Line Printer
Line printer is a form of high speed printer where one line of type is printed at a time. It is quick, though, registering speeds of up to 600-1200 lines per minute in many cases. Line printers are typically used in production settings to pump out massive amounts of work at a time.

A Few Main Types Of Design Existed In Line Printing
Drum printers – a fixed font character set is engraved on a number of print wheels which matched the number of letters in the line that the printer was capable of printing. Spun at high speeds, the ink is moved past the print position where a hammer strikes from the rear pressing paper to the ribbon causing the character to be recorded. While it sounds cumbersome, we should remember that things like newspapers were printed before digital technology; line printers assisted in this process.

Chain printers were the next evolution of line printers and were also known as “train printers.” This technology had the advantage of the type chain being able to be changed by the operator. By eliminating many of the less oft used characters (numbers or ^$*(# for example) the speed was increased.

Bar printers – very similar to chain printers just slower. They were also less expensive, but still, slower.

Comb printers – another major design shift in line printing technology, comb printers were a hybrid in dot matrix and line printing. With less movement involved there was greater output speed and were competitive in speed to the dot matrix design.

Line printer daemon is a technology developed by UNIX and is the de facto design for network printing. Line printer daemon is actually software stored inside the printer and is used widely in network printing settings.

If you’re looking for cheap line printing, you need look no further than anywhere you’ll still find that sells the technology. With the advent of digital technology it’s hard to delineate the “best” line printer though reviews are certainly archived and available wherever printers are reviewed. Discount line printing is exactly what it says it is; a discounted alternative to the top of the line technology.