1. A printer that operates by printing one character at a time, such as a standard dot-matrix printer or a daisy-wheel printer. Compare line printer, page printer.
2. A printer that cannot print graphics, such as a daisy-wheel printer or even a dot-matrix or laser printer that lacks a graphics mode. Such a printer simply receives character codes from the controlling system and prints the appropriate characters. Compare graphics printer.
A printer that prints a single character at a time; SYN. character-at-a-time printer, serial printer.
Computer printer that prints one character at a time.