Is thermal printer a impact printer?

Answer 1

A dot-matrix printer is an impact printer. Pins are shot out and impact an inked ribbon to impress on a paper. Usually used with multi-sheet, fan-fold, listing paper.

A thermal printer uses heat against a specially treated paper. Whilst the heated head comes close to the paper's surface, it does not impact the paper.

Answer 2

Cycling-rod is accurate in that dot matrix printers are impact printers (as are daisywheel printers) but thermal printers also do qualify since their printheads actually do touch the paper, though not as forcefully as the other varieties. This is actually how they make the images on the page: they impact and burn the special wax-coated thermal paper to make the image. They are regarded as a subclass of dot matrix printers since they work the same way but without the need for a ribbon.

There is also a lesser known type of printer called thermal transfer that is kind of a combination of thermal and traditional dot matrix. With thermal transfer, it uses a ribbon just like dot matrix but instead of just being regular pins, they are heated pins just like with thermal printers. What happens is that when the printing is performed, the waxy "ink" of the ribbon is pushed forth by the pins of the printhead and melted onto the page by the heat of said pins. This, to be frank is just about the worst of both worlds: you get the noise of old-school dot matrix and the sloppy quality of old-school thermal. Thankfully this technology is not commonly used any longer. My first experience with it was the Apple Scribe printer and was I ever glad to upgrade from that to a used Apple Imagewriter.

If you have any other questions, feel free to drop me a line and I will be glad to help you understand these or other technologies.

Answer 3

No. A laser printer prints using a drum and fuser. An impact printer prints by hitting an ink soaked ribbon with a print head. These are two completely different methods of printing.

Answer 4

no,they are non-impact printers.these use a high-velocity stream of ink toward the paper.this stream is deflected generally by using an electrostatic field.