Dot Matrix Impact Printers - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: steve30
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 14, 2025, 04:55:52 pm
content: I'm just wondering if anyone here uses an impact printer still?I don't have any printers here which are newer than 20 years old (yes, I make them last a long time), but unfortunately they all have faults. My LaserJet 4M Plus needs a new drum wiper blade, my Canon IP4000 needs a new print head, and my Oki Microline 280 needs a new print head also.I got the Oki Microline 280 in around 1998. It appears to have been made in 1995. A local firm had it as a spare, but it never worked. The 'Alarm' light always flashed - which the manual said meant the print head had overheated. It was permanently in this fault state, and whilst it would print, it would only print one line every 10 seconds or so, and wouldn't let you change font.A few years ago I decided to dismantle the print head and I disconnected the thermistor which measures the head's temperature. Now, for the first time in 25 years, the printer worked! I don't know if the thermistor itself was bad, or if there was an issue on the main board with reading it. Unfortunately, it the process of dismantling the print head, I broke off one of the pins, meaning it is now an 8-pin printer. Sometimes you can get new/second hand heads for reasonable prices, so I think I will look at replacing it, then I might be able to keep it going as a functional printer.So, does anyone here use dot matrix impact printers for anything? TBH I have been eyeing up some of the newer 24 pin models which seems to have quite acceptable print quality, are quite small, have no/few rubber parts to go bad, and no nozzles to clog, and cheap ribbons...

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 14, 2025, 05:07:48 pm
content: An Epson LX1000 and FX280 in the 1990's but both gone now. I know someone who told me they still got theirs somewhere that came with one of those I can't remember which one whether he said it was a Z80 but he said it had this typewriter mechanism (and something about impact thing similar to typewriter) and he tried looking for a converter many years ago. I'll find out tomorrow and see if he can find it.

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 14, 2025, 08:18:43 pm
content: I get delivery notes from a UK company on fan-fold, self carbonated paper.They were great for looking printing out code to review, though a chain printer was needed for large jobs.

author: dferyance
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 14, 2025, 08:31:10 pm
content: I bought a Panasonic KX-P2123 to go along with a vintage computer I use. It is pretty nice as dot-matrix printers go. It came without a color kit but I was able to buy one and get that working.I was surprised that getting tractor paper was pretty easy. Ribbons are harder, especially color ribbons.I don't really "use" it. It is more of just a novelty for me at this point. The big value of these kinds of printers is their ability to print things line-by-line. So they are good for printing a running log and adding a new line each time there is a new entry instead of page-by-page.

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2025, 11:18:15 am
content: I believe ticket markers in Warsaw may still be relying on dot matrix printing, as well as R&G KRG-6K and KRG-6KM (which are not the ones used in Warsaw).

author: BeBuLamar
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2025, 05:16:44 pm
content: I have used dot matrix printer but never owned one. I used the HP Deskjet Plus inkjet printer since 1989 until 2011.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2025, 05:27:20 pm
content: Some businesses still do, and you can buy new ones (Epson offers multiple models).

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2025, 05:54:49 pm
content: yep still in use at some places, they had to stock a few loll mostly the Panasonic ones

author: m k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2025, 07:45:09 pm
content: Not so long ago I still had a source of tractored and dot matrix printed snail mail invoice.Now it's PDF and email, but original seems to be still that dot matrix print.Angle is very straight though, maybe a document camera.I should have somewhere a box of integrated payment machines with matrix printers.Single line, maybe four or five needles, so actually a line printer of sorts.

author: steve30
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2025, 09:22:48 pm
content: QuoteThat sounds like a daisywheel printer. I don't have a dedicated daisywheel printer but I do have a Brother daisywheel typewriter (same type of mechanism, just more flimsy and runs slower).QuoteI haven't seen tractor feed paper for sale anywhere for ages. Checking ebay and the Staples website suggests that it is easily available though.Anyway, back to my Microline 280. I've just been testing it on a ThinkPad. It will print fine using the Generic/Text Only driver (as expected), but it will not print graphics. It never did print graphics in the past. I wondered if this might be due to the 'temperature' fault mentioned earlier, but it seems not. No driver will work (I've tried various Oki models, IBM, Epson FX-80, generic graphics). Oh well.

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2025, 09:50:42 pm
content: I still have a couple in storage.The last use I had for them was hard printing out fold diagrams on thicker paper to make solids for modeling. Where the lines were pounded into the paper, the paper would fold easily.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2025, 10:17:01 pm
content: last one i saw working was about 6 year ago at a hire company,they were using it with 3 ply paper, 3 copies from 1 print out.

author: ozcar
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2025, 03:14:04 am
content: Quote from: steve30 on July 15, 2025, 09:22:48 pmThe last dot-matrix printer I had was a Microline 80. It could only print very chunky graphics and I never really used that. I can't remember how long I used it for, but I still have some remnants from it, stepper motors*and the character generator ROM. At some stage I replaced the latter in it with an EPROM, in order add some characters that I needed that it could not print. Was something as basic as [ and ], but I can't remember for sure now.Prior to that, I had one of these:https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X298.83/?media=101996Both very different to the first dot matrix printers I encountered, on IBM keypunch machines, which managed to hit all dots required for a character simultaneously. So, no buzz saw noise, just a thunk, but most of that thunk could have been the punching.*In a box, full of motors, gears and who-knows-what that I know I will never do anything with, but yet can't throw out.

author: m k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2025, 06:56:14 pm
content: Quote from: steve30 on July 15, 2025, 09:22:48 pmCorrect driver is not enough, it must also implement the graphics mode.Old updated Windows drivers are probably very limited.Windows printing system generates a meta file that is an image of what should appear on paper.Its conversion is quite a bit mode difficult task than simple ascii text and few escape sequences.Seems that Oki has their very own style.Graphics selectors are<esc>K<esc>L<esc>Y<esc>ZYou can add one of those to the beginning of a text file and test what happens.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2025, 09:28:39 am
content: I happen to register my new car just yesterday - the car title modification and the car registration were both printed on matrix printers.I guess that is the only(? or maybe just easiest) way to use certified tamper-proof ink on printed documents.So, this technology is not dead by any means, yet.But even I - hoarder-of-many-things - do not have had one for decades now. I went full Laser with my Amiga in 1992 or so.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 18, 2025, 08:58:53 am
content: Funny coincidence; a roommate just bought a dot matrix printer, a little bar of a package, that resembles a big, office hole puncher. (At approx. 4 by 11 inches.). It does typical graphics, and uses carbon paper backing sheet.(I'll have to ask them the brand, for this wireless dot matrix printer, tomorrow).Rick B.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2025, 10:45:08 pm
content: Quote from: jc101 on July 14, 2025, 08:18:43 pmThat stuff is known (at least here in the US) as either carbonless or NCR (no carbon required) paper.When I was a printer I used to print 5-part sets of that, each copy a different color. It comes pre-collated in the ream, in reverse order, of course, with white (the original) on the bottom of each set.If you get a misfeed you have to stop and make sure you don't have any sets with missing colors. Fun stuff.

author: Cyclotron
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 19, 2025, 11:04:28 pm
content: Go old school hardcore and get yourself a line printer. It will rock your fillings out and requires noise damping insulation. The also tend to need some air filtration as they can dust up the place.You can still buy them new, you better have deep pockets.https://www.oki.com/me/printing/products/lineprinters/index.html2k lines per min.I used to sit near a line of them back when the internet was still arpa/darpa net.

author: steve30
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2025, 10:59:46 am
content: Quote from: Analog Kid on August 19, 2025, 10:45:08 pmI don't come across much carbonless paper nowadays. My old college used to love the stuff - practically every form they have was multipart carbonless forms, although that was for hand written stuff - they didn't have any impact printers when I was there.Anyway, to update this thread; I got a second hand well-used Oki Microline 5590 24 pin printer off ebay. It works nicely and I'm impressed with its speed and quality. It works fine on Linux using an Epson PPD and it works even better on Windows - using the official driver, software like MS Word gives you the option of using the printer's built in fonts rather than the standard truetype fonts (although TBH, if you use regular Windows fonts and print it as graphics, it does a satisfactory job).

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 06:10:30 am
content: Ahhhh, LINE PRINTERS, Teletype did 132 columns in like 0.60 seconds: Noise like (loud) "BRRRATTT, BRRRATTT..." (That'd be 2 full lines).Teletype had a virtual 'belt' that supposedly tracked the real belt, by passing a pulse along a line-up of custom ICs. Then, fired a printing solenoid at just the right time; aligning momentarily with a moving character on the flexible belt. A just-in-time impulse that happens along with 131 other firings, all within that 0.60 seconds (per full line).Technician repair tasks had to be simplified, using blind board swaps and other tricks, ,(rather than comprehensive scope diagnostics, etc.)But we had a set of diagnosing techniques. One of the harder board assemblies to troubleshoot (no processor access, if I remember).We also handled the mechanism repair aspects, on the Teletype Line printer .Yes, it was loud enough to mandate a couple inches of sound deadening foam, on inside of printer cabinet.

author: Rascal
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 07:12:46 am
content: We still have a couple of suppliers who use dot matrix.When I started work in the 80's we used Oki Microline ML84 dot matrix printers. These were 'work horses' and could rattle on all day. They were mounted on their own dedicated stands and these would shake and move each time the head changed passed back & forth.The ML84's were supplied as part of a package from ICL - along with a ICL System25 'business computer', about the same size as a washing/laundry machine. The printers & computer were serviced by ICL engineers who would clean the print head and sweep out the dust. The System25 used two Winchester 35MB hard drives that would slide out on drawers giving the engineers access to clean the speed sensing 'windows' (as the engineers referred to them).

author: m k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 04:39:13 pm
content: Back in the day the old passbook was money, literally, you just had to go to the bank to get your notes.Next level here was when banks had a daily, or mostly so, balance check possibility.Differences were checked by phone, but first the match was checked locally, that's literal local, so checked against a paper.That means more than some papers and more than casually.One company was specialized for deliveries, multiple planes and cars that moved round the clock.Some car manufacturers had given them sealed long term test vehicles, even tire changes were out of limits.Needed papers were so much that band printers were too slow, so they used drum printers.Drum printer has all possible characters on a paper wide drum.When drum rotates around once the line is done.Physical operation is like a fast form feed, or faster if blank lines are present.Next came X25 and remote twinax controllers.Passbook was still there, but it wasn't actual money anymore, all stuff was still printed on it, but actually it was for information purposes only.It was also possible to extract money without the book, later when the bank saw the book it was updated.The bank had also a special passbook printer, possibly matrix based, the book was fitted in a slot and machine sucked it in to the correct position.Here national post was also a bank, and a bit behind of technical wonders, I'm quite sure I still had their original passbook with money during '90s.So not so long ago, I also remember some clerk mumblings when she had to do markings on it by hand, they also had a small special rules for it, with two slits for double underline.

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 06:29:55 pm
content: Check volume was so high at some point that they counted checks by weighing bundles of them.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 07:29:31 pm
content: A current IBM line printer, 6500 V20, can do 2000 lines per minute.In the late 1960s, the famous IBM 1403 line printer (used with the 1401 mainframe) could do 1400 lines per minute, at 132 characters per line, on 11 x 14 inch fanfold pinfeed paper.It was discontinued in 1971.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 08:38:50 pm
content: Just yesterday, friend showing off his new Phomemo inkless printer.(I have no commercial affiliation with them). It is small, not like most printers that have an 8 by 11 or similar size, so it resembles an office paper hole puncher.It's wireless, portable, and high-definition, (according to the box). Uses a carbon paper method, so has no ribbon (to buy and replace).Sorry, I didn't see (how) the printer gets powered...

author: steve30
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 08:37:22 am
content: Quote from: RJSV on August 21, 2025, 08:38:50 pmI think those are thermal printers, which print onto thermal paper (like fax paper), but I think some have the option of a thermal transfer ribbon, which allows the use of plain paper.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 09:34:13 am
content: Quote from: RJSV on August 21, 2025, 08:38:50 pmIt’s just thermal. All their models except one are direct thermal (i.e. requires thermal paper), one model supports a ribbon for thermal transfer.They use rechargeable batteries.So nothing at all to do with impact printing.