Printers That Accept Roll Papers

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Printing hardware falls into two categories: devices that image a page or a line at time. Laser and solid ink devices create full pages on sheet-fed media. Roll papers provide the opposite of the type of substrate, or printing surface, that suits page printers. To find hardware that uses roll-fed consumables, look for devices that form full-page output gradually with a print mechanism that moves back and forth across the surface.

Impact

As their name indicates, impact printers produce an image by applying force or pressure through a ribbon with a printhead that contains or forms alphanumeric characters and punctuation, box-drawing characters similar to tabular shapes and even graphics, depending on the type of hardware. Daisy wheel printers use a preformed character set attached to a flat, circular print element that rotates as the output mechanism traverses across the page. Dot matrix printers apply patterns of tiny dots that form text and graphics. Line printers use hammers positioned behind looped character elements. Impact printers use roll- or continuous-fed papers that tear or perforate apart, with or without fold lines to define page boundaries.

Inkjet

Inkjet printers spray tiny ink droplets from minute nozzles attached to a printhead that traverses from side to side across a moving substrate. As their output-size capabilities increase, desktop-sized sheet-fed units give way to larger stand-mounted devices that run on roll-fed media. The largest of these machines print wraps for passenger buses, billboards, wall graphics and trade-show displays, with output measured in feet. At their largest sizes, these devices use inks cured by ultraviolet light to resist moisture in outdoor applications.

Thermal

Thermal printers use heat to create their output, applying it either to specially made paper that changes color in response to heightened temperature, or through a ribbon made of wax, resin or a combination of the two that provides a temperature-activated color medium. These units typically create shipping labels, sales receipts, and other forms of product and human identification. They print on individual self-adhesive labels attached to a roll-fed backing material or continuous self-adhesive stock cut to length by a blade built in to the printer.

Plotter

Plotters produce inked output that uses pens instead of sprayed colorant to produce line-based drawings, including architectural plans, manufacturing drawings, parts assemblies and other technical illustrations. Because their pens draw lines instead of filled shapes, unlike inkjet printers, these machines can't create photographs or other continuous-tone imagery. In addition to or instead of pens, plotters can accept computer-controlled knife blades that follow the perimeter of shapes and text to produce graphics for application on everything from race cars to real estate signs, cutting them out of roll-fed self-adhesive vinyl.