Task 7a, D1, Unit 30

Laser printers for leaflets and flyers
Laser printing is an electrostatic printing process that rapidly processes texts and graphics by passing a laser beam over a charged drum to define a deferentially charged image. Color laser printers use colored toner (dry ink), typically cyan, magenta,yellow, and black (CMYK). Laser orinting used to be a slow process but now offer high-speed printing and can be printed on both sides at one which means you can have a higher ppm rate making them more efficient and can now prints on A3 sized paper .but they do have their disadvantages, for example they do cost alot because you will need to replace the ink regualarly and that the ink soumetims come out still wet which means you may need to wait for it to dry. The print quality of these printers is limited by their resolution, which typically 600–1200 dpi.

Vinyl cutters and laser cutters for signage
Vinyl cutters are always used by signage businesses and are essential or sign making. They can also be used  to make banners and advertisements. An example of these would be on sky vans which show various TV shows that cover the vans. When vinyl cutters were first used they would have to use lots of different pieces of vinyl for different colors for the print and have been developed so they only need to use one piece of vinyl for a print. Computer designed vector images are put into the vinyl cutter by USB or serial cable and then are cut on the roll of vinyl which is put into the vinyl cutter. Vinyl cutters can also be used to cut shapes from cardboard. Vinyl cutters use vector images so htey dont use PPI resolution for images.

Inkjet and wide format printing for bitmap displays and posters
Inkjet and wide format printing is mostly used for bitmap displays such as banners, posters that are big enough for billboards or the size they are needed for. These printers have developed from only being able to print at certain sizes to being able to the edge of the paper. Wide format printers generally print between 17" and 100" and are usually used to print banners and posters. Wide format printers generally use a roll of print material instead of individual sheets and use hot-air dryers to stop them from sticking themselves as they are produced. For wide format printers the typical size for artwork should be around 300 Pixels Per Inch (PPI).

3D Printing 

3D printing is also known as desktop fabrication, it is a prototyping process where a real object is created from a 3D design and is the process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model. An example of this being used When General Motors started to build the 2014 Chevrolet Malibu, engineers at the company used 3D printing to save time required in prototyping the parts for the vehicle. There are many programs thet 3D designers can use to make parts ect. One of the simplest programs would be Google SketchUp . When using 3D printing software the files sizes vary on how big your object will be, usually the file will be very large and needs to be stored.