Laser printers operate by shining a laser beam to produce an image on a drum. The drum is then rolled through a pool, or reservoir, or toner, and the electrically charged portions of the drum pick up ink. Finally, using a combination of heat and pressure, the ink on the drum is transferred onto the page. Laser printers print very fast, and the supply cartridges work a long time. Color laser printers use the same toner-based printing process as black and white ( B/W) laser printers, except that they combine four different toner colors. Color laser printers can also be used as a regular black and white laser printer.

LED/LCD printers are types of electro photographic printers that are identical to laser printers in most ways. Both LCD (liquid crystal display) and LED (light-emitting diode) printers use a light source instead of a laser to create an image on a drum. In most contexts, “laser printer” covers LCD and LED printers as well. The print process is almost identical, but LED printers use Light Emitting Diodes to charge the drum, and the other uses Liquid Crystals. These printers produce a very high quality text and graphics print out.

Impact (Dot-matrix) printers use a set of closely spaced pins and a ribbon to print letters or other characters on a page. These printers actually impact the page to print a character, much like a typewriter. Dot-matrix printers vary in terms of speed and the number of pins they have. They can run at a speed anywhere between 50 and 500 CPS (Characters Per Second). The number of pins, which can vary between 9 to 24, determines the quality of the print job. Dot matrix printers are commonly used for printing invoices, purchase orders, shipping forms, labels, and other multi-part forms. Dot matrix printers can print through multi-part forms in a single pass, allowing them to produce more pages than even high-speed laser printers.

Solid Ink printers are page printers that use solid wax ink sticks in a “phase-change” process. They work by liquefying wax ink sticks into reservoirs, and then squirting the ink onto a transfer drum, from where it is cold-fused onto the paper in a single pass. Solid-ink printers offer better color consistency than do most technologies, with little variation caused by changes in temperature, humidity, or type of paper. Solid ink machines have better reliability, because they have fewer components in comparison, for example with color laser printers .

Dye Sublimation printers are professional devices widely used in demanding graphic arts and photographic applications. True these printers work by heating the ink so that it turns from a solid into a gas. The heating element can be set to different temperatures, thus controlling the amount of ink laid down in one spot. In practice, this means that color is applied as a continuous tone, rather than in dots, as with an inkjet. One color is laid over the whole of one sheet at a time, starting with yellow and ending with black. The ink is on large rolls of film which contain sheets of each color, so for an A4 print it will have an A4-size sheet of yellow, followed by a sheet of cyan, and so on. Dye sublimation requires particularly expensive special paper, as the dyes are designed to diffuse into the paper surface, mixing to create precise color shades.

Portable printers are usually fairly lightweight and sometimes carry the option of using a battery instead of drawing power from the computer. Usually they realize basic print resolutions suitable for plain text printing. You can find on the market the following types of the portable printers: Thermal printer, Thermal transfer printer and Ink-Jet printer. The main advantage of thermal and thermal transfer printers is that they can be very small. The smallest thermal and thermal transfer printers weigh approximately one pound. Usually the ink-jet portable printer weighs more than 2 pounds. Thermal printers require a special type of paper.

Plotters are large-scale printers that are very accurate at reproducing line drawings. They are commonly used for technical drawings such as engineering drawings or architectural blueprints. The two basic types of plotters are called flatbed plotters and drum plotters. Flatbed plotters are horizontally aligned with a flat surface to which a piece of paper is attached. The paper remains stationary and the printer moves pens across the paper to draw the image. Drum plotters, also called upright plotters, are vertically positioned. They have a drum that the paper rolls on. Drum plotters usually make more noise and are more compact than flatbed plotters.

Digital Photo printers Many middle range printers are now able to print photo quality images. Usually an option with color printers, specialist photo print heads allow a greater resolution to be achieved to improve photo image quality. Photo ink jet printers expand their gamuts by adding additional ink colors, usually light cyan and light magenta.

Network printer is a printer that provides output capabilities to all network users.

Multifunction printers: combine top-quality color ink-jet or laser printing with plain-paper and PC faxing, color copying and color scanning , telephoning- all in one convenient, space-saving machine. If you work from home or have a small office a multifunctional device may be ideal.

The Bravo AutoPrinter is the worlds first automated CD/DVD printing system that can truly be called innovative. It combines automatic, robotic-based CD or DVD printing along with full-color, 2400 dpi disc printing all in one compact, desktop unit.

Printers for banking: these printers realize innovative technology and functionality to increase productivity, and reduce costs.

EZ CD/DVD Printers: provide a low cost way to create professional printed CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. Instead of writing on the CD or applying labels, you can print directly on the CD surface! With high speed capabilities, a full color image can be printed directly on the top surface of your CDs in less than 1 minute.

Label Printers are the smartest way to print labels one at a time. The printers allow easy installation. You can get high-quality, professional results every time.

VersaLaser™ (Universal Laser Systems Inc.) is peripheral tool, that can transform images or drawings on your computer screen into real items made out of an amazing variety of materials… wood, plastic, fabric, paper, glass, leather, stone, ceramic, rubber… and it’s as easy to use as your printer. 2 models of VersaLaser have 16″x12″(VL-200) and 24″x12″ (VL-300) work areas.

3D Printers ( Z corporation). The ZPrinter 310 System creates physical models directly from computer-aided design system (“CAD”) and other digital data in hours instead of days. The printer is fast, versatile and simple, allowing engineers to produce a range of concept models and functional test parts quickly and inexpensively. The system is ideal for an office environment or educational institution, providing product developers easy access to a 3D Printer.

Comparison-shopping Center: You can use directly the Comparison-shopping Center to buy on the Internet a product with the lowest price.

First, wide format printers are perfect for making large scale event displays. If your company ever participates in any type of trade show or convention where you have to set up a visual booth for patrons to look at, having a large colorful visual display can be a great way to generate attention. Using a wide format printer would enable you to easily customize each event display for any specific location or theme. Second, wide format printers are great for producing one-of-a-kind banners. If your firm has any type of store front where potential customers or clients might visit, hanging a banner informing the public about the functions of your company or any special promotions you have going on can be a great way to create traffic to your business. If you don’t have a store front, hanging banners inside the office pertaining to any employee activities or special events may be a great way to boost employee moral. Additionally, if your business does have a store front, wide format printers can also be used to help make any point-of-purchase displays or any retail window displays. Point-of-purchase displays are important to any retail business offering any promotional specials or deals and to drive sales. Retail window displays can take many forms, posters or banners can be options, but backlit displays are unique and are sure to get your window recognition. With all of the different types of paper material available for wide format printers to use, there are a variety of different creative methods that can be applied to any sign or poster. Wide format printers can help to make business presentations or pitches look more professional or client tailored. Large visuals can help gain client attention, and having the ability to tailor the message to the specific client on the visual is great way to impress any potential or current client. Furthermore, if there are any visuals or photos that you would like to include in your presentation but seem too small to have an effect, wide format printers can be used to help print enlargements of all of these images and get them noticed by the client. Enlarging other visuals, such as potential print ads to be placed in magazines or news papers, can help tremendously in proofing. Because wide format printers can enlarge almost any image, they can help to proof images, ads, etc. that are up for review. Viewing such material in a large format can help draw any attention to minor flaws that may have been missed under any other editing circumstances. There are many types of paper rolls out there to help you achieve each and every one of these possible functions. HP Bright White Paper HP C1861A is HP’s brightest, low cost bond paper for everyday black and color line drawings. There is also paper that can handle high density ink coverage for posters and signs that need to be laminated or mounted and must dry quickly; a good paper for this usage is HP Universal Heavyweight Coated Paper HP Q1414A HP Q1405A. No matter what the brand, you will find paper that yields your printing goals.

Wide format Copiers are used everywhere and are required to create duplicates of important documents. They are easily operated as they are quite simple to use. These special copiers are designed in such a way, that they have the capacity to print 100 copies in a mere minute. Though their prices have been increasing due to new inventions, you can get them at the lowest price from the internet. One of the preferred websites is the http://www.aectec.com. They supply a variety of the wide format machines at affordable prices, keeping in mind the customer services. Xerox is the founder of photo copying machines which were invented in 1960. Copiers are used in large quantities in offices and schools as they replicate the document in less time.

Technology gets better by the day so changes are brought and improvements are made to print faster. For high output they use digital equipments which decrease the processing time. Images are developed in less time with the highest clarity. The technology is so advanced that multitasking is taken care by the memory of the copier. You can give a print job of 100 prints directly without even customizing every print. You have to enter the specification for the first print and it will replicate the same specification for the remaining prints.

There are many manufacturers who produce these special photocopying machines. One of them is Cannon, the cannon IC2300N is one of the best large format copy machine as it has a printer, fax and a scanner. It costs around 6000 dollars as it is the best photo copying machine available in the market. It has the capacity to reduce the size of the print according to the requirements. One of the affordable ones is the cannon PC 430 that has a capacity to print four pages in a minute. It can be used for small scale organizations and costs around 600 dollars. Changes were brought in the recent times as the light emitted by the beam was harmful to the skin and were further replaced by the green beam light. The old light use to emit ultra violet rays that caused the harm. You can even purchase colored photo units as they are available in the market. They are costlier than normal black and white photo copiers because the mechanism used in color copiers is different and it requires lot of moving parts. Photo copying machines can be attached to the computer directly, and a print command can be given “on the fly”. This minimizes time as you do not have to edit the settings on the machine.

In brief, wide format copy machines are more expensive than the normal printers but the operational costs is less. You can compare different products from the above website given as they have a huge variety. These photo copying machines have to be maintained properly and on regular basis due to the fact that they are more sophisticated than the average machine. If damaged, a heavy repair cost has to be spent as they are not easily repaired, this can be minimized if you select a good manufacturer.