In the half a century since their creation, computer printers have be honed and developed into the high quality multi-function devices we know today that can scan, copy and print. Here at Copiserv we are proud to provide printers to businesses and schools across Wakefield and the surrounding areas, so we decided to delve into the history of the printer to see just how far we have come
While the exact dates of the invention of the computer printer is unclear, there are a few events in their history that are defining moments and can be used as reference points. In 1953, the first high-speed printer was developed by Remington-Rand for use on the Univac computer. A few years later the first dot matrix printer was marketed by IBM in 1957, in the same year as the dye-sublimation printer.
When Chester Carlson invented the revolutionary dry printing process called electrophotography (more commonly known to us as a Xerox) back in 1938, this laid the foundation for the most common type of computer printer. For in the late 60s Xerox engineer Gary Starkweather took the process and added a laser beam to it, thus creating the laser printer.
What followed in the next twenty years was a number of manufactures introducing their laser printer to the market. In 1976, the IBM 3800 Printing System was the industry’s first high-speed laser printer operating at speeds of more than 100 impressions-per-minute. In 1984 Hewlett-Packard introduced their LaserJet printer and Apple’s Laser Writer followed a year later. From the 1990s laser printers have only kept getting better, faster and cheaper.
The inkjet printer however took a little longer to become a home consumer item. Having first appeared in 1976, it took until the late 1980s until Canon and Hewlett-Packard overcame the challenge of controlling the flow of ink from the print head to the page, for the liquid inkjet printer to appear frequently on the market.
Over the past fifty years, computer printers have become an office staple for business across the globe. If you require effective print management solutions for your Yorkshire business do not hesitate to get in touch with the team at Copiserv to find out what they can do for you. Simply ring our friendly team on 01924 298 926.
Since English inventor Charles Babbage created the first mechanical computer printer in 1849 – which was used to print the results of calculations from his Difference Engine – a multitude of technologies have been developed off the back of it, all chasing the ideal of the perfect print.
While further mechanical printers were designed and manufactured throughout the late-i9th and early-20th centuries, the transition from purely mechanical to mechanical-electrical systems did not arise until the early-Fifties. It was at this point that the first high-speed, non-fluid printer was made by Remington Rand for use with the UNI VAC computer – the first to be commercially produced in the USA.
This was almost immediately followed by two new printing mechanisms – dot matrix and dye sublimation – entering the mainstream market. Dot-matrix printers work by impacting sheets of paper with tiny metal rods, with an inked ribbon sandwiched between the two.
Each rod is driven forward by a tiny electromagnet (or solenoid) and, along with the horizontal/vertical movement of a print head, allowed characters to be generated out of a series of impacted dots. Dye-sublimation printers, on the other hand, work by transferring dyes held in coloured cellophane ribbons onto a material through controlled heating. The term sublimation is used as during the printing process the held dye transitions between a solid state to a gas without passing through a liquid stage.
Inkjet printers, meanwhile – which today are the most common form of consumer computer printer – were taken up on a mass-market scale back in 1988; the HP Deskjet was the market standard. Inkjets work by propelling ink contained within a cartridge through a print head – commonly also installed in the cartridge – onto a sheet of paper. There are two main types of technology used in modern inkjet printers: continuous (CIJ) and drop-on-demand (DOD). As the names suggest, continuous inkjets deposit ink from a cartridge in a constant stream – albeit broken into droplets at regular intervals, while drop-on-demand inkjets use electrical pulses to pressure-squeeze individual ink droplets out of a print head nozzle onto the paper.
Printer Evolution
1977 – Xerox 9700 – Xerox launches the first commercial xerographic laser printer. The 9700 could operate at two pages per second and had raster font selection and form generation capabilities. It becomes an industry standard.
1980 – Epson MX-80 – A ground breaking dot-matrix printer, the MX-80 is the first to combine affordability with print quality in a home setting. Despite its low dot density (60dpi horizontal, 72dpi vertical) it sparks worldwide interest in impact printing.
1984 – HP LaserJet – The first desktop laser printer, the LaserJet is introduced for USD 3,500. Its print cartridge outputs eight pages of text and/or graphics per minute. It’s also one of the first printers to be near silent when in operation.
1988 – HP DeskJet – The first mass-market inkjet arrives. At USD 1,000, it is the least expensive non-impact printer on the market. Key to its uptake is its cheap, disposable print head included in each ink cartridge.
1994 – Epson Stylus Color – Epson releases the Stylus Color, the first to bring 720dpi hi-res (for the time) printing to the desktop environment. It has revolutionary Micro Piezo inkjet tech, where piezoelectric actuators are built in to the print nozzles. Below is the 777 model in the series.
2011 – Kodak HERO – Kodak launches its HERO range of all-in-one printers. Key to their rapid adoption is both their integration of cloud computing features – such as Google Cloud Print – and also their steep reduction in ink cartridge costs.
Printing Yesterday and Today
The evolution of the computer printer
History of Computer Printers
Hot off the press? Babbage's computer printer. Credit: SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON
A working model of what is claimed to be the world's first computer printer was unveiled at the Science Museum in London last week. The printer was designed — but never built — by Charles Babbage (1791–1871), the inventor and mathematician widely acknowledged as the ‘father of computing’.
In 1821, Babbage was checking mathematical tables that had been calculated by hand. Finding error after error, he exclaimed: “I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam.” He designed a calculating machine and a printer, but only built a small part of the calculating machine.
The machine was completed in 1991 by the museum's Babbage Project, using Babbage's original designs. The project has now completed the printer.