What is a platen in a dot matrix printer?

A very old one. Split a square up from 9 to 24 times and that's the printer head for each digit. Poor quality. Ink jet.

A type of printer that produces characters and illustrations by striking pins against an ink ribbon to print closely spaced dots in the appropriate shape. Dot-matrix printers are relatively expensive...

Dot-matrix printers are used to generally print carbon copies in hospitals, manufacturing and industrial sites.

They are still used for air lines or places that indent the paper. Source: I'm in Computer Systems Technology and we just got done learning about them.

Dot-matrix printers have mainly disadvantages - they are slow, and loud. They can be useful in cases where an impact is required - such as printing multiple copies with carbon paper (although an...