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[[File:Epson Wide Carriage 9-pin printer - with legal paper 8.5x14.jpg|thumb|This is an example of a wide-carriage [[dot matrix printer]], designed for {{convert|14|in|adj=on}} wide paper, shown with {{convert|8.5|x|14|in|adj=on}} legal paper. Wide carriage printers were often used in the field of businesses, to print accounting records on {{convert|11|x|14|in|adj=on}} [[tractor-feed paper]]. They were also called "132-column printers".]]
[[File:Printer.ogv|thumb|A video showing an [[Inkjet printing|inkjet printer]] while printing a page]]
|title=0271-2834-MTDC; Assembling a Bar-Code Tracking System
|url=https://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm02712834/page03.htm
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==History==
The first computer printer designed was a mechanically driven apparatus by [[Charles Babbage]] for his [[difference engine]] in the 19th century; however, his mechanical printer design was not built until 2000.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/710950.stm |title=Babbage printer finally runs |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=13 April 2000 |access-date=6 December 2010 |archive-date=11 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090111224712/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/710950.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> He also had plans for a curve plotter, which would have been the first computer graphics printer if it was built.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Eccles |first=Simon |date=2019-12-13 |title=How Charles Babbage invented computer printing |url=https://www.printweek.com/content/features/how-charles-babbage-invented-computer-printing/ |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=[[Printweek]] |language=en}}</ref>
The first patented printing mechanism for applying a marking medium to a recording medium or more particularly an electrostatic inking apparatus and a method for electrostatically depositing ink on controlled areas of a receiving medium, was in 1962 by C. R. Winston, Teletype Corporation, using continuous inkjet printing. The ink was a red stamp-pad ink manufactured by Phillips Process Company of Rochester, NY under the name Clear Print. This patent (US3060429) led to the Teletype Inktronic Printer product delivered to customers in late 1966.<ref>{{cite web |last=Jim |first=Haynes |publisher=Southwest Museum of Engineering Communications and Computation |title=Archivist |url=http://www.smecc.org/teletype_inktronic.htm |access-date=29 May 2021 |archive-date=21 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021152339/http://www.smecc.org/teletype_inktronic.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
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;Reverse image technology:The standard for high-security card applications that use contact and contactless [[Smart card|smart chip cards]]. The technology prints images onto the underside of a special film that fuses to the surface of a card through heat and pressure. Since this process transfers dyes and resins directly onto a smooth, flexible film, the print-head never comes in contact with the card surface itself. As such, card surface interruptions such as smart chips, ridges caused by internal [[RFID]] antennae and debris do not affect print quality. Even printing over the edge is possible.
;Thermal rewrite print process:In contrast to the majority of other card printers, in the thermal rewrite process the card is not personalized through the use of a color ribbon, but by activating a thermal sensitive foil within the card itself. These cards can be repeatedly personalized, erased and rewritten. The most frequent use of these are in chip-based student identity cards, whose validity changes every semester.
;Common printing problems:Many printing problems are caused by physical defects in the card material itself, such as deformation or warping of the card that is fed into the machine in the first place. Printing irregularities can also result from chip or antenna embedding that alters the thickness of the plastic and interferes with the printer's effectiveness. Other issues are often caused by operator errors, such as users attempting to feed non-compatible cards into the card printer, while other printing defects may result from environmental abnormalities such as dirt or contaminants on the card or in the printer.<ref>{{cite conference |url=http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistir/IR-7056/Interoperability/Goyet-Interoperability.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310101533/http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistir/IR-7056/Interoperability/Goyet-Interoperability.pdf |archive-date=10 March 2016 |title=Interoperability and Card Printing |conference=NIST Workshop on Storage and Processor Card-based Technologies |year=2003 |pages=
====Variations====
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{{main|Solid ink}}
[[Solid ink]] printers, also known as phase-change ink or hot-melt ink printers, are a type of [[thermal transfer printer]], graphics sheet printer or 3D printer . They use solid sticks, crayons, pearls or granular ink materials. Common inks are [[CMYK color model|CMYK]]-colored ink, similar in consistency to candle wax, which are melted and fed into a piezo crystal operated print-head. A Thermal transfer printhead jets the liquid ink on a rotating, oil coated drum. The paper then passes over the print drum, at which time the image is immediately transferred, or transfixed, to the page. Solid ink printers are most commonly used as color office printers and are excellent at printing on transparencies and other non-porous media. Solid ink is also called phase-change or hot-melt ink and was first used by Data Products and Howtek, Inc., in 1984.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gregory|first=P|title=Editor|publisher=Blackie Academic & Professional for Chapman and Hall|year=1996|isbn=0-7514-0238-9|___location=Great Britain|pages=113–138}}</ref> Solid ink printers can produce excellent results with text and images. Some solid ink printers have evolved to print 3D models, for example, Visual Impact Corporation<ref>{{Cite book|last=Burns|first=Marshall
====Dye-sublimation printers====
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In the 1970s and '80s, dot matrix printers were one of the more common types of printers used for general use, such as for home and small office use. Such printers normally had either 9 or 24 pins on the print head (early 7 pin printers also existed, which did not print [[descender]]s). There was a period during the early home computer era when a range of printers were manufactured under many brands such as the [[Commodore International|Commodore]] VIC-1525 using the [[Seikosha]] '''Uni-Hammer''' system. This used a single solenoid with an oblique striker that would be actuated 7 times for each column of 7 vertical pixels while the head was moving at a constant speed. The angle of the striker would align the dots vertically even though the head had moved one dot spacing in the time. The vertical dot position was controlled by a synchronized longitudinally ribbed platen behind the paper that rotated rapidly with a rib moving vertically seven dot spacings in the time it took to print one pixel column.<ref>{{cite web|title=VIC-1525 Graphics Printer User Manual|url=http://www.classiccmp.org/cini/pdf/Commodore/VIC-1525%20Printer%20User%27s%20Manual.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.classiccmp.org/cini/pdf/Commodore/VIC-1525%20Printer%20User%27s%20Manual.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|publisher=Commodore Computer|access-date=22 February 2015}}</ref> 24-pin print heads were able to print at a higher quality and started to offer additional type styles and were marketed as [[Dot matrix printing#Near Letter Quality .28NLQ.29|Near Letter Quality]] by some vendors. Once the price of inkjet printers dropped to the point where they were competitive with dot matrix printers, dot matrix printers began to fall out of favour for general use.
Some dot matrix printers, such as the NEC P6300, can be upgraded to print in color. This is achieved through the use of a four-color ribbon mounted on a mechanism (provided in an upgrade kit that replaces the standard black ribbon mechanism after installation) that raises and lowers the ribbons as needed. Color graphics are generally printed in four passes at standard resolution, thus slowing down printing considerably. As a result, color graphics can take up to four times longer to print than standard monochrome graphics, or up to
Dot matrix printers are still commonly used in low-cost, low-quality applications such as [[cash register]]s, or in demanding, very high volume applications like [[invoice]] printing. Impact printing, unlike laser printing, allows the pressure of the print head to be applied to a stack of two or more forms to print [[Multipart stationery|multi-part documents]] such as sales invoices and [[credit card]] receipts using [[continuous stationery]] with [[carbonless copy paper]]. It also has security advantages as ink impressed into a paper matrix by force is harder to erase invisibly. Dot-matrix printers were being superseded even as receipt printers after the end of the twentieth century.
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* Barcode printer multiple technologies, including: [[thermal printing]], [[inkjet printing]], and [[laser printing]] [[barcode]]s
* Label printer
* [[Wide-format printer]]
* Billboard / sign paint spray printers
* Laser etching (product packaging) industrial printers
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