A computer printer, or more usually a printer, produces a tough copy (permanent human-readable text and/or graphics) of documents stored in electronic form, generally on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are mostly used as local computer peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable to a computer which serves as a text source. Some printers, commonly known as network printers, have built-in network interfaces (typically wireless or Ethernet), and can offer as a hardcopy device for any customer on the network. Individual printers are often planned to support both local and network linked users at the same time.
In addition, many modern printers can straight interface to electronic media such as memory sticks or memory cards, or to image capture devices such as digital cameras, scanners; some printers are combined with a scanners and/or fax machines in a single unit. Printers that contain non-printing features are sometimes called Multi-Function Printers (MFP) or Multi-Function Devices (MFD).
