drum printer

A line printer in which a revolving cylinder acts as the printing element.

(1) A wide-format inkjet printer. The paper is taped onto a drum for precise alignment to the nozzles.

(2) An old line printer technology that used formed character images around a cylindrical drum as its printing mechanism. When the desired character for the selected position rotated around to the hammer line, the hammer hit the paper from behind and pushed it into the ribbon and onto the character.

Drum Printer Mechanism

The hammer pushes the paper into the type slug when it rotated around to the proper position. Such printer technologies seem ridiculous compared to the quiet, high-speed workings of today's laser printers.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a line printer in which the type is mounted on a rotating drum that contains a full character set for each printing position