Printers have certainly come a long way since the inception of the character and and dot matrix printers.
These ancient products (ancient in technical terms being as few as 10-15 years) were what are known as impact printers, simply because they needed to make a physical connection with the paper in order to achieve the ink-on-paper result.
Dot matrix printers came equipped with a group of pins that touched a ribbon which then connected with paper to produce the finished product. Character printers, which worked on the same principle as electric typewriters, used a bar or ball whose surface was embossed with all the characters you now see on any keyboard. These characters made contact with the ribbon, which in turn made contact with the paper.
Today we use non-impact printers – those that do not make physical contact with the paper to create the papered reproduction. The most prevalent for home or small office use is the inkjet printer – an economical choice for all but the most serious graphic arts requirements.
An inkjet printer produces the images and type it delivers from computer to paper by means of miniscule drops of ink. So...