Welcome to the Outward Associate "Printer Basics 1"

Training Course!
The time required for this course is about 40 minutes.

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I will now explain the navigation of the course screen. Click
the instruction item that you want to display.

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In this course, we will learn about the types, usage, and
mechanisms of printers.
To start off, let's learn about the types and usage of printers
and technology that has been recently introduced.
Next, let's take a look in detail how printers receive data from
PCs and print characters and images.
We will learn about not only the components of printers, such
as the print engine, the printer driver, and the printer
controller, but also how the data flows between each of the
components.
Finally, we will learn about page description languages and
fonts.

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There are various kinds of printers such as small-size inkjet
printers for personal use, laser printers for office use, and
large-size printers which support outdoor advertising.
Now, let's look at what kinds of printers are in the market and
how they are currently used. We will also go over the
features, advantages, and disadvantages of these printers.
Although not all of these printers are sold by KONICA
MINOLTA, it is important to get a grasp of the big picture of
the printer market.

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A printer uses the digital signals from a computer to create
images on a substrate. Substrates can be paper, canvas,
cardboard, or almost anything else, Some printers can print
in 3 dimensions.
The material printed by printers is often called the hard copy,
to differentiate it from the data which is stored in a disk or
held in the computer memory.
Printers are broadly divided into:
- non-impact printers and
- impact printers.
Non–impact printers, such as inkjet printers and laser
printers, print without physically striking the paper. For
example, an inkjet printer creates characters and images by
propelling droplets of ink onto paper. A laser printer
electrostatically applies black or colored toner particles onto
the photoconductor and transfers them onto paper.

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Non–impact printers are far more quiet during operation than
impact printers.
Impact printers print by striking the substrate using needles
or wheels. Dot-matrix printers and type wheel printers fall into
this category.

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 Now, we will explain small-size inkjet printers for home use.
Large-size printers for commercial use will be explained
later.
The usability of small-size inkjet printers for home use has
been improved by the introduction of various functionalities
such as printing with a wireless LAN, a slimmer body, and a
colored operation panel.
The main uses are printing photographs and labels, and
printing on the surface of DVDs. However, KONICA
MINOLTA does not carry small-size inkjet printers for home
use.
Now then, let's take a look at the mechanism of inkjet
printers.
Ink is stored in ink cartridges. There are print heads on the
bottom of the ink cartridges, and they spray fine droplets of
ink supplied from the cartridges. The ink cartridges and print
heads are mounted on a carriage. The carriage moves from
right to left and reproduces an image on a sheet of paper.

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The print head mechanism of inkjet printers is divided into the
piezoelectric method and the thermal method. Click the
buttons to look at these methods in more detail.

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For the print head in this method, piezoelectric elements,
which are also called piezoelectric crystals, are used around
the ink route above the nozzle tip. When the piezoelectric
elements are compressed, the ink channel is pressed, and
then the ink is sprayed onto the paper from the nozzle
opening.
Flexibility in the selection of ink types and high durability,
which are possible due to its mechanical ink ejection system,
are advantages of this method.

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The thermal method is also called the Bubble jet method. In
this method, heating elements are located just above the
nozzle opening.
They generate bubbles by heating the ink rapidly. The high-
temperature bubbles expand and propel droplets of ink from
the nozzle opening onto the paper.
An advantage is how easily the image quality and resolution
can be improved, since the number of nozzles can be
increased due to the simple structure.

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Advantages of inkjet printers are their
- low costs,
- compactness,
- quiet printing, and
- color printing at a relatively low cost.

Disadvantages are
- that inkjet printers cannot print on carbon forms,
- their low-speed printing.

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Let's take a look at laser printers, which is one of the non-
impact printers.
Laser printers use black or colored toner. The toner is a fine
ink powder which is applied to the paper by an electrostatic
attraction and then fixed onto the paper by heat and
pressure.
Although some printers adopt LED light instead of laser light,
they basically have the same principle.
Advantages and disadvantages of laser printers are as
follows.
The advantages are their
- high-speed printing,
- high-quality images, and
- quiet printing.

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The disadvantages are
- that laser printers cannot print on carbon forms,
- their high costs, and
- that they take up space.

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In the previous slides, we explained relatively small printers,
such as inkjet printers and laser printers. Now, we will
introduce middle-size and large-size printers. Their printers
can be either non-impact printers or impact printers.
Middle-size printers for office use are capable of faster and
higher image quality printing than small-size printers. Various
options, such as trays for large capacity feeding and
finishers for bookbinding, can also be installed onto middle-
size printers.
Many types of industrial large-size printers for printing large
signboards or posters, printing on fabric, or printing labels
are on the market from manufacturers.
Some machines use special ink and printing techniques to
make it possible to output high-value-added materials which
have a three-dimensional appearance.

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Here, we will introduce other printers which have not yet
been explained.
Let's start with dot-matrix printers. This printer creates text
and images on paper by hammering several small pins
against the paper with an inked ribbon placed between the
pins and the paper. It is used for printing on passbooks or
the like.
The next printer is a 3 Dimensional printer, which is known
as a 3-D printer. This type of printer has become common in
recent years. While normal printers print in two-dimension, 3-
D printers create three-dimensional objects from the data of
Computer Aided Drafting, which is abbreviated to CAD, or
the like. Based on a lamination method which stacks thin
layers, these printers operate using different methods. Some
use a method which cures liquid resin with ultraviolet light,
while other use a method which stacks resin melted with
heat. They are expected to be used in diverse fields such as

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architecture, medicine, and education.

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Let's check what we have learned with a quiz.

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Let's look back on what we learned in this chapter.
We started with an overview of printers. We learned that
printers can be divided broadly into impact printers and non-
impact printers.
Then we studied about the different types of printers.
First, the inkjet printer. The print head mechanism can be
divided broadly into the piezoelectric method and the thermal
method.
Then, we gained knowledge on middle-size printers for office
use and large-size inkjet printers for commercial use.
In conclusion we learned about dot-matrix and 3-D printers.

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In this chapter, we will explain the printer interfaces.
You will gain an understanding of the functions and usage of
USB ports, network ports, and wireless LANs.

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Here, we will explain printer interfaces.
USB ports and network ports are the main interfaces. These
interfaces play the role of contacts when printers receive
data from PCs.
USB ports are used for local printing, which connects PCs
with printers directly. On the other hand, network ports are
used for network printing, which connects PCs with printers
via network.
In addition, a wireless LAN connection is also available. This
type of connection enables printing through mobile terminals
such as smartphones.
For further details, click the button for each item.

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USB is an abbreviation for Universal Serial Bus. It is one of
the serial bus standards to connect computers with
peripheral equipment.
Before the formulation of USB, many ports were used for
various equipment, such as printers, mouses, and keyboards.
In addition, there was a restriction that these pieces of
equipment had to remain connected until the computer was
turned off.
However, these standards were unified to operate peripheral
equipment from one port. This is the standard called USB.
There are three kinds of USB standards, USB1.1, USB2.0,
USB3.0, each with different speed modes.
Printers use USB2.0. USB2.0 supports high-speed mode,
480 Mbit per second.
USB ports are used for local printing, which connects PCs
with printers directly. Local printing provides users with

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exclusive access to the printer that is connected directly to
the user PC.

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Network ports adopt Ethernet standards such as 10Base-T,
100Base-TX, and 1000Base-T.
Network ports are used for network printing.
In network printing, several users have access to the same
printer at the same time. This is different from local printing.
Moreover, one user can have access to several printers, too.
This is because printers are shared on a network.

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With printers supporting wireless LAN, it is possible to print
through a wireless connection with various devices such as
PCs, smartphones, and tablet terminals.
Printers can be connected to wireless LAN in the office, so
there is more freedom in where the printer can be installed
and it can be available to any mobile users authenticated on
the network.

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Let's check what we have learned with a quiz.

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Let's look back on what we learned in this chapter.
We learned about printer interfaces, such as USB ports,
network ports, and wireless LANs.
USB ports are used for local printing. Local printing provides
users with exclusive access to the printer that is connected
directly to the user PC.
Network ports are used for network printing. In network
printing, several users can have access to several printers.
Additionally with wireless LANs, users can have access to
printers through smartphones from anywhere in the office.
Thus, there is more freedom in deciding where to install the
machines in the office.

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In this chapter, we will learn about the process of how
information is transmitted from a PC to a printer.
The main components in this process include a printer driver
which is on the PC side and a controller, print engine, and
video interface which are on the printer side.
You will gain an understanding of the functions and usage of
each component. Please note the flow of data between the
components.

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Let's look at the flow of data when outputting digital data
such as text, pictures, and illustrations.
The data created by a PC is sent to the printer driver
installed on the PC. The printer driver translates the data into
a page description language. Then the data is sent to the
printer controller of a printer.
The printer controller converts the data to "raster data" and
sends it to the print engine through the video interface. The
print engine implements printing based on the data sent in
this process.

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A printer driver is a software program that resides in a PC.
The purpose of a printer driver is to inform a PC of the
functions that the printer has and to utilize all of those
functions.
The printer driver will normally inform the PC of what printer
language the printer uses, which fonts are built in, what size
paper is available, how many paper cassettes are fitted and
whether the printer can perform duplex copies, and so on.
The printer driver translates documents stored in the PC to
the page description language which is then sent to the
printer. Printer drivers vary from printer to printer, so an
appropriate printer driver must be used to match the printer.
Using the wrong printer driver could lead to the printing of
garbled images because the printer does not understand the
language being sent from the PC.
To understand the installation procedure of printer drivers
and printer settings, please click on the respective item.

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For the printer driver installation, the CD or DVD packaged
with the product is normally used. Since an installer is
available, it is easy to complete the settings. The printer
driver type differs depending on the type of OS, which is the
abbreviation for Operating System, and the page description
language. Please install the appropriate type of printer driver.
In addition, users can download the printer driver data from
the Web sites of manufacturers.
Settings can be changed from the property screen of the
installed printer driver.

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When the data created in applications is output, users must
conduct some changes on the setting screen of the printer
driver.
The setting screen displays the following information:
- Available paper sizes,
- Available paper and finishing trays,
- The zoom percentage,
- Fonts incorporated in the printer.
The file including this information is called a PPD file. PPD
stands for PostScript Printer Description, which is a file that
describes the specifications of each PostScript printer.
After the setting is completed, the application data and
setting information are sent to a driver engine. A driver
engine, which is also called "a driver core", converts the data
that it receives into a page description language, PDL for
short.

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Printer controllers receive drawing data, such as PostScript
and PCL, that is described in page description languages
from PCs. Then, they interpret the languages, convert them
into page image data regarded as a frame, and output that
data to print engines.
Printer controllers are incorporated inside printers in the
shape of a board. Some high-quality controllers are installed
on the outside of printers as an option.
For further details, click the button for each item.

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A printing controller is a device that receives data from a
computer and converts it into image data before conveying it
to the print engine. Image data is printing data indicating
which part is black and which part is white. The following is
an example of how image data is created, using the letter "A"
of the alphabet.

1. The controller receives the data 41h from the computer.

41h is character code data which represents a capital "A"
in hexadecimal code.
2. After receiving the character code data, the controller
searches for the image data of the character from its own
font data.
3. The line of data which is taken out from the image data is
called "raster data". The raster data from the first line to
the last line in one page is transmitted to a print engine via
a video interface.

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Let's take a look at the controller hardware mechanism.
The main components are as follows:
Display LED Key: The operation panel. It is standard that a
controller has an operation unit.
NVRAM: An IC which holds various data set by a user in
case the main power is turned off. Other ICs such as an
EEPROM or a battery backup type SRAM may also be used.
CPU: An IC in charge of controlling and calculating in a
controller according to a program ROM. It is also used in
some printers to control their engines.
Program ROM: A ROM storing the program for controlling a
controller. It is named "program ROM" to distinguish it from a
font ROM.
Font ROM: An IC storing font data.
Option RAM: Most printers are designed so that their
memories (RAM) can be increased.

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Smoothing circuit: A circuit used for smoothing.

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We will explain a print engine using a laser printer engine as
an example.
The controller and the engine exchange raster data through
a video interface.
This figure shows a simplified version of the printing process
in a laser printer. The controller processes raster data and
sends it to the laser chip as a writing signal.
As the laser beam creates a latent image on the
photoconductive drum, toner adheres. The toner is
transferred from the drum to the paper and fused through the
heating rollers.

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What is a video interface? If we use a printer only for
printing, we do not need any special knowledge about the
video interface. A video interface is an important interface
that connects a controller and an engine. Some digital
copiers have a video interface, and others offer a video
interface kit as an option.
The interface can be defined as "an interface that connects a
controller and an engine" or "an interface through which
raster data passes".
There are no industry standards related to video interfaces
stipulated by public organizations such as ISO. Each printer
manufacturer makes them with specifications convenient for
their printers. Even if there are small differences in the
specifications, the basic functionality of video interfaces is
the same.
Videos interfaces have 3 functions.
First, they extract raster data line by line from image data
and transmit it to a print engine. The transmission speed is

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fixed depending on the specifications of each engine.
Second, they convey status information to an engine, such as
printing preparation completion, paper size, printing
completion, etc.
Third, they convey information such a printing requests,
desired paper sizes, dot positions and diameters for
smoothing from a controller to an engine.

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Let's check what we have learned with a quiz.

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Let's look back on what we learned in this chapter.
In this chapter, we learned about the data flow and major
components when outputting digital data such as sentences,
pictures, and illustrations created on a PC.
First, we learned about the printer driver. A printer driver
sends printer information, such as font and paper size, to a
PC and it sends PC information such as a page description
language to a printer.
Next, is the controller. A controller interprets page description
languages received from a PC and plays the role of
transferring the interpreted data to a print engine.
At this time, the controller and the engine exchange raster
data through a video interface.
A print engine receives information from a controller and
prints it.

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In this chapter, we will provide explanations about the page
description languages and fonts.
PCL and PostScript, which are presently the two main page
description languages used today, will be introduced. We will
learn about their features and applications.
We will also explain Adobe PDF PRINT Engine, APPE for
short, and a graphics device interface printing, GDI for short.
APPE is a technology of a raster image processor,
abbreviated to RIP, which was developed by Adobe
Systems.
Then, we will explain how fonts are processed for printing
and their features.

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A page description language, which is abbreviated to PDL,
specifies the arrangement of a printed page through
commands from a computer that the printer carries out.
It designates character printing positions or character types
with commands, and a printer interprets them to print the
characters.
PCL, developed by Hewlett-Packard Company, and
PostScript, developed by Adobe Systems, are well-known
examples of page description languages. For further details,
click the button for each item.

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PCL is a page description language developed by Hewlett–
Packard Company. The first version was released in the
early 1980s. Now, the latest version is PCL 6.
PCL stands for Printer Command Language.
It is used all over the world as one of the most common page
description languages because it can be used in a wide
range of scenarios and the device driver can be easily
obtained. PCL became the standard printer language of
Windows computers and almost all printers and multifunction
copiers support it.
In addition, PCL 6 is now suitable for documents with a good
deal of graphics.
The PCL method for page description, which reduces a PCL
data stream, makes it possible to print complex graphics at
high speed.

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Adobe PostScript was developed by Adobe Systems in
1984. PostScript was quickly adopted as a printer language
for high-quality printing in companies and government
agencies all over the world, along with industrial printing
companies.
Adobe's PostScript technology is used in a wide range of
output devices such as monochrome printers, color printers,
imagesetters, platesetters, and direct digital presses.
The latest version is PostScript 3.
It operates seamlessly in most of the major operating
systems and color management systems. Furthermore, it
demonstrates first-class quality and reliability on any network
or platform. A printer driver creates image data in PostScript,
and transfers the data to a printer, and then a print controller
converts the data.
PostScript is the standard printer language, which a lot of
different printers support, for Apple Macintosh computers.

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Many printers and multifunction copiers support it. If an Apple
computer is in your IT environment, be sure to select a
PostScript-compatible printer or multifunction copier.

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GDI stands for Graphics Device Interface, which is one of
the major components in the Windows operating system.
At first, it only created images displayed on display screens.
Then, it was also used for printing with printers.
This functionality requires GDI-capable printers, which
format GDI data.
Unlike PostScript or PCL printers, GDI printers do not require
high-performance controllers.
All formatting is performed by computers and the GDI
performs both of displaying an image on the display screen
and formatting for printing. This process allows us to output
the same image as what we see on the display screen.
Yet, there are some drawbacks. The biggest drawback is
that GDI printers generally only run under Windows.
In addition, it takes time for GDI to transmit data to the
printer. Another drawback is that additional RAM is

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occasionally necessary since GDI printing requires a system
memory.

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APPE stands for Adobe PDF Print Engine. It is a RIP
technology developed by Adobe Systems. While a
conventional RIP in a Configurable PostScript Interpreter,
which is CPSI in short form, system processes PostScript,
APPE directly processes PDF data. This allows native PDF
processing and rendering of multilayered PDF/X files without
the need to convert the job to PostScript.
The main benefit of the APPE RIP is that complex designs
and effects, including transparencies, can be reproduced
reliably. Designers and printers can make late-stage edits in
PDF files more easily and configure PDF jobs for printing on
different types of output devices and presses.
The APPE RIP applies to PDF/X-3, PDF/X-4, and PDF/X-5
files only, all other files should be rendered with the CPSI
RIP.

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It is important to have knowledge of fonts to understand the
output process of printers.
The word “font” describes the style and size of a character.
Today, it usually refers to digital fonts for computers.
Digital fonts refer to typeface data that enables displaying
characters on a display screen or printing them on paper.
Typeface data is a set of reference data used when text data
represented by text code such as letters and numbers, is
converted to image data.
All of the characters inside a computer are processed as
character codes. The part called the layout engine in a
computer uses the codes to extract the glyphs regarded as
character forms, from fonts. Then the engine determines its
size, constructs it in lines, bitmaps it, and outputs it to display
screens or printers.
To understand the mechanism and features of fonts, click the
respective item.

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A typeface refers to the style of a character.
On the other hand, a font is a typeface with additional
features, such as font size. For example, "Times Roman, 12-
point, bold", this is a font.
In other words, a typeface is a parent and a font is its child.
Typefaces and fonts originally referred to different things, but
now, there is no clear distinction between them.

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Spacing refers to the amount of space between a group of
characters on a page and the layout of the characters. There
are two types of spacing: Fixed pitch and proportional.
In fixed-pitch spacing, all the characters and the space
between each of them have the same width.
In proportional spacing, each character and space has a
different width. When using the dot-matrix printer‘s built-in
fonts, we cannot fully use proportional spacing. With page
printers, such as laser printers, which process information
and print a whole page, however, 100% of proportional
spacing is possible.

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Pitch means the width of a character, and is measured in
characters per inch, which is abbreviated to CPI. For
example, “10CPI” stands for 10 characters per inch.

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The height of a character is measured in pt, called points. In
business letters, for example, 10 pt or 12 pt is common.

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Different character styles can be used emphasize a
particular word or phrase.
Stroke weight means the thickness of character outlines.
Thicknesses normally used are Normal or Bold.

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The symbol set refers to the characters that make up a font,
which includes letters, numbers, punctuation marks, etc.

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There are two types of font data formats, bitmap format and
outline format.
In the bitmap format, digital information is made by replacing
character shapes with a set of dots which is called “bitmap”.
The bitmap format is capable of high-speed printing, but the
outlines of characters may become jagged.
The outline format is also called "scalable format". It
expresses the outlines of characters in data. The data
amount does not change whether it is enlarged or made
smaller.
The scalable format is a huge advantage of the outline
format, as the data amount is independent of font size or
resolution. Furthermore, changing the font size does not
affect the character quality.
On the other hand, it takes much time to convert character
data into image data. This is because of the calculations for

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finding the outlines and filling the inner parts of the characters.
However, the time has been greatly shortened because of
improvements made in computer CPU performance.

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Let's check what we have learned with a quiz.

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Let's look back on what we learned in this chapter.
First, we learned about page description languages and
gained an understanding of their structure and features.
Page description languages specify the arrangement of a
printed page through commands from a computer that the
printer carries out.
PCL, developed by Hewlett-Packard Company, and
PostScript, developed by Adobe Systems, are well-known
examples of page description languages.
Also, we learned about GDI printing. GDI printers can be run
at low cost because high-performance controllers are not
necessary.
We learned about APPE, which is Adobe System's latest RIP
technology. Since it directly processes PDF data, the
transparency effect can be output correctly.
Fonts refer to typeface data that enables displaying
characters on a display screen or printing them on paper.
We gained an understanding of font characteristics such as

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typeface, spacing, and pitch, and that there are two types of
font data formats, bitmap format and outline format.

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This completes our Printer Basics 1 course. Let us review
what we have learned in this course.
We started with the varieties and usage of printers and
technology that has been recently introduced. We gained an
understanding of the usage and functions of printers such as
small-size inkjet printers for home use, laser printers, middle-
size printers for office use, large-size inkjet printers for
industrial use, and 3D printers.
Next, we learned about the printer mechanism. We gained
an understanding of the mechanism of components such as
a print engine, printer driver, and printer controller and, in
addition, the data flow between each of the components.
Finally, we gained an understanding of the page description
languages and fonts.

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Congratulations! This ends the OUTWARD "Printer Basics 1"
Course.

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