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Laser Printers History
Todd Winslow
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The very first laser printer was discovered and produced in 1971 when a researcher, Gary Starkweather, modified a Xerox copier. Although it wasn't until 1981 that the first laser printer for use with an individual computer was designed.
A laser printer is a printer that uses a laser and the electrophotographic method and will print a full page at a time. There are many different kinds of laser printers that print anywhere from 4 ppm (pages per minute) all the way up to more than 1,000 ppm. The use that you will have for a laser printer will decide which one is right for you. Regular office workgroup use would be near the lower end of the spectrum, whereas larger companies that are required to print labels and such might be at the higher end. There are typically 4 steps to what a laser printer does and they are; (1) create an image on the drum, (2) "paint" toner onto the image, (3) transfer this toned image to paper, and (4) fuse the toner to the paper. Though this sounds simple enough, it is a quite complex and happens very quickly.
Most laser printers have a basic set of fonts but are capable of printing almost an unlimited variety of fonts. You can add extra fonts in one of 2 ways. One of these would be to insert font cartridges into the slots of the laser printer. This is a great way to add fonts as it uses none of the printer's memory. Another way would be to add soft fonts. These come with a certain amount of RAM memory. You can usually increase the amount of memory by adding memory boards. You could then copy fonts from a disk to the printers RAM. These are downloaded fonts and are called soft fonts to distinguish them from the "hard fonts" on font cartridges.
One good thing about laser printers is that they are much quieter than dot-matrix or daisy-wheel printers. This is because they are non-impact printers. Although not as fast as some dot-matrix printers, laser printers are still relatively fast. A laser printers speed can range from around 4 to 20 ppm of text.
In finding the right laser printer for you, keep in mind the reason for which you will use it, the amount of dpi (dots per inch) you will need it to print and the amount of RAM you will need to use the fonts you prefer. Also keep in mind that laser printers are controlled through PDLs (page description languages). There are two standards for PDLs. These are Printer Control Language, partially pioneered by Hewlett-Packard, and PostScript which is the standard for Apple Macintosh printers and for all desktop publishing systems.
Whether it be for personal use or commercial use, know that there is a laser printer out there for your specific needs.
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| Laser Printers History |
| The very first laser printer was discovered and produced in 1971 when a researcher, Gary Starkweather, modified a Xerox copier. Although it wasn't until 1981 that the first laser printer for use with an individual computer was designed. more |
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