An earlier print mechanism that used a plastic or metal hub with spokes like an old-fashioned wagon wheel minus the outer rim. At the end of each spoke is the carved image of a type character.
When the required character spins around to the print hammer, the image is banged into a ribbon and onto paper. The mechanism is then moved to the next location. Daisy wheel printers print typewriter-like quality from 10 to 75 cps and have been superseded by dot matrix and laser printers.
Daisy Wheel
In the early 1980s, daisy wheel printers cost $3,000 and more. They clicked and clacked to produce near typewriter-quality output. The technology was popular because you could change the fonts by changing wheels.
The First Edition
All 330 terms in the first edition of The Computer Glossary (the origin of this Encyclopedia) were written in 1980 on an 8-bit microcomputer and printed on a daisy wheel printer. Because the daisy wheels contained only one font size, the term names were left blank so that large Kroytype labels could be pressed on by hand afterwards.
When the required character spins around to the print hammer, the image is banged into a ribbon and onto paper. The mechanism is then moved to the next location. Daisy wheel printers print typewriter-like quality from 10 to 75 cps and have been superseded by dot matrix and laser printers.
Daisy Wheel
In the early 1980s, daisy wheel printers cost $3,000 and more. They clicked and clacked to produce near typewriter-quality output. The technology was popular because you could change the fonts by changing wheels.
The First Edition
All 330 terms in the first edition of The Computer Glossary (the origin of this Encyclopedia) were written in 1980 on an 8-bit microcomputer and printed on a daisy wheel printer. Because the daisy wheels contained only one font size, the term names were left blank so that large Kroytype labels could be pressed on by hand afterwards.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2008 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
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