P

Paper feed

The act of guiding a sheet of paper into the printer’s paper path.

Paper jam

A situation created when paper becomes caught along the paper path. You must remove jammed paper before you can continue printing.

Paper path

The route that paper travels through the printer.

Paper Source

Source of paper feed. The machine has a paper drawer and a stack bypass.

Paper Type

All kinds of paper (plain paper, colored paper, recycled paper, transparencies, tracing paper, thick paper, labels, envelopes, postcards etc.) are grouped under several Paper Types. You can access this setting from the Paper Type field on the Paper Source tab of the Printer Properties dialog box.

Parallel interface

An interface that transmits multiple bits simultaneously (usually in one-byte segments). Your printer has a built-in, Centronics-type parallel interface. See Centronics interface.

Parallel interface cable

A bidirectional cable, usually less than six feet long, that transfers multiple bits of information to the printer simultaneously, speeding the transfer. Parallel interface cables are also referred to as Centronics interface cables.

PDF

Portable Document Format. A widely used format for transmitting and viewing documents on computers. PDF documents can be read or printed out with Adobe’s Acrobat Reader program.

Peer-to-peer connection

A network connection between a computer and a printer (or other device) that does not go through a server. See Server, Client.

Physical RAM

Random access memory (RAM) that is physically present in the computer in the form of memory chips, as opposed to virtual memory. See Virtual Memory.

Platen

The document scanning unit. Slide it aside to access internal parts of the machine for maintenance or removing paper jams.

Point size

Character height is defined in points: one point is 1/72 of an inch.

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