A Complete Guide to 3D Printer Structures: Helping You Find the Right Machine

The purpose of this article is to provide a down-to-earth, beginner-friendly science popularization on printers. It aims to help complete beginners understand the general types of printers available, know some brands, and at least be aware of the key parameters to consider when needing to buy a printer. For any further details they don't understand, like professional keywords, they can then search and learn more. They should also be able to form a preliminary purchasing idea for what kind of printer to buy for specific application scenarios.

I. Overall Classification

For beginners, it's believed that most people will be using printers at home, or some might have business purposes. Therefore, there's no need to know too many professional sub-categories and names. The author roughly divides them into Dot Matrix, Thermal, Inkjet, Laser, Specialized, and Industrial-grade printers. Their descriptions are as follows:

• Scenarios like printing reports, invoices, and typical examples like printing food delivery receipts: Dot Matrix printers are dominant.

• Invoice printing: Dot Matrix printers

• Receipt, barcode printing: Dot Matrix printers

• Business, enterprise-level scenarios: Laser printers are generally the better choice, with Inkjet as a secondary option (detailed later).

• Home-level applications: Inkjet printers are the mainstream, Thermal printers are a charming choice, and Laser printers are a secondary option (detailed later).

• Printing for specialized systems like passbook printing, flatbed form printing, 3D printing, etc.: Choose Specialized printers.

• 3D printing: Specialized printers

• Passbook printing: Specialized printers

• Large-area, high-speed, fine process printing on industrial products, screen printing: Specifically choose Industrial-grade printers.

• Screen printing: Industrial printing

• Textile printing: Industrial printing

II. Key Introductions

Excluding Dot Matrix, Specialized, and Industrial-grade printers, which are rarely encountered in home life. From a practical perspective, the following article will introduce Thermal, Inkjet, and Laser printers.

1. Thermal Printers

Thermal printers are widely used in receipt printers and photo printers, but very rarely for regular document printing. They look like this:

[Image: Xiaomi Photo Printer]

In home use, the most noteworthy is the photo printer. Time needs to be frozen for memories, and this compact photo printing tool that can fit in a pocket is incredibly practical. Apart from the print drive technology, the printing paper is a very important part. The special feature is that the paper displays specific colors at specific temperatures. By precisely controlling the heating temperature of each pixel, a color photo can be generated. They are generally relatively cheap and compact. Related brands include HP, Canon, Xiaomi, and Huawei, with information in the table below. When choosing, you need to pay attention to the following points:

• Print Speed: The time taken to print one photo. Short times are around 45 seconds, longer times can be 60 seconds or more.

• Charging Time: Photo printers are compact and portable, requiring charging. Short charging times are around 90 minutes, longer times can be 120 minutes or more.

• Resolution: Generally around 313 x 400 dpi. The larger this number, the higher the resolution and the better the print effect, but also the higher the price.

• Paper Capacity: The maximum number of photo papers that can be loaded at once. Standard models usually hold 10 sheets, higher-end models can hold up to 20 sheets.

For more details like quality, price, and brand factors, readers need to check online reviews and comprehensive information before making a choice.

2. Inkjet Printers

There are many types of inkjet printers, mainly used in homes and small to medium-sized enterprises. Performance varies greatly between different models, with prices ranging from a few hundred RMB to several hundred thousand RMB. Recommended brands to browse: HP, Epson, Canon, Xiaomi. Inkjet printers are often compared with laser printers. How to tell them apart? The consumable for inkjet printers is ink. Any machine that needs replacement ink cartridges or where you add ink to components is definitely an inkjet printer. The main things to understand are functions, ink capacity and cartridge count, print speed, paper capacity, power consumption, and special selling points.

• Functions: Available options include print, copy, scan, fax, wireless, WeChat remote printing, cloud printing, etc. Whether it supports black and white or color printing. Whether it's manual duplex or automatic duplex printing. Color printing is more expensive than black and white. Automatic duplex printing is more expensive than manual. It's worth mentioning that impatient folks absolutely must buy a printer with automatic duplex printing, otherwise, you might get exhausted and frustrated by a manual duplex machine. A machine with only the print function is called a single-function machine. A machine with 2 or more functions like print, copy, scan is called a multi-function all-in-one.

• Ink: Black and white printing typically uses a 2-color cartridge. Models supporting color printing typically come standard with a 4-color cartridge, but there are also 5, 6, 8, or even more color cartridges. More cartridges mean a higher price, but also better color print quality. Unofficially, common black ink cartridge capacity is around 135ml (approx. 6000 pages), and color ink capacity is around 70ml (approx. 7000 pages). Ink is a consumable material, so pay close attention.

• Print Speed: Common A4 paper black and white print speeds range from 7 to 33 pages per minute. Color print speeds can reach 4 to 15 pages per minute.

• Paper Capacity: The input tray capacity typically starts at around 60 sheets, and can go up to 1000 sheets. Multiple independent trays can be designed for different paper sizes, commonly 1-3 input trays. The output tray capacity is generally around 50 sheets.

• Power Consumption: Inkjet printers are relatively energy-efficient compared to laser printers, typically operating under 20 watts.

• Special Features: To attract users, manufacturers often develop special features like sheet-fed scanning, Canon's image recognition for quality enhancement, consumables monitoring, document left-behind reminders, direct photo printing from cards, silent mode, nail sticker printing, square size and card printing, cloud-based template sharing, etc.

3. Laser Printers

There are also many types of laser printers, mostly multi-function all-in-ones. They are more commonly used in business and enterprise settings. They are generally more expensive than similarly specced inkjet printers, offering advantages like fast print speeds and high image quality, but their toner cartridges (drum units) are usually more expensive. Recommended brands to browse: HP, Canon, Lenovo, Founder. The main things to understand are functions, drum cartridge performance, print speed, paper capacity, power consumption, and differentiating features.

• Functions: Basically have print, copy, and scan functions, with extensions for fax and email functions. Most support automatic duplex printing. Available in black and white and color models.

• Drum Cartridge Performance: The drum cartridge is a unique core component of laser printers and an important indicator for evaluating a laser printer's quality. The page yield for the first toner depletion ranges from 600 to 7000 pages. More pages mean a higher price. Drums on the market fall into three categories: OPC drums (organic photoconductor), yielding about 3000 pages; Se drums (selenium), yielding about 10,000 pages; and ceramic drums, yielding about 100,000 pages.

• Print Speed: Common low-speed laser printers range from 6 to 38 pages per minute. High-speed laser printers can reach tens to three hundred pages per minute, which are not within our discussion scope. For ordinary personal use, choose speeds between 6-12 ppm. For small teams, choose 10-20 ppm. For enterprise departments, choose speeds of 20 ppm or more.

• Paper Capacity: The standard input paper capacity for laser printers is slightly larger, typically 100-150 sheets. The capacity is generally expandable.

• Power Consumption: Laser printers generally consume more power, with common models operating between 300-500 watts.

• Differentiating Features: Multi-purpose trays, multi-purpose paper cassettes, paper input/output methods; size and type of control panel; separate consumable design (toner separate from drum) for increased lifespan and reduced costs, etc.

III. Conclusion

In a home usage scenario, selecting a printer usually involves focusing on the key parameters and specifications mentioned in this article. By combining these with your actual needs, you can generally narrow down your target models. Of course, this process might require readers to learn more knowledge, as this content is quite basic.

One more thing worth mentioning: In traditional printing over the past 10-20 years, users typically printed via USB + driver server or computer + local area network. Nowadays, wireless printing methods are constantly emerging, using WiFi, Bluetooth, GPRS, 4G, mobile Apps, WeChat mini-programs, etc. As long as there is an internet connection, you can print remotely from anywhere in the world, lowering the barrier to use. Therefore, if readers are planning to buy a printer, it is recommended to choose a model that supports wireless printing. No need to turn on a computer, just a few clicks on your phone and you're done. Keep up with the times and enjoy the convenience of technology!