The Computer Revolution/Peripherals/History of Printers

In 1938, Chester Carlson invented a dry printing process called electrophotography commonly called a Xerox, the foundation technology for laser printers to come. For years, nobody seemed to pay any interest to Carson's invention. From 1939 to 1944 Carlson was turned down by more than 20 companies. Finally, in 1947 the inventor managed to facilitate a deal with a small, completely unknown photo-paper company Haloid (later renamed Xerox), giving them the right to develop a xerographic machine. In 1959, twenty years after Carlson invented xerography, the first Xerox office copier 914 was presented to the public.

In 1953, the first high-speed printer was developed by Remington-Rand.

According to Xerox, the original laser printer called EARS was developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center beginning in 1969 and completed in November, 1971. Xerox Engineer, Gary Starkweather adapted Xerox copier technology adding a laser beam to it to come up with the laser printer.

According to IBM, "the very first IBM 3800 was installed in the central accounting office at F. W. Woolworth’s North American data center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1976." The IBM 3800 Printing System was the industry’s first high-speed, laser printer. A laser printer that operated at speeds of more than 100 impressions-per-minute. It was the first printer to combine laser technology and electrophotography according to IBM.

In 1992, Hewlett-Packard released the popular LaserJet 4, the first 600 by 600 dots per inch resolution laser printer.

In 1976, the inkjet printer was invented, but it took until 1988 for the inkjet to become a home consumer item with Hewlett-Parkard's release of the DeskJet inkjet printer, priced at a whopping $1000.