher costs per page than other types. However, this is largely due to the fact these printers print at very high qualities. The cost per page tends to rise dramatically when printing in colour is carried out. In some cases, the cost per page can increase by a factor of more than ten.

Print quality

Print quality is normally measured in dots per inch (dpi). This describes the number of individual dots that can be printed within a space of one square inch. Quality is normally compared with professional typesetting equipment used to produce a book or magazine. A typeset document is normally produced at a quality of between 1200 and 1500 dpi. However, since business documents seldom need to be produced to this standard, the typical 600 dpi quality provided by a laser printer is considered acceptable for business correspondence, reports and other documents.

Paper handling

Many organisations require the capability to print on envelopes, labels and card. In general, only inkjet and laser printers offer this facility. In addition, some laser and inkjet printers have special paper feeders that allow batches of envelopes or labels to be printed at a time.

The quantity of paper that a printer can hold is also an important factor when selecting a business printer for workgroup printing since a large paper capacity will reduce the need to refill the printer constantly.

Colour printing

At present, inkjet printers offer the best compromise between print quality and cost when producing documents in colour. Although other printers, such as colour laser printers, are capable of producing better results, printing costs can be prohibitive.

Cost per page

Figures refer to the costs of consumables such as ink and replacement components (toner cartridges, drums and so on).

Dots per inch (DPI) This describes the number of individual dots that can be printed within a space of one square inch.

Volume

The volume of printing that will be carried out using a particular printer has implications for running costs, maintenance costs and reliability. Manufacturers often provide ratings for their printers that describe the typical workload appropriate for a given model. This value is often called the printer’s duty cycle and is usually described in terms of pages per month. An inkjet printer, for example, might be described as appropriate for home use where the average monthly workload is likely to be less than 1000 pages per month. A laser printer might easily achieve volumes of 5000 pages per month or more.

Duty cycle When referring to printers, this describes the typical monthly workload in terms of the number of pages printed.

Pages per month (ppm)

Manufacturers often provide ratings for their printers that describe the typical workload appropriate for a given model.

Pages per minute (ppm) A simple means of measuring the speed of a printer.

Using the criteria described in this section, select the most suitable type of printer for these applications:

n a student on a business course with a limited budget;

n a shared workgroup printer for ten people;

n proofing magazines;

n printing duplicate copies of invoices.

Selecting printers