printer

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.”

2. The operator of a printing press or the owner of a printing business; (metonymic) any 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.”

   “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, […]”

   “[…] 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.”

   “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.”

3. 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.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

   “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.”