PPM

Short for "Pages per Minute".

This is a printer term to describe the speed of the printer in producing documents.

This can be a bit misleading sometimes, as the speed of the printer depends on how much ink is placed on the paper. For example, a single dot being printed on the entire sheet would produce a very high Pages per Minute as the printer has hardly anything to do. On the other hand a black square the size of the paper would take a long time, as the printer has to work very hard (as well as running out of ink very quickly!)

So PPM is often quoted along with a description of how much 'paper coverage' was used in the test. For example 15% paper coverage.

Laser printers have high PPM whilst cheaper ink-jets have lower PPM.

A busy office would want high ppm to avoid having people standing around waiting for their documents. On the other hand a lower PPM is fine for a personal printer at home.

2020-10