A character printer is a fundamental type of output device used in computing.
Defining a Character Printer
Based on the provided reference, A device that prints once character at a time is known as Character printer. This differentiates them from printers that print a whole line at once (like line printers) or a whole page at once (like laser printers).
The Daisy-Wheel Mechanism
The reference specifically mentions the daisy-wheel printer as an example of a character printer.
- Mechanism: It is called daisy-wheel printer because the print mechanism looks like a daisy.
- Structure: At the end of each "Petal" is a fully formed character.
- Output: This design produces solid-line print, as opposed to the dot matrix printers of the time which formed characters from patterns of dots.
Character printers, particularly the daisy-wheel type, were notable for producing high-quality text (often called "letter quality") at a time when dot matrix printers were more common but produced less crisp output.
