Dictionary of Computers - laser printer

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Computer printer in which the image to be printed is formed by the action of a laser on a light-sensitive drum, then transferred to paper by means of an electrostatic charge. Laser printers are page printers, printing a complete page at a time. The printed image, which can take the form of text or pictures, is made up of tiny dots, or ink particles. The quality of the image generated depends on the fineness of these dots – most laser printers can print up to 120 dots per cm/300 dots per in across the page.

A typical desktop laser printer can print about 4–40 pages per minute. The first low-cost laser printer suitable for office use appeared in 1984.

Laser printers range in size from small black-and-white machines designed to work with microcomputers to very large colour machines designed for high-volume commercial printing. Because they produce very high-quality print and are virtually silent, small laser printers (along with ink-jet printers) have replaced dot-matrix and daisywheel printers as the most popular type of microcomputer printer.

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