HOW PRINTERS WORK

by Ted Peterson
This article is about different types of computer printers and how to make them work.
There are three types of computer printers for sale in the United States. They are: dot metric printers (they are being used very lettle now), lazer printers (are used in business), and the ink jet printers that the home computer people use. The dot metric printers used a ribbon to run and most of them would only print black as most people had only a black ribbon. The lazer printers use heat to bind the image on the page and most of them would only print black and white. Most of the computer systems that business have use lazer printers. The printing is more permanent.
The last group of printers are the ink jet printers. Most of the printers that the person that has a computer in their home or have a small company will have these printers. Most of the brands that you see in ads or in computer stores are these type. Epson, HP, Canon, etc.
The costs are different. Most ink jet printers are in the $39.00 up to $200.00 and the lazer will cost from $125.00 up to $1,000.00. If you are using a dot medric printer there is little value in them.
The difference in them are as follows. The ink jet printers spray droplets of ink onto the paper. This ink (until the new Epsons came out) was washable and you could not let it get wet. Also you do not want to print checks with it as you can change the printing. Also the color ink will fade under bright sun light. Some of the new Epson will last forever but water will wash them out. Lazer printer bind the ink on the paper and water will not harm the printed image and the image will not fade. Ink jet printers cartridges will print from 400 to 900 sheets and the cartridge cost about $30.00 each. Lazer cartridges will cost about $80.00 and up and will print about the same number of pages. As you can see, ink jet printing cost about 1/2 as much as lazer.
You can check all about your printer or add a new printer by clicking on "start" and then clicking on "settings". At this point click on "printers" at which time your screen will show all the printers that your computer is set up with plus an item "add printer" If you want to add another printer click on that icon and follow the menu. To check on your printer right mouse click on the printer icon then go down to "properties". By clicking on different parts of the screen you can set your printer to print landscape, different paper size, and a lot of other items. On "Utility" you can check on amount of ink left, do a nozzle check, clean the print head, align your print head, etc. If the "status monitor" is greyed out you have one of the Epson new printers (C60, C80, etc.) that do not have the complete drivers on the CD that comes with the printers. Go to their web site and down load the status monitor for your printer.
When you want to print you will go to the print program. Some of the program you are working on will have an item across the top listed as "Print". If the program has that item, click on it and follow the instruction. If there is no listing called "Print" on your program (as most of them will) go to "file" in the upper left hand spot, and a "drop down" menu will show up and then go down to "print" and click on it. Follow instruction from then on.
If you want to print more on the page or if you want to change the margins do the following. On the drop down menu there is an item called print setup. Click on that and then you can change the margins on both sides and on the top and botton. Some times another drop down menu will tell you that you will exceed the space. Click disregard and most of the time it will print ok.
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