Input and Output

Magnetic-ink character recognition (MICR)

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, or MICR, is a character recognition technology used primarily by the banking industry to facilitate the processing of cheques. The use of magnetic printiallows the characters to be read reliably even if they have been overprinted or obscured by other marks, such as cancellation stamps.MICR characters are printed in special typefaces with a magnetic ink or toner, usually containing iron oxide. As a machine decodes the MICR text, it first magnetizes the characters in the plane of the paper. MICR is the technology which allows the characters printed on the bottom of the check to be read by reader-sorter machines. The technology allows computers to read information (such as account numbers) off of printed documents.

Optical-character recognition

Optical-character recognition uses special preprinted characters that can be read by a light source and changed into machine-readable code. Optical-character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic recognition and translation of images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-editable text. Optical character recognition (using optical techniques such as mirrors and lenses) and digital character recognition (using scanners and computer algorithms) were originally considered separate fields. Optical-character recognition is a field of research in pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, and computer vision

Optical-mark recognition

Optical-mark recognition (OMR) is a process that allows certain marks or lines on special forms to be recognised by an optical mark reader, and input into a computer. It is also the process of capturing human-marked data from document forms such as surveys and tests. OMR is often used to score multiple-choice tests. Optical mark recognition (OMR) is the scanning of paper to detect the presence or absence of a mark in a predetermined position. Optical mark recognition has evolved from several other technologies.

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Dot Matrix Printer

A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer is a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth, or in an up and down motion, on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like a typewriter. Each dot is produced by a tiny metal rod, also called a "wire" or "pin", which is driven forward by the power of a tiny electromagnet or solenoid, either directly or through small levers. It is also a type of computer printer that uses tiny hammers in its print head to strike pins over an inked ribbon to form characters or images on paper, and is used mainly for multipart forms.

Plotter

A graphics printer that draws images with ink pens. It actually draws point-to-point lines directly from vector graphics files. The plotter was the first computer output device that could print graphics as well as accommodate full-size engineering and architectural drawings. Using different colored pens, it was also able to print in color long before inkjet printers became an alternative.

Photo Printer

A printer specialized for smaller prints such as 4x6" and 5x7". When first introduced in the mid-1990s, photo printers used dye sublimation for high quality printing because inkjet printing was not quite up to par. It is a printer (usually an inkjet printer) that is specifically designed to print high quality digital photos on photo paper. These printers usually have a very high number of nozzles and are capable of printing droplets as small as 1 picoliter.

Fax Machine

A device that sends and receives printed pages or images over telephone lines by converting them to and from electronic signals. It consists of an image scanner, a modem, and a printer. Digital fax machines first became popular in Japan, where they had a clear advantage over competing technologies like the teleprinter, since at the time it was faster to handwrite kanji than to type the characters. In many corporate environments, standalone fax machines have been replaced by "fax servers" and other computerized systems capable of receiving and storing incoming faxes electronically, and then routing them to users on paper or via an email . Such systems have the advantage of reducing costs by eliminating unnecessary printouts and reducing the number of inbound analog phone lines needed by an office.

Multifunctional Device

Multifunctional devices bring the worlds of copying, printing, finishing, and scanning together, all in one neat, efficient and cost-effective package. It is an office machine which incorporates the functionality of multiple devices in one, so as to have a smaller footprint in a home or small business setting or to provide centralized document management/distribution/production in a large-office setting. Two color MFPs of a similar speed will be in the same segment, despite having potentially very different feature sets, and therefore very different prices. From a marketing perspective, the manufacturer of the more expensive MFP would want to differentiate their product as much as possible to justify the price difference, and therefore the segment definition is avoided.