Kyocera 2160 A-Z Guide to Features & Technology

All-in-one: 1. A multifunctional printer (usually an ink

jet) that can scan, copy,and/or fax.

2. A consumables cartridge on a laser printer that has

both toner and drum in a single unit.

Bit: Apiece of digital information consisting of a sin-

gle binary digit (that is, a 1 or a 0). This is the number of

bits a printer uses at each pixel to compose an image in

scales of gray or in color. Typical bit depths are 8 bits for

black-and-white, 24 bits for color.Together, 8 bits make a

byte, another unit of digital information. See also byte.

Bluetooth: An industry specification for wireless com-

munication; an alternative to Wi-Fi. For the printing

industry, it means some mobile phones,laptops, and per-

sonal digital assistants (PDAs) can send jobs to printers.

Byte: Aunit of digital information consisting of 8 bits.

The memory capacity of printers is usually expressed in

megabytes (a megabyte is 1,024 kilobytes).

Calibration: The process by which users ensure that

what they print is consistent with the colors they see on

their monitor.Printerscan’t be calibrated very well; mon-

itors can be calibrated to more closely resemble printed

output. Printer calibration is typically handled through

the unit’s print driver.

CMYK: The four-color palette that comprises color

laser printing,in which all colors are created from the

four primary colors: cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow,

and black. Toner for color printers is typically sold in

these four colors.

Collation: Aprint function that allows you to make

multiple copies of multipage originals and have the

machine put the pages in order. Without collation, the

job would emerge with all the page 1’s first, then all the

page 2’s,then all the page 3’s, and so forth. With colla-

tion, the pages emerge 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, and so on. To

do this, the machine scans the job, stores it in memory,

and outputs the pages in order.

Controller: This refers to the device at the heart of a

printer that processes an electronic file into information

thatcan be printed on paper. The controller is also

referred to as an “RIP” (raster image processor). The

controller is driven by a microprocessor,a semiconductor

whose speed is rated in megahertz (MHz).

Dealer channel: Refers to traditional office equipment

dealers that typically sell copiers and fax machines to cor-

porate customers — in contrast to computer resellers or

retail stores that carry mostly small-office products.

Dots per inch (dpi): Ameasure of the resolution of an

image: the higher the figure, the finer the resolution and

the sharper the image. Dots per inch are typically

expressed with the number of horizontal dots first and

the number of vertical dots second, for example, 200 x

400dpi. At that resolution, each square inch of an image

would contain 80,000 dots (200 x 400 = 80,000).

Note that we use 600dpi to denote 600 x 600dpi, as well

as 1,200dpi to denote 1,200 x 1,200dpi.

The apparent difference in print quality is enormous

when comparing 300dpi with 600dpi. But it’s pretty hard

to notice when comparing 600dpi with 1,200dpi on regu-

lar office documents, and even harder with interpolated

values over 1,200dpi. Factors such as ink, paper, and

image type may be more important than nominal resolu-

tion differences.

Double-sided printing: See Duplex.

Drum: Adrum, or photoconductor, forms the core of

the process that allows laser- and LED-powered office

machines to create images on paper. It is the rotating

cylinder on which a laser writes the image.The surface of

the drum becomes electrically charged by the laser, and

toner is attracted to the areas where the latent image is

present. As the paper passes through the engine,the toner

is transferred from the drum to the paper. A fuser unit

uses heat to bond the toner to the paper.

Duplex: Double-sided printing. Many printers now

offer automatic duplex. With that feature, the machine

prints on one side,reverses the page,and then prints on

the other side.Manual duplex, in which you turn over the

pages by hand once they’ve been printed on one side, is

available on all models.

Electronic collation: See Collation.

Energy Star: Stamp of approval from the US

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for office

equipment that meets various “green” criteria. The differ-

ence in energy efficiency between an Energy Star–com-

pliant model and a non-compliant one can be quite small

Better Buys for Business

A-Z Guide to Features &Technology