Section 7.1: Printers
This section discusses facts concerning selecting and installing printers.
- Types of printers:
- Dot matrix
- Ink jet (ink dispersion)
- Laser
- Dye sublimation (dye diffusion thermal photo)
- Solid ink
- Thermal
- Three general laser printing process:
- Electrophotographic Process (EP)
- HP (Hewlett-Packard) process
- LED (Light-Emitting Diode) process
- Components of laser printers
- Steps in the laser printing process:
- Cleaning
- Conditioning
- Writing
- Developing
- Transferring
- Fusing
- Types of printer connections:
- Parallel
- Serial
- USB, IEEE 1394
- Infrared/Wireless
- SCSI
- Network
- Factors to consider when purchasing a printer:
- Connection interface
- Print quality
- Print speed
- Memory
- Additional features
Students will learn how to:
- Choose a printer to fulfill the requirements for a given situation.
- Install printers using the correct cabling, connectors, and ports
Lecture Focus Questions:
- Which printer type is ideal for printing carbon-copy documents?
- What is a common application for a thermal printer?
- What features are used to describe the quality and speed of print jobs a printer can produce?
- Why does a laser printer use heat in the printing process?
- What are the two most common printer interfaces?
- How can memory improve the performance of your printer?
Video/Demo Time
7.1.1 Printer Types 15:47
7.1.3 Laser Printers
4:52
7.1.4 Laser Printing Process 10:08
7.1.6 Printer Interfaces
8:36
Total 39:23
Lab/Activity
- Choose a Printer
Number of Exam Questions
14 questions
Total Time
About 70 minutes
Section 7.2: Printer Configuration
This section examines installing and configuring printers. Concepts covered include:
- Printer configuration terms:
- Print device
- Print driver
- Printer
- Print queue
- Printer port
- Process to print a file
- Printer languages
- Escape Codes
- Printer Control Language (PCL)
- PostScript
- Steps to configure a printer
Students will learn how to:
- Install a Plug and Play printer.
- Manually configure a parallel or serial printer.
- Set and change the default printer.
Lecture Focus Questions:
- What is the function of the print driver? The print queue?
- Which printing component takes the print job from the queue and sends it to the print device?
- What are three common printer languages that printers commonly understand?
Video/Demo Time
7.2.1 Printing Configuration 11:55
7.2.2 Installing a Local
Printer 19:20
Total 31:15
Lab/Activity
- Select and Install a Printer
Number of Exam Questions
5 questions
Total Time
About 45 minutes
Section 7.3: Network Printing
This section discusses the basics of configuring network printing.
- Components of network printing:
- Spooling
- Print queue
- Print server
- Considerations when configuring network printing:
- Connect the printer to the network
- Use a print server
- Install the printer drivers
- Steps to configure a printer attached to a Windows computer as a network printer
Students will learn how to:
- Share a local printer as a network printer.
- On a workstation, configure a printer pointing to a network print device.
Lecture Focus Questions:
- What is the benefit of network printing?
- When sharing a printer, why might you need to load additional drivers for the printer?
- Which type of devices can act as a print server?
- What is an advantage of having a printer with a built-in print server and network interface?
- When would you use a TCP/IP port when configuring a printer object?
Video/Demo Time
7.3.1 Network Printing 8:18
7.3.2 Installing a
Network Printer 18:32
Total 26:50
Lab/Activity
- Configure Network Printing
Number of Exam Questions
3 questions
Total Time
About 40 minutes
Section 7.4: Printing Management
In this section students will explore managing printing on a Windows system. Details include:
- Printing components
- Printer properties
- Print queue
- Print server
- Print spooling service
Students will learn how to:
- Modify printer properties including printer name, location, availability, and driver.
- Configure printer permissions.
- Manage print server properties.
- Start and stop the Print Spooler service.
Lecture Focus Questions:
- Which two objects would you edit to add additional client drivers for printers? Which objects allow you to change the port used by a printer?
- What printing permissions are required to pause the printer or delete all print jobs from the print queue?
- A user prints a document and it is waiting in the print queue to be printed. Who can delete the print job?
Video/Demo Time
7.4.1 Configuring Printer Properties 11:21
7.4.2 Managing Print Jobs
8:29
Total 19:50
Lab/Activity
- Configure Printer Properties
- Manage Printing
Number of Exam Questions
9 questions
Total Time
About 45 minutes
Section 7.5: Printer Maintenance
This section discusses preventative maintenance for laser printers. Details include guidelines for the following elements:
- Environment
- Maintenance Kits
- Toner
- Additional types of printers that require periodic maintenance:
- Thermal
- Impact (Dot Matrix)
- Inkjet
Students will learn how to:
- Maintain commonly-used printers
Lecture Focus Questions:
- How do you clean an ink jet printer head?
- How does the EP process differ from the LED process to create an electrostatic charge to hold dry toner to the paper's surface?
- In the laser printing process, how does the primary corona prepare the photosensitive drum for writing?
- What is the best way to clean up a toner spill?
- How does paper quality affect a printer?
Video/Demo Time
7.5.1 Maintaining Laser Printers 12:09
Number of Exam Questions
6 questions
Total Time
About 25 minutes