![IBM line printer 1403](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/IBM_line_printer_1403.JPG)
A line printer
prints
In molecular biology, the PRINTS database is a collection of so-called "fingerprints": it provides both a detailed annotation resource for protein families, and a diagnostic tool for newly determined sequences. A fingerprint is a group of conserve ...
one entire line of text before advancing to another line.
Most early line printers were
impact printers
In computing, a printer is a peripheral machine which makes a persistent representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Differ ...
.
Line printers are mostly associated with
unit record equipment and the early days of digital computing, but the technology is still in use. Print speeds of 600 lines per minute
(approximately 10 pages per minute) were achieved in the 1950s, later increasing to as much as 1200 lpm. Line printers print a complete line at a time and have speeds in the range of 150 to 2500 lines per minute.
The types of line printers are drum printers, band-printers, and chain printers. Other non-impact technologies have also been used, as
thermal line printers were popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and some inkjet and laser printers produce output a line or a page at a time.
Designs
Many impact printers, such as the
daisywheel printer
Daisy wheel printing is an impact printing technology invented in 1970 by Andrew Gabor at Diablo Data Systems. It uses interchangeable pre-formed type elements, each with typically 96 glyphs, to generate high-quality output comparable to pre ...
and
dot matrix printer, used a print head that printed a character then moved on until an entire line was printed. Line printers were much faster, as each impact printed an entire line.
There have been five principal designs:
* Drum printers
* Chain (train) printers
* Bar printers
* Comb printers
* Wheel printers
Because all of these printing methods were noisy, line printers of all designs were enclosed in
sound-absorbing cases of varying sophistication.
Timing-sensitive designs
Several designs of printers have similar characteristics.
Drum printer
In a typical drum printer design, a fixed font character set is engraved onto the periphery of a number of print wheels, the number matching the number of columns (letters in a line) the printer can print. The wheels, joined to form a large drum (cylinder), spin at high speed and paper and an inked ribbon is stepped (moved) past the print position. As the desired character for each column passes the print position, a hammer strikes the paper from the rear and presses the paper against the ribbon and the drum, causing the desired character to be recorded on the continuous paper. Because the drum carrying the letterforms (characters) remains in constant motion, the strike-and-retreat action of the hammers has to be very fast. Typically, they are driven by
voice coils mounted on the moving part of the hammer.
Large mechanical and electric stresses occur when the line to be printed requires firing all of the hammers simultaneously. With simple type layouts, this happens when the line consists of a single character repeated in all columns, such as a line of dashes ("----...---") To avoid this problem, some printers use a staggered arrangement, with the characters in each column rotated around the drum by a different amount. Then simultaneous firing occurs only if the printed line matches the character layout on the drum, which should not happen in normal text.
Lower-cost printers do not use a hammer for each column. Instead, a hammer is provided for every other column and the entire hammer bank is arranged to shift left and right, driven by an additional voice coil. For this style of printer, two complete revolutions of the character drum ara required with one revolution being used to print all the "odd" columns and another revolution being used to print all of the "even" columns; however, on the plus side, only half (plus one) the number of hammers, magnets, and the associated channels of drive electronics are required.
At least one low-cost printer, made by
CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the National public health institutes, national public health agency of the United States. It is a Federal agencies of the United States, United States federal agency, under the United S ...
, achieves the same end by moving the paper laterally while keeping the hammer bank at rest.
Dataproducts
Dataproducts Corporation was an early manufacturer of computer peripheral equipment.
Overview
Initially known as Data Products, the company was founded by Erwin Tomash in 1962 in order to take controlling interest of Telex's Data Systems Division ...
was a typical vendor of drum printers, often selling similar models with both a full set of hammers (and delivering, for example 600 lines-per-minute of output) and a half set of hammers (delivering 300 LPM).
Printers with horizontally moving print elements
= Chain printer
=
Chain printers place the type on a horizontally-moving circular chain. As with the drum printer, as the correct character passes by each column, a hammer is fired from behind the paper. Compared to drum printers, chain printers have the advantage that the type chain can usually be changed by the operator. A further advantage is that vertical registration of characters in a line is much improved over drum printers, which need extremely precise hammer timing to achieve a reasonably straight line of print. By selecting chains that have a smaller character set (for example, just numbers and a few punctuation marks), the printer can print much faster than if the chain contains the entire upper- and lower-case alphabet, numbers, and all special symbols. This is because, with many more instances of the numbers appearing in the chain, the time spent waiting for the correct character to "pass by" is greatly reduced. Common letters and symbols appear more often on the chain, according to the
frequency analysis
In cryptanalysis, frequency analysis (also known as counting letters) is the study of the frequency of letters or groups of letters in a ciphertext. The method is used as an aid to breaking classical ciphers.
Frequency analysis is based on t ...
of the likely input. It is also possible to play primitive tunes on these printers by timing the nonsense of the printout to the sequence on the chain, a rather primitive piano. IBM was probably the best-known chain printer manufacturer and the
IBM 1403
The IBM 1403 line printer was introduced as part of the IBM 1401 computer in 1959 and had an especially long life in the IBM product line.
Description
The original model can print 600 lines of text per minute and can skip blank lines at up to ...
is probably the most famous example of a chain printer.
= Train printer
=
Train printers place the type on a horizontally-moving circular train of print
slugs
Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...
. with multiple characters per slug, on a track, The technology is almost identical to print chains.
= Band printer
=
Band printers are a variation of chain printers in which a thin steel band is used instead of a chain, with the characters embossed or etched onto the band. Again, a selection of different bands are generally available with a different mix of characters so a character set best matched to the characters commonly printed can be chosen.
Dataproducts
Dataproducts Corporation was an early manufacturer of computer peripheral equipment.
Overview
Initially known as Data Products, the company was founded by Erwin Tomash in 1962 in order to take controlling interest of Telex's Data Systems Division ...
was a well known manufacturer of band printers, with their B300, B600, and B1000 range, the model number representing the lines per minute rate of the printer. (The B300 is effectively a B600 with only half the number of hammers—one per two character positions. The hammer bank moves back and forth one character position, requiring two rotations to print all characters on each line.)
Bar printer
Bar printers were similar to chain printers but were slower and less expensive. Rather than a chain moving continuously in one direction, the characters were on fingers mounted on a bar that moved left-to-right and then right-to-left in front of the paper. An example was the
IBM 1443
The IBM 1443 Printer (sometimes referred to as the ''1443 Flying Type Bar Printer'') is an obsolete computer line printer used in the punched card era. It was offered in three models: Models 1, 2 and N1; the last two could print up to 240 lines p ...
.
Common characteristics
In all three designs, timing of the hammers (the so-called "flight time") was critical, and was adjustable as part of the servicing of the printer. For drum printers, incorrect timing of the hammer resulted in printed lines that wandered vertically, albeit with characters correctly aligned horizontally in their columns. For train and bar printers, incorrect timing of the hammers resulted in characters shifting horizontally, printed closer or farther from the next character, albeit on vertically-level printed lines. The vertical misalignment of drum printers is more noticeable and annoying to human vision (see the sample pictured in this article).
Most drum, chain, and bar printers were capable of printing up to 132 columns, but a few designs could only print 80 columns and some other designs as many as 160 columns.
Comb printer
Comb printers, also called
line matrix printer
A line matrix printer is a computer printer that is a compromise between a line printer and a dot matrix printer. A line matrix printer prints page-wide lines of dots, building up a line of text by printing lines of dots.
Applications
Line matri ...
s, printed a matrix of dots instead of individual characters in the same way as single-character dot matrix printers, but using a comb of hammers to print a portion of an entire row of pixels at one time (for example, every eighth pixel). By shifting the comb back and forth slightly, the entire pixel row could be printed (continuing the example, in eight cycles). The paper then advanced and the next pixel row was printed. Because far less print head motion was involved than in a conventional dot matrix printer, these printers were much faster, and competitive in speed with formed-character line printers without being restricted to a set of available characters, thus being able to print dot-matrix graphics and variable-sized characters.
Printronix
Printronix is an American supplier of line matrix printers. Printronix is based in Irvine, California, and operates across 14 offices worldwide.
Products
Printronix's printers are primarily used in industrial environments for printing high-volum ...
and
TallyGenicom
The TallyGenicom brand, acquired by Printronix in 2009, includes laser and line matrix printers, parts, consumables and service. Printronix now owns the intellectual property and worldwide sales distribution rights for TallyGenicom line matrix and ...
are well-known vendors of comb printers. In 2009, TallyGenicom was acquired by Printronix.
Wheel printers
In 1949 IBM introduced the
IBM 407 Accounting Machine with a wheel print mechanism that could print 150 alphanumeric lines a minute. Each of the 120 print positions had its own type wheel which rotated under electromechanical control. Once all were in position, print hammers struck the wheels against a ribbon and the paper. The 407 or its wheel line printer mechanism was attached to a variety of early IBM computers, including the
IBM 650
The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine is an early digital computer produced by IBM in the mid-1950s. It was the first mass produced computer in the world. Almost 2,000 systems were produced, the last in 1962, and it was the first ...
, most members of the
IBM 700/7000 series and the
IBM 1130, the last introduced in 1965.
Paper (forms) handling
![IBM 1403 Printer opened](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/IBM_1403_Printer_opened.jpg)
All line printers used
continuous form paper provided in boxes of continuous
fan-fold
Continuous stationery (UK) or continuous form paper (US) is paper which is designed for use with dot-matrix and line printers with appropriate paper-feed mechanisms. Other names include ''fan-fold paper'', ''sprocket-feed paper'', ''burst paper'' ...
forms rather than cut-sheets. The paper was usually
perforated
A perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes collectively are called a ''perforation''. The process of creating perforations is called perfor ...
to tear into cut sheets if desired and was commonly printed with alternating white and light-green areas, allowing the reader to easily follow a line of text across the page. This was the iconic
"green bar", "blue bar" or "music-ruled" form that dominated the early computer age. Pre-printed forms were also commonly used (for printing
cheques,
invoice
An invoice, bill or tab is a commerce, commercial document issued by a sales, seller to a buyer relating to a sale transaction and indicating the product (business), products, quantities, and agreed-upon prices for products or Service (economic ...
s, etc.). A common task for the system operator was to change from one paper form to another as one print job completed and another was to begin. Some line printers had covers that opened automatically when the printer required attention.
Standard "green bar" page sizes included
portrait-format pages of 8½ × 11 inches (
letter size
Letter or ANSI Letter is a paper size standard defined by the American National Standards Institute, commonly used as home or office stationery in the United States, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, the Dominican ...
), usually printed at 80 columns by 66 lines of characters (at 6 lines per inch) or 88 lines (at 8 LPI), and
landscape-format pages of 14 × 11 inches, usually printed at 132 columns by 66 or 88 lines. Also common were landscape-format pages of 14 × 8½ inches (
legal size
Paper size standards govern the size of sheets of paper used as writing paper, stationery, cards, and for some printed documents.
The ISO 216 standard, which includes the commonly used A4 size, is the international standard for paper size. I ...
), allowing for 132 columns by 66 lines (at 8 LPI) on a more compact page.
These continuous forms were advanced through the printer by means of ''tractors'' (
sprocket
A sprocket, sprocket-wheel or chainwheel is a profiled wheel with teeth that mesh with a chain, track or other perforated or indented material. The name 'sprocket' applies generally to any wheel upon which radial projections engage a chain passi ...
s or sprocket belts). Depending on the sophistication of the printer, there might simply be two tractors at the top of the printer (pulling the paper) or tractors at the top and bottom (thereby maintaining paper tension within the printer). The horizontal position of the tractors was usually adjustable to accommodate different forms. The earliest printers by IBM used a hydraulic motor to move the forms. In later line printers, high-speed
servomechanism
In control engineering a servomechanism, usually shortened to servo, is an automatic device that uses error-sensing negative feedback to correct the action of a mechanism. On displacement-controlled applications, it usually includes a built-in ...
s usually drove the tractors, allowing very rapid positioning of the paper, both for advancing line-by-line and slewing to the top of the next form. The faster line printers, of necessity, also used "stackers" to re-fold and stack the fan-fold forms as they emerged from the printer.
The high-speed motion of the paper often developed large
electrostatic
Electrostatics is a branch of physics that studies electric charges at rest (static electricity).
Since classical times, it has been known that some materials, such as amber, attract lightweight particles after rubbing. The Greek word for amber ...
charges. Line printers frequently used a variety of discharge
brush
A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped durin ...
es and active (
corona discharge
A corona discharge is an electrical discharge caused by the ionization of a fluid such as air surrounding a conductor carrying a high voltage. It represents a local region where the air (or other fluid) has undergone electrical breakdown ...
-based) static eliminators to discharge these accumulated charges.
Many printers supported
ASA carriage control characters which provided a limited degree of control over the paper, by specifying how far to advance the paper between printed lines. Various means of providing vertical tabulation were provided, ranging from a paper
carriage control tape
A carriage control tape was a loop of punched tape that was used to synchronize rapid vertical page movement in most IBM and many other line printers from unit record days through the 1980's. The tape loop was as long as the length of a single p ...
loop to fully electronic (software-controllable) tab simulation.
Origins
![IBM 729 Tape Drives](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/IBM_729_Tape_Drives.nasa.jpg)
Tabulators built by the U.S. Census Bureau for the 1910 census could print their results. Prior to that, tabulator operators had to write down totals from counter wheels onto tally sheets. IBM developed a series of printing accounting machines, beginning in 1920. The 285 Numeric Printing Tabulator could read 150 cards per minute. The 405, introduced in 1934, could print at 80 lines per minute. It had 88 type bars, one for each print position, with 43 alphanumeric bars on the left, followed by 45 numeric-only bars. The
IBM 402 series, introduced after World War II, had a similar print arrangement and was used by IBM in early computing devices, including the
IBM Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator.
IBM's first commercial computer, the
IBM 701
The IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine, known as the Defense Calculator while in development, was IBM’s first commercial scientific computer and its first series production mainframe computer, which was announced to the public on May ...
, introduced in 1952, used a line printer, the
IBM 716, that was based on the type wheel
IBM 407 accounting machine. The 716 was incorporated in subsequent mainstream computers in the
IBM 700/7000 series.
An early drum printer was the "Potter Flying Typewriter", in 1952. "Instead of working laboriously, one character at a time, it prints whole lines at once, 300 lines per minute, on a paper band. ... Heart of the machine is a continuously spinning disk with the necessary letters and numbers on its rim. ... As the disk revolves, 80 electrically operated hammers tap the back of the paper against an inked ribbon in contact with the disk, thus printing the proper characters in the proper places on the line."
Influence on hardware and software
The names of the
lp
and
lpr
LPR may refer to:
*Laryngopharyngeal reflux, a form of acid reflux
*Lawful permanent resident
* Lazarus Program file
*Libertarian Party of Russia
* License plate recognition
*Line Printer Daemon protocol (RFC1179)
* Line Printer Remote service
*'' ...
commands in
Unix
Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...
were derived from the term "line printer". Analogously, many other systems call their printing devices "LP", "LPT", or some similar variant, whether these devices are in fact line printers or other types of printers. These references served to distinguish formatted final output from normal interactive output from the system, which in many cases in line printer days was also printed on paper (as by a
teletype) but not by a line printer. Line printers printed characters, letters and numbers line by line.
The
parallel ports of computers so equipped were usually designated LPTx, for line printer.
See also
*
IBM Machine Code Printer Control Characters Early mainframe printers were usually line printers. Line printers provide a limited set of commands to control how the paper is advanced when print lines are printed. The application writing reports, list, etc. to be printed has to include those co ...
*
Characters per line
*
lp0 on fire
*
Page printer
A page printer is a computer printer which processes and prints a whole page at a time, as opposed to printers which print one line or character at a time such as line printers and dot-matrix printers. Page printers are often all incorrectly termed ...
*
Typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...
References
External links
* {{cite web , url=http://jacques-andre.fr/chi/chi90/tomash.html , first=Erwin , last=Tomash , title=The U.S. Computer Printer Industry
Animation of the print chain on the IBM 1403 printer
Line printers