OKI Dot Matrix Printers

Expand Your Printing Options with OKI Printers

OKI is a Japanese company that has been in business for more than 130 years and produces a variety of printer products and info-telecom services. It currently manufactures its own version of the dot matrix-style printer. If you are looking for a new printer to meet your personal or professional printing needs, you may find it helpful to know a bit more about the dot matrix process, how these devices work, and how you can choose a dot matrix printer that meets your needs.

Many types of technology use dot matrices to produce their displays, but the process for printing visible characters on a sheet works differently. A dot matrix is a display field in two dimensions that uses patterns to represent characters or symbols that you can perceive. If you print a business schedule for your office on a sheet of white paper, the dot matrices will be the darkened portion of the paper. Printing devices that use this type of technology have contemporary uses when you need to print documents with multiple parts both quickly and evenly. You may find them useful when you need to print multi-part invoices for work orders.

Because most of these printers rely on the same technology to function, you can use the categories below to get a broad overview of how they work. Understanding how these devices operate may help you find the one that meets your needs and preferences.

• A ribbon: Each dot matrix printer includes a ribbon soaked in ink. Striking this ribbon with a hard surface is the first step to printing a symbol or character.
• Pins: A dot matrix printer includes a series of pins. Each pin works in concert to form the character you want to print on the paper. This technology allows you to print graphics and text in multiple fonts.
• A wheel: A wheel or roller mechanism continuously feeds a ribbon of paper through the dot matrix printer as it is working.

Although the specific features for a dot matrix printer will vary from model to model, you may find the following guidelines helpful when choosing one that suits your needs:

• Choose a type: You can choose from standard, all-in-one, large format, or specialized workgroup printers.
• Choose an output: You can choose a dot matrix printer that produces documents in color or black and white.
• Choose the connectivity: You may be able to choose from USB, parallel, Ethernet, or serial connectivity.
• Choose a speed: You may wish to choose how many characters the printer can produce each second.