Laser Printers: A History of Innovation in Printing Technology
The advent of digital printing marked a watershed moment in the office landscape, transforming how businesses and individuals produce documents and images. Though taken for granted now, the visual fidelity and high speeds enabled by modern printers were unfathomable not long ago. At the forefront of this revolution was Gary Starkweather, the inventor of the laser printer at the storied Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1969. His creation spawned one of the most popular and versatile office technologies in the world.
Through a series of crucial product releases and technology licensing agreements, laser printers rapidly evolved beyond expensive niche equipment into affordable, high-quality, and energy-efficient office workhorses. This article recounts that technical progression and market success story, evaluates current laser printing capabilities, and previews future advancements on the horizon.
Inventing the Laser Printer: A Xerox PARC Breakthrough
As an ambitious young optical physicist working at PARC in the late 1960s, Gary Starkweather envisioned an alternative printing solution leveraging the speed and precision of lasers. At the time, most printers utilized noisy mechanical impact processes prone to frequent jamming and maintenance. Starkweather aimed higher, working after-hours on a prototype design using a laser beam to etch images onto a xerographic drum.
His “laser printer” combined existing Xerox photocopier components like the drum and toner system with a laser source, rotating mirror, and lenses from a redesigned IBM copier. The laser would illuminate points on the drum corresponding to output text and imagery, attracting toner particles to those areas. Pressure and heat then fused the toner to paper fed through the system.
When completed in 1969, Starkweather’s printer produced crude but legible output, printing at an unprecedented rate of one page per second. Though promising, the device was far too expensive, unreliable and slow for commercial needs. Xerox management remained unconvinced, relegating Starkweather’s program to internal funding only.
First Commercial Laser Printers Emerge
While innovative, Starkweather’s design required substantial improvements before transitioning beyond the laboratory. It would take another five years of engineering before Xerox commissioned the first viable commercial system, the Xerox 9700. Released in 1977, it printed letter-sized pages at speeds up to 120 pages per minute, supporting limited graphics and typeface options. With a towering frame and hefty rental fee, the 9700 found niche purchase among data centers and institutions.
Not to be outdone, IBM responded in 1976 with the IBM 3800 – the first high-volume laser printer explicitly targeting the line printer mainframe market. Utilizing similar xerographic techniques but a different laser scanning method, it churned out 215 single-spaced pages per minute on continuous feed paper. Between these two pioneering products, laser printing moved from conception to commercial reality within a decade.
The PC Era Births Desktop Laser Printing
The late 1970s brought exponential growth in small business computing, though printers remained dependent on specific hardware platforms. Product choices were limited. Enter Canon, who parlayed their expertise in optics and imaging into a pivotal role shaping early desktop laser printing.
Canon engineer Dr. Fumiaki Ito pieced together a low-cost laser print engine from salvaged parts, utilizing new semiconductor lasers and redesigned optical components. The result was the revolutionary Canon CX engine, purpose-built for integration into third party products. Canon initially secured an agreement with HP in late 1978, providing OEM laser print engines to compete with their popular line matrix devices.
In 1980, HP announced developmental products utilizing the CX technology while Apple Computer negotiated similar rights for laser printer offerings. Buoyed by these promising partnerships, Canon accelerated printer development as demand swelled for desktop publishing solutions.
The dominant printer of the era was Epson’s MX-80, a ubiquitous dot matrix released in 1981 combining low cost and reasonable print speeds. HP aimed to supplant this market leader, christening their maiden CX engine-powered printer the HP LaserJet. Released in 1984 priced under $3500, it produced eight pages per minute – astonishing for the period. Reviewers praised the LaserJet’s impressive fidelity and paper-handling while consumers clamored for stock. Over 200,000 units sold within two years as laser printing assumed a growth trajectory far outpacing expert projections. The PC laser printer market was born.
PostScript Ushers in Desktop Publishing
Simultaneous to surging LaserJet sales, Apple was readying the first desktop publishing laser printer for its Mac personal computer line – the 1985 Apple LaserWriter. Built upon a licensed Canon CX engine like HP’s device, the LaserWriter was no speed demon at 12 pages per minute. Its breakthrough lied in adoption of Adobe’s PostScript page description language for output.
PostScript represented a universal printer control language enabling precise rendering of fonts, graphics, line art, images and other elements – capabilities far exceeding traditional text-based printers. Combined with Aldus’ PageMaker publishing software also released in 1985, the LaserWriter powered a new era of print shop-quality documents designed wholly on personal computers.
These empowering desktop capabilities triggered booming LaserWriter demand plus steep declines in typesetting and pre-press services previously performed by specialists. Within a few years, PostScript licensed by Apple and other vendors became the de facto industry standard page language. Gary Starkweather’s humble invention now spearheaded a quiet revolution in publishing and document production.
The Present: Mature Technology, Broad Access
In the subsequent decades, continuous advances rendered laser printing ever-higher performance, versatile and affordable. Engineers honed printer architectures for modular upgrades and economy, transitioning focus from research prototyping to refinement of materials, speeds and energy efficiency. As patents expired, competing manufacturers entered the printer market with their improved versions and cost reductions.
Modern printers leverage smaller, higher precision laser diodes and beam delivery optics minimizing component wear. Denser toner formulations enable more pages per cartridge while new fuser compounds stretch roller service life. Automatic duplexing has become standard, saving paper along with onboard multi-protocol network and wireless connectivity.
Current speeds exceed 200 pages per minute for monochrome devices with color lasers surpassing 100 ppm. Resolution reaches 2400 x 2400 dpi with some photo-optimized models, augmenting image detail and accuracy. Enhanced built-in image processors readily render complex digital files and document formats absent the host computer.
These cumulative advances propelled laser printers into small business and home office ubiquity today. An excellent new color printer now comfortably fits below $500 – what an entry level black-and-white HP LaserJet commanded in 1984 when launched. For modest throughput needs, a capable mono printer sells for under $100. Operating costs plummeted as well – toner expenses can be as low as 1 cent per page with remanufactured or high yield consumables. While inkjets maintain some edge in photo printing, laser technology defined the modern office printing experience through ongoing innovation.
The Road Ahead: Faster, Customizable, Sustainable
If history provides any indication, the ceaseless quest for faster and smarter printers shall persist. One active area of research aims to cut delays when generating the first physical page, with laser diodes and fusers reaching optimal temperature quicker while minimizing power consumption. These “instant on” devices would reduce idle energy waste plus eliminate most or all warm up times.
Adaptability grows in importance too. Today’s printers recognize media types for automatic parameter adjustments, but future systems may support customer tuning of color profiles, toner melts and other internals. Miscellaneous plug-ins could provide on-demand special effects like metallic prints, greeting card makers or audio encoders.
Sustainability proves vital as well, with refreshed efforts targeting reduced landfill and greenhouse gas impacts. Some firms now remanufacture toner cartridges seven times over and recycle over seventy five percent of printer components after end-of-life. Expect these green percentages to climb while engineers strive for breakthroughs lessening manufacturing footprints further. And naturally, the presses never halt on accelerating output speeds in both simplex and duplex modes.
Conclusion
Gary Starkweather’s improbable blue sky vision in 1969 set enterprises worldwide on the path to streamlined document sharing we enjoy today. By marrying lasers, lenses and the copier technologies of the period, he ignited a dynasty around speedy, shapeshifting and shareable electronic files.
From quiet Xerox labs to the first noisy high-volume printers then Canon’s pioneering PC engines and HP’s runaway hit LaserJet, key milestones fueled exponential adoption until matrices, daisy wheels and direct imprinters largely faded away. Desktop publishing democratized professional quality content, empowering small business and consumers. Now commonplace complete with networking, reasonable costs and color, the fruits of persistent engineering advancements seed ongoing access to information.
So raise a glass to Starkweather and the legions of inventors standing on the shoulders of his creation as we celebrate faster outputs with less waste, energy and noise. The laser printer constituted one of the office’s defining transitions, and its best chapters likely still await thanks to determined tinkerers building the future.