Non-Impact Printers And Its Types

Printers
Printers are the most commonly used output device. They are used to print output on the paper. The output may be in the form of characters, symbols and graphics information printed on paper is called hardcopy

Categories/Types of Printers
Printers are classified into two main categories or types:
       1- Impact Printers
        2- Non-Impact Printers


Non-Impact Printers
The printers that produce output on paper without striking the paper are known as non-impact printers. They Use Electrostatic , inkjet, and thermal technologies for printing.


Non-Impact printers are faster and produce hight quality output than impact printers. They can print up to 24 pages per minute. They produce no noise during printing. These printers are costly than impact printers

The Examples of Non-Impact printers are :
      1- Laser Printer
      2- Inkjet Printer
      3- Thermal Printer

Laser Printer
Laser stands for Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation. A laser printer is the fastest and hight quality non-impact printer. It works like a photocopier. The laser printer transfers the image of output on paper using LASER technology and toner. Toner is an ink powder. It is used in laser printers and photocopiers also

The laser printer has a special drum inside it. first the image of output is created on the drum, and then it is transferred from drum to paper. The image of output is created on the drum by throwing magnetic ink powder in the form of microscopic dots. These dots can be from 300 dpi to 1200 dpi (dpi means dots per inch and these dots refers to microscopic dots).

The Laser printer can print both text and graphics in very high quality resolution. Laser printer prints one page at a time. The laser printers are, therefore also called page printers. The printing speed of laser printer is about 4 to 32 pages per minute for microcomputer and up to 200 pages per minute for mainframe computers.

Ink Jet Printer
Ink-jet printer is type of non-impact printer. It creates output on paper by spraying tiny drops of liquid ink. Inkjet printer has print-head that can spray very fine drops of ink. It consists of print cartridge filled with liquid ink and has small nozzles in form of matrix. Like dot matrix printer, the combination of nozzles is activated to form the shaper of character or image on the paper by spraying the liquid ink. These printers have resolution ranging from 300 to 720 dpi.

The ink-jet printers have low price than laser printers. They are also slower and have low print quality than laser printer. However, They are faster and have hight print quality than dot matrix printers. The printing speed of ink-jet printer is from 1 to 6 pages per minute.

Thermal Printer
Thermal printer is another type of non-impact printer. It can only print output on a special heat sensitive waxy paper. The image if the output is created on the waxy paper by burning dots on it. For coloured output, coloured waxy sheets are used.

Thermal Printer produces a high quality printout. It is quite expansive as compared to other non-impact printers.

Software And Its Types

Software
Software tells the computer what to do and how to do. A computer performs different operations according to the instruction of software. Software is developed in a computer programming language.

Types of Software
Software can be classified into following two main categories or types
      1- System Software
      2- Application Software

System Software
A program or set of programs that is especially designed to control different operations of computer system is called system software. It controls the working of different components of the computer. The system also enables the other application programs to excute properly

Operating systems, utility programs, and device drivers are the examples of system software. Operating system is the main and most popular type of system software.

Application Software
A program or set of programs that are especially designed to solve the specific problems of users, are called application software. It is also known as software package

There are Different kinds of application software such as comercial software, scientific software, financial packages, Games, multimedia software.

Categories of Application software
The Application software is divided into two main categories
     1- Custom-built software
     2- Packaged software

Custom-built software
The software that is developed for a particular customer or organization is called custom-built software. It is also known as customized software. For example, software developed to  maintain the records of students of a particular collage is an example of custom-built software

Packaged Software
The software that is developed for sale to the general public is called packaged software. Packaged software is  used to solve some common problem of many people or users

Some examples of packaged software are ;
    1- Word processor such as MS-Word
    2- Spreadsheet such as MS-Excel
    3- Database software such as MS-Access
    4- Graphic software such as Adobe Photoshop and CorelDraw
    5- Communication Softwware such as Internet Explorer

Information Technology Introduction

Information Technology

The technology used for processing, storing, and communicating information is called information Technology or IT. It is the combination of telecommunication technology and computer technology. It combines computing with high-speed communication links for carrying data from one place to another. all over the world. The website is type of information technology


Following are major components of information technology.

    1- Data or Information
    2- Medium or communication network
    3- Computer hardware and software

Before information technology, telephone system was the only source of communication. Today, in addition to telephone system, fax machines, mobile phones, and computer network are the main sources of communication. The users can share and exchange information all over the world through computer network (Internet) or mobile phone networks. Computer hardware and software are playing main role in information technology.

The world has become a globel village due to information technology. The global village means the people living in the world know each other as if they are living in a village. People can exchange information or messages in such a manner as if they are sitting in a drawing room, face to face.

Primary Hardware Components

The primary Hardware components of computer system are shown in the following figure

                                                    CPU
                                                              ALU
                          Input Device             Control Unit              Output Device
                                                          Memory Unit
                                                       Secondary Storage

Input Device
The data and instructions are given to the computer as input. The input device is used to give input to the computer. It accepts input ( data & program instructions ) in a form that a computer can use. The most commonly used input devices are keyboard and mouse

Processor
Processor is the most important component of the computer. It is also known as Central Processing unit
(CPU). It is considered as the brain of the computer. It processes input data according to the given instructions, and converts it into useful information. It is is further divided into two main components. These are Control Unit (CU) and Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU).

Memory Unit
The memory unit is another important part of computer. It is used to store data and instructions that are currently in use. The main memory or RAM is an example of memory unit.

Output Device
The Processed data is also known as output. The output device is used to get input from the computer. It gives processed data or results in form that a user can understand. The commonly used output devices are monitors and printers.

Secondary Storage Device
Secondary storage device is used to store data and programs permanently for later use. The commonly used secondary storage devices are hard disk, USB drive, floppy disk, and CD-ROM.