A computer peripheral for printing barcode labels or tags which can be attached to physical objects.

Barcode printers are commonly used to label cartons before shipment or to label retail items with barcode symbology; that is, a specific type of barcode for tracking commercial items in stores.

1. A process for printing or copying in which electrostatic charges are used to form the image in powder or ink directly on to the surface to be printed instead of with ink or pressure.

The best known process of electrostatic printing is known as xerography.

2. A procedure in which a positive electrostatic charge is given to a paper on which an image is projected.

A bright light reverses the charge of the non-image area so that the negatively charged powdered ink sticks firmly only to the positive image area.

Established by the Xerox Corporation, it is about the most common dry photocopying process in use today.

3. A plotter or computer output device that draws graphs and other pictorial images on paper which uses an electrostatic method of printing.

Liquid toner models use a positively charged toner that is attracted to paper which is negatively charged by passing by a line of electrodes (tiny wires or nibs).

Models print in black and white or color, and some handle paper up to six feet wide.

Newer electrostatic plotters are really large-format laser printers and focus light onto a charged drum using lasers or LEDs (light-emitting diodes) which is a semiconductor that emits light when a current passes through it.