Daisy wheel printers

Daisy-wheel printers operate in much the same style as a typewriter. A hammer strikes a wheel with petals (the daisy wheel), every petal containing a letter form at its tip. The letter form strikes a ribbon of ink, depositing the ink on the page and thus printing a character. By rotating the daisy wheel, various characters are selected for printing.

These printers were also referred to as letter-quality printers since, for the duration of their heyday, they could produce text which was as clear and crisp as a typewriter (though they were nowhere near the quality of printing presses). The fastest letter-quality printers printed at 30 font per second.