# 9 pin and 24 pin dot matrix printers



## bigsnowy (Sep 26, 2000)

Hi All

I know this must be a very stupid question but:

What is the difference between a 9 and 24 pin dot matrix printer?

beside print quality...


----------



## Monk_ (Sep 7, 2001)

That is the number of pins in the printhead that strike the page to create the character. The more pins the better the quality and usually faster.


----------



## bigsnowy (Sep 26, 2000)

oh ok thanks


----------



## Guest (May 9, 2002)

Impact printers either have the entire character, an "A" for instance, slamming against the "ribbon" which makes an impression of the character on the paper; or, using tiny little pins striking the "ribbon", they "draw" the character by creating it from many tiny, little dots, ergo dots in a matrix. As Monk said and you alluded to, the quality of a 24-pin is better because there are more and smaller pins allowing the machine to "draw" a more precise "picture" of each character.

Laser printers and ink-jets are non-impact, though the ink-jet concept is similar.

HTH


----------



## bigsnowy (Sep 26, 2000)

hahaha! That's so cool thanks for the lesson.


----------

