Pins, ribbon, impact

Dot-matrix printers

Impact printers that strike an inked ribbon. Loud and old-school, still unbeatable for multi-part forms.

Upfront cost: Medium
Running cost: Low
Speed: Low
Color: No

Independent guide — not affiliated with any manufacturer. For warranty or official support, contact the maker of your printer.

Overview

A dot-matrix printer forms characters from a grid of dots made by tiny metal pins. The pins strike an inked ribbon against the paper, physically pressing ink into it. Because it works by impact, it can print through carbonless multi-part forms in one pass.

You will mostly find them in warehouses, workshops, banks and logistics desks, often feeding continuous paper with punched edge holes. They are slow and noisy by modern standards, but extremely durable and cheap to run.

How it works

Diagram is illustrative, not to scale.

Paper is pulled by tractors

Sprocket wheels catch the holes along the edges of continuous paper and pull it through precisely.
The head moves across

A printhead carriage travels along the line, much like a typewriter.
Pins strike the ribbon

Electromagnets fire selected pins in a vertical column, each one hitting the inked ribbon to make a dot.
Dots form characters

Columns of dots build letters and lines. On multi-part forms, the impact presses through every copy at once.

Pros and cons

Advantages and drawbacks of dot-matrix printers
Pros	Cons
Prints carbon and multi-part forms in one pass	Loud during printing
Very low running cost	Low resolution; not for graphics or photos
Extremely durable for continuous use	Slow compared with laser
Handles continuous tractor-feed paper	Ribbons and continuous paper are specialty supplies

Best for

Multi-part forms

Invoices, delivery notes and receipts that need copies.
Industrial settings

Dusty or demanding environments where reliability rules.
Continuous logs

Long reports and logs printed on fan-fold paper.

What it costs to run

Ribbons are inexpensive and last a long time, so dot-matrix running costs are among the lowest of any printer type.

The bigger cost is often specialty paper, such as multi-part or pre-printed forms.

Printheads wear eventually under heavy use, but they are built for very long service lives.

Prices and page yields vary by model and change over time, so we do not quote figures here. Our guide to calculating cost per page shows how to compare any two printers yourself.