Johannes
Gutenberg was a German inventor who had invented the printing press
process in
the 1450’s. His invention allowed the printing of many books. Theprinting press
process was a machine that was operated by hand which transferred writing and
images/pictures. Basically how it worked was that a frame was used to set
groups and of type blocks, these blocks had letters on them and they were
placed in reverse. A sheet of paper was laid on the inked blocks, and then the
paper and the blocks passed through a roller which made sure that the ink was
transferred onto the paper. When the paper is lifted, the reader can see inked
letters. The first book to ever be printed was a Latin language Bible, printed
in Mainz, Germany; the Bible was then named after him ‘The Gutenberg Bible’.
Johann was in born in 1938 to a very wealthy family, he had a very nice
childhood; he got taught to read and write. But the books that he read were
written by hand and were only available to rich families as at that time, books
were really expensive. Johann wanted to find a way so everyone could have books
to read. He moved to Strasburg, Germany and did many experiments to find a
faster way of printing. Johann soon ran out of money so he moved back to Mainz
(his home city) where he found a layer called Joahann Fust, who gave him the
money to continue
his experiments. Johann, again, used up a lot of money and Joahann was not
happy about it, because he said that Johann was just waisting it and wasn’t
getting anywhere. Joahann sewed Johann and took everything away from him. But
the printer evolved and spread around Europe and soon hundreds of books were
printed. Johann died in Mainz in 1468.
There
are two types of printers; the first one is called impact printer and the
second is called non – impact printer. An impact printer is a printer that
makes contact with paper. It forms the print images/ characters when a print
hammer or wheel is pressed against an inked ribbon. As a result of that an
image is left on the paper. This kind of printer is usually found in
typewriters and Dot Matrix Printers. Non – impact printers are faster and quieter
than impact printers because they don’t have as much parts that move as well
they don’t hammer against the paper. They print characters and images without
the need to have direct contact with printing mechanism and the paper (no pressing
or thumping/hammering). Below are a few examples of non – impact printers.
Disadvantages & Advantages of Each Printer:
Thermal Printers
Advantages:-
- They are fairly inexpensive
- They are easy to use
- They are quiet and don’t make a loud noise when printing
Disadvantages:-
- If the machine is too hot then more ink will come out
- They are not always precise and neat; they can smudge
- They are almost completely monochrome printers
- The high heat used in the printing process can damage the print head meaning that the owner has to pay more money to get it fixed = waste of money
Dot Matrix Printer
Advantages:-
- They are inexpensive and are easily available in the market
- Used to make carbon copies
- The ink ribbon of the printer is cheap and lasts longer than most of the ink of the other printers
- The maintenance price is low
- The ink doesn’t become empty suddenly, it slowly starts fading so you get more time to go and change the ribbon
Disadvantages:-
- The printing quality of this printer is low
- It makes a very loud noise when it is printing
- The pins bend easily which the destroy the print head
- This printer is very low at printing comparing it to other printers
- Paper jams are very hard to fix
Daisy Wheel Printer
Advantages:-
- The quality of the final print out is very high
- It’s not overly expensive
- Low maintenance needed
Disadvantages:-
- They make a lot of noise when printing
- They are slow at printing
- You have to change the ink ribbon frequently
Inkjet Printer
Advantages:-
- They are not expensive
- You can create images/documents at high quality – before they were blurry and bad quality
- They don’t take up too much space
- They don’t require so much time to print
Disadvantages:-
- The cartridge is not really cheap
- You can only print a certain amount of documents
- The ink sometimes gets clogged
- Documents get smudged if you don’t let them dry
- replacing the cartridge can cause some problems to the printer
Laser Printer
Advantages:
- They print at a fast rate
- They don’t make a loud noise when they print
- Colour printing is possible
- Printing quality is good
Disadvantages:-
- They are more expensive than other printers
- They use complicated technology
- Fixing any broken parts is expensive
- They are dangerous to the health and atmosphere
References
The Great Idea Finder
(2007) History: Inventions: Printing Press
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/printpress.htm
[Accessed on 27th September 2015]
[Accessed on 27th September 2015]
Great Site (n.d.) Home:
English Bible History: Johann Gutenberg
[Accessed on 27th
September 2015]
PsPrint (n.d.) General:
Design and Printing: The Invention of the Printing Press
[Accessed on 27th
September 2015]
3D Printing
3D printing is the process of of making 3 dimensional objects from a digital file, it basically adds volume to your print out/images. There are two kinds of 3D
printers, resin and non - resin. The resin kind of 3D printer uses laser technology which solidifies layer by layer to create the objects. This kind of printer is very expensive and it uses lights and chemicals which are sometimes harmful to the environment. On the other hand the results are more precise than non - resin printers. Non - resin printers are more popular, instead of using chemicals and lasers, this kind of 3D printer uses plastic, food, ceramics or other materials like that. This adds layers on top of layers to create the wanted object.
The 3D printer starts by creating a virtual sketch of the object which the person wants to create. The virtual design is created using a 'computer aided design' file which uses a 3D modeling program or with a 3D scanner. The 3D modeling program is used when the user wants to create a totally new object, instead with the scanner the user uses it to copy an existing object; the 3D scanner then creates a digtial copy, in 3D of the object wanted by the user.
In simple steps this is how a 3D printer works:
In simple steps this is how a 3D printer works:
- The user creates his idea in a computer file
- The computer file is prepared from the machine
- The computer file travels to the 3D printing machine
- A layer of powder is spread out in the 3D printer
- Then the temperature of the machine is increased
- A laser hardens the hardens the powder and the model gets its' shape
- Another layer of powder is spread out in the 3D printer
- And the process is repeated many times until the object is completely finished
- Then the model is lifted out of the 3D printer and cleaned
Not all the 3D printers use the same technology; there are several ways to print . Certain methods melt or soften the material which produces the layers; these are specific names SLS (Selective laser sintering), FDM (Fused deposition modeling) and SLA (stereolithography). 3D printing is used for rapid prototyping (first version of a product), architectural scale models, maquettes (a sculptors first sketch), healthcare, entertainment (e.g. props), the reconstruction of fossils, replicating ancient artifacts (archaeology), reconstructing very damaged evidence from crime scenes, business and industrial equipment, education and other consumer - product industries. 3D printers are used by students, businesses and designers. 3D printers make it possible to experiment with e.g. fashion and architecture (buildings, houses etc.)
References
Kids Code Computer and Science Magazine (2015) February 2015 Issue: What is 3D printing?
https://www.kidscodecs.com/what-is-3d-printing/
[Accessed on 30 September 2015]
3D Printing (n.d.) Home: Articles: What is 3D printing?
http://3dprinting.com/what-is-3d-printing/
[Accessed on 30 September 2015]
3ders - 3D printer & 3D printing news (n.d.) Home: 3D printing
http://www.3ders.org/3d-printing.html
[Accessed on 30 September 2015]
Reflection
This research task was very interesting because I learnt many new things about the history of printing in general but as well I learnt about modern printing and how it has evolved throughout these past years. In addition I have discoverer 3D printing, which I never new existed, and I also learnt how the 3D printer works and what it is used for, for example, a 3D printer can be used by students, business and/or designers for certain things like fashion and architecture. I found this lesson very interesting and fascinating especially because I learnt something different and it wasn't just the usual research about boring things. In addition to learning something new, I got the chance to practice my referencing skills (Harvard way) which is always a good thing because even though I know how to reference it is always good to have a little practice especially because I don't only need to reference in ICT, I need to know how to do it in all my subjects. I really enjoyed this lesson and hope we do lessons similar to this in the future.
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