Dot Matrix printers have a long history. It was first invented in the year 1925 and was a type of teletypewriter. With time and as the technology advanced the dot matrix printer also became famous. It was mostly used as a PC printer due to its bulky size, heavy weight, and capable to print only full page documents. This limited there usage to only selected fields. POS industry was still far away from receiving this technology for printing.

But then Star Micronics came up with a perfect solution and introduced, for the first time, a dot matrix printer into small footprint printer specifically designed for Point of Sale industry. The printer was called DP8340 and proved to ground-breaking in the industry. Initially used for printing only full page documents, the dot matrix printer could now print small receipts. This paved its way to become long-time favorite of users and enjoyed using the dot matrix printer. It was one of its kind, had high hardware reliability, and a small footprint which took only small space at the counter.

Today, technology has advanced so much that the dot matrix printers have now upgraded too. Manufacturers have developed printers that can print fast and have unique features. Dot matrix printers have given a tough competition to direct thermal printers even the later ones are considered to be superior. This is because dot matrix printers have their own advantages.

Businesses who require to conduct high impact field work and have to work in harsh environment, higher temperature areas like warehouses have dot matrix printers as their first choice. Businesses like restaurants with busy kitchens, highway toll booths, warehouses, etc. are all places where environment factor can damage the printer. But, dot matrix printers are designed with rugged hardware that makes them a viable option for harsh environments. However, the old technology makes them slower and produces lower quality printouts as compared to direct thermal printer. They use ink ribbon to print on a paper.

How does a Dot Matrix printer work?

A dot matrix printer has a print head with many pins which strikes on the ribbon while moving in the desired direction. The hitting on the cloth ribbon soaked in ink causes the print head to form marks on the paper. Each pin produces one dot and several impacts of the print head forms the letters and numbers on the paper. The dots are spaced extremely close to each other so that the printed result looks like a complete letter or number. You can print characters, numbers, or even graphics using a dot matrix printer. Most dot matrix printers today are bidirectional. This allows the print head to move across the paper and come back to its initial position all while printing too.