A computer printer, or more commonly a printer, produces a hard copy
(permanent human-readable text and/or graphics) of documents stored in electronic
form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers
are primarily used as local computer peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable
to a computer which serves as a document source. Some printers, commonly known as
network printers, have built-in network interfaces (typically wireless or Ethernet),
and can serve as a hardcopy device for any user on the network. Individual printers are
often designed to support both local and
network connected
users at the same time.
In addition, many modern printers can directly interface to electronic media such as
memory sticks or
memory cards, or to image
capture devices such as
digital cameras,
scanners; some printers are combined
with a scanners and/or
fax machines in a single unit.
Printers that include non-printing features are sometimes called Multi-Function Printers (MFP) or
Multi-Function Devices (MFD).
A printer which is combined with a scanner can function as a photocopier if so designed.
Most MFPs include printing, scanning, and copying among their features.
Printers are designed for low-volume, short-turnaround print jobs; requiring virtually
no setup time to achieve a hard copy of a given document. However, printers are generally
slow devices (30 pages per minute is considered fast; and many consumer printers are
far slower than that), and the cost-per-page is relatively high.
In contrast, the printing press (which serves much the same function), is designed and
optimized for high-volume print jobs such as newspaper print runs--printing presses are
capable of hundreds of pages per minute or more, and have an incremental cost-per-page
which is a fraction of that of printers.
The printing press remains the machine of choice for high-volume, professional publishing.
However, as printers have improved in quality and performance, many jobs which used to be
done by professional print shops are now done by users on local printers.
The world's first computer printer was a 19th century mechanically driven apparatus invented
by Charles Babbage for his Difference Engine.
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