printer

Etymology

print + -er.

noun

1. One who makes prints.
   Old Japanese colour-prints are printed on a sheet of mulberry-bark paper, and are the product of three different craftsmen: the artist who drew the original design, the block-maker or engraver who transferred the design to the wood, and the printer. 1922, Basil Stewart, “How Colour-prints were Produced”, in Subjects Portrayed in Japanese Colour-prints: A Collector’s Guide to All the Subjects Illustrated including an Exhaustive Account of the Chushingura and other Famous Plays, together with a Causerie on the Japanese Theater, New York, N.Y.: E. P. Dutton, →OCLC; republished as A Guide to Japanese Prints and Their Subject Matter, New York, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 1979, page 8
2. The operator of a printing">printing press or the owner of a printing">printing business; (metonymically) any printing">printing business.
   IMPRINTED at London in Fleteſtrete by Thomas Berthelet, printer to the kynges highnes, the ſeconde of July, the yere of our lorde. M. DXLV. Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum ſolum. 2 July 1545, Thomas Elyot, A Preservative agaynste Deth, Imprinted at London in Fletestrete: By Thomas Berthelet, printer to the kynges highnes, →OCLC, colophon
   The Court doth Declare, as formerly ſo now, That no Apprentices be taken into any Printing-houſe, otherwiſe than according to this Proportion following, (viz.) ever Maſter Printer that is, or hath been Maſter or Upper Warden of his Company, may have three Apprentices at one time and no more, and every Maſter-Printer that is of the Livery of his Company, may have two Apprentices at one time and no more, […] 11 July 1637, John Rushworth, “[Appendix.] A Decree of Star-Chamber Concerning Printing, Made the Eleventh Day of July Last Past, 1637”, in Historical Collections. The Second Volume of the Second Part, Containing the Principal Matters which Happened from March 26. 1639, until the Summoning of a Parliament, which Met at Westminster, April 13, 1640. With an Account of the Proceedings of that Parliament; and the Transactions and Affairs from that Time, until the Meeting of Another Parliament, November the 3d following. With Some Remarkable Passages therein during the First Six Months. Impartially Related, and Disposed within Annals. Setting forth only Matter of Fact in Order of Time, without Observation or Reflection, London: Printed by M. Wotton at the Three Pigeons against the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleetstreet, and G. Conyers at the Golden Ring on Ludgate-Hill, published 1686, →OCLC, item XIX, pages 311–312
   […] Pecuniary motives induced the first printers (from the large sums which were usually paid for manuscripts) to sell their works as such; so that printing was, for a period, as much the counterfeit as the substitute for writing, it being a facsimile of the most approved Scribes. 1824, J[ohn] Johnson, “The Origin, Rise, and Progress of the Typographic Art”, in Typographia, or The Printers’ Instructor: Including an Account of the Origin of Printing, with Biographical Notices of the Printers of England, from Caxton to the Close of the Sixteenth Century: A Series of Ancient and Modern Alphabets, and Domesday Characters: Together with an Elucidation of Every Subject Connected with the Art, volume I, London: Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, Paternoster Row, London, →OCLC, pages 4–5
   Never one to waste an opportunity, he says now: "The low points? You can read about them in my forthcoming book! It's at the printers now. November 3 2021, Adrian Shooter talks to Paul Clifton, “A lifetime of railway achievements”, in RAIL, number 943, page 34
3. (now chiefly computer hardware) A device, usually attached to a computer, used to print text or images onto paper; an analogous device capable of producing three-dimensional objects.
   The use of the Hughes type printer is extending on the main circuits, where speed of transmission is a great object; but it is highly improbable that it will ever be adopted, except on main circuits. 24 February 1872, “Telegraph Instruments”, in The Mechanics’ Magazine and Journal of Science, Arts, and Manufactures, volume XCVI, London: Mechanics' Magazine Offices, 166, Fleet Street, and 85, Gracechurch Street, E.C., →OCLC, page 172, column 1
   By the use of these keys in conjunction with the other keys, the operator has perfect control over the receiving printer at the distant station. 1903, “The Rowland Multiplex Printing Telegraph System”, in Telegraph Age. A Semi-monthly Journal Devoted to Telegraphy, volume XX, New York, N.Y.: J[ohn] B. Taltavall, →OCLC, page 461, column 1
   For long distance messages, reports, etc., the use of the printer telegraph renders a highly satisfactory and efficient service, especially where the line circuits are derived through a composite or phantom circuit without the exclusive use of wires for this circuit. The Union Pacific recently installed a two-channel multiplex automatic printer on a simplexed circuit, thereby eliminating the necessity for at least one additional overland wire, and also speeding up the service and reducing the cost for each message. 1924, Railway Signaling and Communications, volume 17, number 1, Bristol, Conn.: Simmons-Boardman Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 36, column 1
   In a telegraph system, a multiplex transmission circuit in which the signals transmitted comprise equal-impulse code combinations, a receiving distributor for separating the successive combinations into separate channels, a simplex printer for each channel, and local means including said distributor for generating start and rest impulses for each printer. 18 August 1928, Robert F. Dirkes, Vernon R. Kimball, James W. Long, Operating Simplex Printers in a Multiplex System, US Patent US1802240A, claim 3, page 5, column 1
   Top-quality prints in minutes, at savings up to 80%, are said to be possible with the Satellite printer. Printer is sold by Eugene Dietzgen Co, Chicago, Ill. 1959 September, “Compact Printer”, in Air Conditioning, Heating and Ventilating, volume 56, New York, N.Y.: Industrial Press, →OCLC, page 103
   Much like a regular printer can print out a picture or text file, these machines can turn a digital 3-D model into a real, tangible object, and they are becoming more and more widespread. All over the world, makerspaces (places where people can gather, share ideas, learn, and use tools like 3-D printers to let their dreams become reality) are opening the doors. 2015, Nicki Peter Petrikowski, “Introduction”, in Getting the Most out of Makerspaces to Create with 3-D Printers (Makerspaces series), New York, N.Y.: Rosen Publishing, page 5