Innovative Dot Matrix Printer

Dot matrix printers! What could possibly be done with those noisy and ugly looking boxes you might ask? The answer is in this innovative new product from TVS Electronics. The Proton DMP has quite a few innovative features. There’s what they term as the ink bank technology, which allows printing up to 10 million characters. In this, they have made refilling of the ink cartridge easier by providing a small cartridge that fits into the ribbon cartridge. This tiny cartridge contains ink that keeps replenishing the printer ribbon with ink thereby keeping consistent print quality. It also makes ribbon refilling simpler as you just have to replace the tiny ink bank. Plus, the cartridge twists the ribbon in such a way that its maximum area is used for printing thereby increasing cartridge life.

Another feature of the printer is front-paper loading and a straight paper path, unlike the rear-loading that happens in most DMPs. The printer has long studs for the stands. These allow you to place paper below the printer thereby saving table space.

It has a USB interface, which makes installation a breeze. Plus, the printer driver and software allows greater control over the

printer. Among other things, it tells you how much cartridge life is left. 

We tested the printer for speed, print quality, multi-columnar printing, margins, and on multi-part stationary. It performed well in all the tests. We used two-part and four-part stationery, and the printer managed to print on the bottom-most paper in both.

Being an 80 column printer, it’s supposed to print all 80 characters in one line clearly. Here again the printer managed to do it

without any problems. 

The Bottom Line: Overall, considering the new design and features, the printer is a good choice for billing applications. 

Anil Chopra and Sanjay Majumder at PCQ Labs