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Most computers are not complete without a printer. Like most people of my age, I find it necessary to print out many of the things that I search for and find on the Internet.

I have not found anyone who doesn’t find it necessary to have a printer. That being said, it is time to give you some information to help in using your printers more easily and effectively.

In the earliest days of computing with our own personal computers in our homes, we used dot matrix printers. These units used ribbons and made characters on boxes of continuous pages held together by perforations every 11 inches. Paper was moved through the printing process by rollers pulling the continuous sheets of blank paper keeping time with the movement of the print heads which traveled back and forth across the paper. Each trip across defined a line of print.

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The print heads punched through a ribbon to create black dots on the paper on the other side of the ribbon. The pattern of dots made by the pins made a dot matrix character.

While this printer technology was relatively cumbersome and slow, there were some advantages. The act of a pin striking with force though a ribbon made multipart forms possible.

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