The History Of Printers

By Author: John Pickering
Total Articles: 4762
Comment this article

Depending upon how you define "personal printer," probably the first small-scale, personal printing process was electrophotography. In 1938, Chester Carlson tried to sell his invention to several large companies like RCA, Remington, General Electric, IBM and Eastman Kodak. Many people thought Carlson was insane, since there were mimeographs, typewriters and carbon paper already available, which seemed to work just fine. Ongoing research eventually changed the electrophotography process into a dry copying process, which was given the name of "xerography" -Greek for "dry writing" - and led to the success of the Xerox Corporation.

In 1954, the Uniprinter was developed to complement the room-sized Univac computer. It was about twice the size of a large typewriter with a paper-tape drive attached, and was capable of printing a then-astonishing 600 words per minute with 130 characters per line. Research for the xerography machine continued even as the new computer technology began to bear fruit, until 1971 saw the first laser printer created at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. In 1978 the Xerox 9700 was introduced to the ...
... U.S. and the entire world, the very first of its kind to be available commerciallydebut, it was massive in size and in price. It started a decade of incredibly rapid development in personal printers.

Lasers, inkjets and bubbles
Many firms, including IBM, began competing for top billing in the "office and personal printing" part of the industry, including Epson, a subsidiary of Seiko, and a number of other Japanese (and later Korean) firms. Epson/Seiko developed the first low-cost dot matrix printer technology, and the TX-80 that they introduced in the late 1970s was an instant success. They went on to create the MX series that was a popular commodity for IBM and were sold with IBM personal computers under an OEM agreement. The late 1970s and early 1980s also saw Canon develop a new concept for the personal printer, which they called "bubble jet" technology.

At the same time, Hewlett-Packard introduced the thermal "drop-on-demand," or inkjet, printing concept. Their early ThinkJet printer had a disposable print head with 12 individual control chambers that would release drops of ink from the nozzles. The printer could hit a speed of 150 characters per second (CPS) and its 11x12-dot characters had a resolution of 96 dots per inch (DPI). The printer debuted at a retail price of $495, considered insanely expensive now but a real bargain compared to its more expensive counterparts at the time.

On it goes into the future
As technology kept maturing, Canon introduced their LPB-CX laser printer in 1983 with a resolution of 300 DPI. This printer also included a special feature that was not available to any other printer at the time -- a disposable cartridge accessible to the end user. It also had the laser diodes, the lens mirror system, the toner cartridge, paper handlers and photosensitive roller that became standard in the category. The fast-growing computer companies like Apple and Hewlett-Packard were very impressed with the functionality of this unit, so they put their own labels on the LPB-CX. Hewlett Packard named their model the LaserJet, as it is still known today. It was sold for a whopping $2,500. Apple also put out its own laser printer called the LaserWriter, which sold for $6,000.

Some 25 years down the line, the inkjet and laser technologies have been perfected and upgraded, and color has taken over the inkjet market completely. There are color laser printers, too, but the "monochrome" (black toner) models are still quite popular because their cost of use has decreased from over a dollar per page to a less than a penny with some models. Consumers can purchase either type of printer for a very reasonable price depending on the model and the features that they need -- in fact, some inkjet printers sell below cost because the companies make their money on replacement ink cartridges.

The future for printers continues to be bright (because research and development continues, as well). The latest frontier for personal printing is 3-D printing where you can actually get three-dimensional items from your printer. Personal printers have come a long way since they were first developed. Without a doubt, new technologies will continue to impress and help to make working from the office and home a whole lot easier.
About Author:
John Pickering is the owner of EezyTrade.co.uk, an online retailer of new and refilled toner cartridges for Brother, HP, Canon, Epson, Lexmark and Xerox printers. Visit us online today for epson inkjet cartridges and more and begin saving.