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An LED printer is a type of computer printer
Computer printer

File:Lexmark X5100 Series.jpgIn computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a hard copy of documents stored in computer file form, usually on physical print media such as paper or Transparency ....
. LED technology uses a light-emitting diode
Light-emitting diode

A light-emitting diode , is an electronic light source. The LED was discovered in the early 20th century, and introduced as a practical electronic component in 1962....
 array as a light source in the printhead. The LED bar pulse-flashes across the entire page width and creates the image on the print drum or belt as it moves past.

LEDs are more efficient and reliable than conventional laser printers, since they have fewer moving parts
Moving parts

Moving parts are the moving mechanical components of a device or machine, particularly those that undergo continuous or frequent motion, as opposed to stationary components such as a supporting frame or electronic parts....
. Depending on design, LED printers can have faster rates of print than some laser-based designs, and are generally cheaper to manufacture.






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An LED printer is a type of computer printer
Computer printer

File:Lexmark X5100 Series.jpgIn computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a hard copy of documents stored in computer file form, usually on physical print media such as paper or Transparency ....
. LED technology uses a light-emitting diode
Light-emitting diode

A light-emitting diode , is an electronic light source. The LED was discovered in the early 20th century, and introduced as a practical electronic component in 1962....
 array as a light source in the printhead. The LED bar pulse-flashes across the entire page width and creates the image on the print drum or belt as it moves past.

LEDs are more efficient and reliable than conventional laser printers, since they have fewer moving parts
Moving parts

Moving parts are the moving mechanical components of a device or machine, particularly those that undergo continuous or frequent motion, as opposed to stationary components such as a supporting frame or electronic parts....
. Depending on design, LED printers can have faster rates of print than some laser-based designs, and are generally cheaper to manufacture. Laser systems rely on elaborate combinations of rotating mirrors and lenses that must remain in alignment throughout their use. The laser scans from one end of a line to another, then starts on the next line. Unlike laser printer
Laser printer

A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers , laser printers employ a Xerography printing process but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser beam acros...
s, an LED printhead has no moving parts.

LED printing was invented by Casio
Casio

is a multinational electronic devices manufacturing corporation founded in 1946, with its headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Casio is best known for its calculators, sound reproduction equipment, Personal digital assistants, cameras, musical instruments, and watches....
.

Resolution

LED printers have a technical limitation that prevents ready competition with the highest quality laser printers; only so many LEDs can be packed into a linear physical space. A printer having 300 dots-per-inch resolution must have 300 LEDs per inch, and a printer with 600 dpi resolution must have 600 LEDs per inch.

Many laser printers now commonly print at 1200 dpi, but making LEDs that small is difficult. It is not uncommon to see LED printers that use a skewed image resolution such as 600x1200 dpi. The horizontal resolution is limited to 600 dpi by the physical size of the LEDs, but the vertical resolution is simply a matter of how fast the LEDs flash as the paper passes by. Image quality depends on the spot shape of each LED. A round pixel/spot will mean that pixels overlap in the vertical direction, while a squashed-oval pixel/spot allows the spots to not overlap and permit a slightly better image quality.