Depending on organizational needs, it may be unnecessary to
assign one printer to each member of your organization. Such
overlap in expenditure can eat into allotted budgets, leaving less
capital for other necessities. While local printers attached via a
parallel or USB cable to every workstation are an ideal solution
for the user, it is usually not economically feasible.
Printer manufacturers have addressed this need by developing
departmental (or workgroup) printers.
These machines are usually durable, fast, and have long-life
consumables. Workgroup printers usually are attached to a print
server, a standalone device (such as a reconfigured workstation)
that handles print jobs and routes output to the proper printer
when available. More recent departmental printers include built-in
or add-on network interfaces that eliminate the need for a
dedicated print server.
