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In computing, a printer is a peripheral machine which makes a persistent representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Different types of printers include 3D printers, inkjet printers, laser printers, and thermal printers.
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The earliest known form of printing as applied to paper was woodblock printing, which appeared in China before 220 AD for cloth printing. However, it would not be applied to paper until the seventh century. Later developments in printing technology include the movable type invented by Bi Sheng around 1040 AD and the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. The technology of printing played a key role in the development of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses.
Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively-charged cylinder called a "drum" to define a differentially-charged image. The drum then selectively collects electrically-charged powdered ink (toner), and transfers the image to paper, which is then heated to permanently fuse the text, imagery, or both, to the paper. As with digital photocopiers, laser printers employ a xerographic printing process. Laser printing differs from traditional xerography as implemented in analog photocopiers in that in the latter, the image is formed by reflecting light off an existing document onto the exposed drum.
Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensive consumer models to expensive professional machines. By 2019, laser printers outsold inkjet printers by nearly a 2:1 ratio, 9.6% vs 5.1%.
Dye-Sublimation Printing is a computer printing technique which uses heat to transfer dye onto materials such as a plastic, card, paper, or fabric. The sublimation name was first applied because the dye was considered to make the transition between the solid and gas states without going through a liquid stage. This understanding of the process was later shown to be incorrect, as there is some liquefying of the dye. Since then, the proper name for the process has become known as dye-diffusion, though this technically correct term has not supplanted the original name. Many consumer and professional dye-sublimation printers are designed and used for producing photographic prints, ID cards, clothing, and more.
Giclée is a neologism coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne for fine art digital prints made on inkjet printers. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on a modified Iris printer in a process invented in the late 1980s. It has since been used loosely to mean any fine-art printing, usually archival, printed by inkjet. It is often used by artists, galleries, and print shops to suggest high quality printing, but is an unregulated word with no associated warranty of quality.
Digital printing is a method of printing from a digital-based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small-run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large-format and/or high-volume laser or inkjet printers.
Prepress is the term used in the printing and publishing industries for the processes and procedures that occur between the creation of a print layout and the final printing. The prepress procedure includes the manufacture of a printing plate, image carrier or form, ready for mounting on a printing press, as well as the adjustment of images and texts or the creation of a high-quality print file. In today's prepress shop, the form of delivery from the customer is usually electronic, either a PDF or application files created from programs such as Scribus, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, or QuarkXPress.
Creo, now part of Eastman Kodak Company, was a Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada-based company, involved in imaging and software technology for computer to plate and digital printing. The name derives from the Latin creo, "I create."
A dot matrix printer is an impact printer that prints using a fixed number of pins or wires. Typically the pins or wires are arranged in one or several vertical columns. The pins strike an ink-coated ribbon and force contact between the ribbon and the paper, so that each pin makes a small dot on the paper. The combination of these dots forms a dot matrix image. They were also known as serial dot matrix printers.
An Iris printer is a large-format color inkjet printer introduced in 1985 by Iris Graphics, originally of Stoneham, Massachusetts and currently manufactured by the Graphic Communications Group of Eastman Kodak, designed for prepress proofing. It is also used in the fine art reproduction market as a final output digital printing press, as in Giclée.
Kodak EasyShare is a sub brand of Eastman Kodak Company products identifying a consumer photography system of digital cameras, snapshot thermal printers, snapshot thermal printer docks, all-in-one inkjet printers, accessories, camera docks, software, and online print services. The brand was introduced in 2001. The brand is no longer applied to all-in-one inkjet printers or online printing services. Thermal snapshot printers and printer docks product lines have been discontinued. In 2012, Kodak stopped manufacturing and selling all digital cameras and photo frames.
Inkjet paper is a special fine paper designed for inkjet printers, typically classified by its weight, brightness and smoothness, and sometimes by its opacity.
Prinergy is a prepress workflow system created by Creo in 1999 and maintained and sold through Kodak. It is a client/server system that integrates PDF creation, job proofing, imposition, and a raster image processor (RIP) into one unified workflow.
Solid ink is a type of ink used in printing. Solid ink is a waxy resin-based polymer that must be melted prior to usage, unlike conventional liquid inks. The technology is used most in graphics and large format printing environments, where color vividness and cost efficiency are important.
A contract proof usually serves as an agreement between customer and printer and as a color reference guide for adjusting the press before the final press run. Most contract proofs are a prepress proof.
Jon Cone is a collaborative printmaker, pioneer and developer of photographic ink jet technologies, educator, and photographer. Cone is best known for the founding of the world's first digital printmaking studio, Cone Editions Press and developer of quad-black ink jet systems for printing fine black-and-white photographs including the first commercially available method of producing fine art black-and-white prints in the digital darkroom.
Kodak Proofing Software is an application from Eastman Kodak for managing and controlling the process of Prepress proofing. It supports the Veris printer, Kodak Approval and various inkjet printers from Epson and Hewlett Packard.
Within the printing industry, the Approval proofer, also known as the Approval Digital Imaging System or Kodak Approval System, was designed for use in Prepress proofing, especially for the highest quality contract proofs.
Inkjet technology originally was invented for depositing aqueous inks on paper in 'selective' positions based on the ink properties only. Inkjet nozzles and inks were designed together and the inkjet performance was based on a design. It was used as a data recorder in the early 1950s, later in the 1950s co-solvent-based inks in the publishing industry were seen for text and images, then solvent-based inks appeared in industrial marking on specialized surfaces and in the1990's phase change or hot-melt ink has become a popular with images and digital fabrication of electronic and mechanical devices, especially jewelry. Although the terms "jetting", "inkjet technology" and "inkjet printing", are commonly used interchangeably, inkjet printing usually refers to the publishing industry, used for printing graphical content, while industrial jetting usually refers to general purpose fabrication via material particle deposition.
References
- ↑ Kodak Veris Proofing Media
- ↑ Kodak APPROVAL System Archived May 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Kodak MATCHPRINT Inkjet System Archived January 7, 2010, at the Wayback Machine