printout

A printout is a physical copy of information produced by a printer from a digital source. It is a hard copy, as opposed to a soft copy on a display or in memory.

In computing, printouts are produced from documents, images, spreadsheets, or program outputs. The term has historical roots in line printers, teletype machines, and later dot-matrix and other printers, becoming common with personal computers.

Printout quality depends on printer technology: impact printers such as dot-matrix produce characters by pins; non-impact printers like inkjet, laser, or thermal apply ink or toner to paper. Resolution (dots per inch) and color capability affect legibility and fidelity. Printouts vary in size, margins, and layout; options include duplex printing, borders, and headers/footers.

In practice, printouts are subject to management considerations—print previews, quotas, and secure disposal. In offices, sensitive documents should be collected promptly and shredded; in home use, archiving may involve scanning or converting to PDFs.

See also hard copy, printing, print.