| Technically, the vast majority of printers, whether ink | | | | the laser printer, which have experienced a |
| jet or toner based, are still dot matrix printers. They're | | | | hundredfold decrease in their costs and a significant |
| printing dots close enough together that the visual | | | | increase in their capabilities. Once laser printers started |
| acuity of the human eye congeals the dots into | | | | to plummet in cost, the dot matrix printers were |
| characters, strokes and lines. However, the original dot | | | | supplanted in turn; what was once a ubiquitous piece |
| matrix printer - where pins push against a ribbon and | | | | of office equipment is now regarded as a charming |
| deposit ink on a paper - are still in use in a lot of | | | | and quaint apparatus seen only in 'period pieces' about |
| businesses. | | | | the Cold War...until you encounter them in a modern |
| This printer technology was really the last generation | | | | business. |
| of 'impact' printers, which are the venerable | | | | Most modern businesses aren't holding on to these |
| descendents of Guttenberg's original printing press - ink | | | | printers out of nostalgia. They're holding on to them at |
| is put on a transfer agent, and it's then pressed into the | | | | increasing expense because these types of printers |
| page. Dot matrix printers were originally doing this with | | | | work best for multi-part forms, where the impact of |
| 9 pins of about 0.5 mm each, and grew out of the | | | | the print head creates the page handed to a customer |
| original punch card methods of getting data out of | | | | and also the 'carbon copy' or duplicate for their own |
| computers. | | | | mechanical record system. These forms are still |
| The advantage of dot matrix printers originally was | | | | required in many cases by regulations and legislation |
| that they could produce graphics other than text; back | | | | dating back to the 1970s and 1980s - there are a |
| in the 1980s, it was not uncommon to have a 'graphics' | | | | surprising number of sectors of business where digital |
| dot matrix printer, and a text 'ball-and press' printer, | | | | forms management is flat out not allowed, including |
| which used a mechanism similar to an IBM Selectric | | | | working for the NHS in some cases. |
| typewriter to produce 'typewritten' documents. The | | | | Another realm where dot matrix printers reign |
| flexibility, and later speed, of the dot matrix printer | | | | supreme is on routine check generation. Many of the |
| eventually relegated the ball and press model to | | | | forms that print out checks to send to people have to |
| irrelevance, particularly as the 24-pin models came into | | | | have those checks printed on dot matrix printers, |
| the market in the late 1980s and early 1990s. | | | | largely because segmented, large run forms with |
| 24 pin color dot matrix printers came into the market in | | | | preperforations, are orders of magnitude cheaper than |
| the mid 1990s, and were the first real attempt at | | | | the alternatives. |
| putting color printing in the hands of consumers. They | | | | Which leads to a problem for those businesses that |
| were quickly supplanted by ink jet printers (which did a | | | | have dot matrix printers - there aren't many |
| better job of mixing colors and getting exact hues and | | | | companies making them any longer, and while the |
| colors out of pigments, and were faster on printing | | | | machines are durable, they're still mechanical devices |
| color to boot), and this eventually moved ink jet printers | | | | and subject to wear and tear, and finding companies |
| into general consumer products - even though their | | | | that make spare parts - or even ribbons - can be a |
| cost per page for a black and white document was | | | | challenge. But they are out there, they are still |
| significantly higher (and still is higher) than using an | | | | manufactured and can be found - it just takes a little |
| impact printer model with ribbons. | | | | extra effort to get what you need. |
| The real killer of the consumer dot matrix printer was | | | | |
