The History of Laser Printing

A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. Like photocopiers, laser printers employ a xerographic printing process but differ from analog photocopiers in that the direct scanning of a laser beam across the printer’s photoreceptor produces the image.

A man named Gary Starkweather who was a researcher at the Xerox Corporation invented the first laser printer. The first machine was a modification of a laser cartridge derived from a Xerox machine. This was the beginning of a multibillion-dollar business expansion for Xerox.

The first commercial laser printer, which was outfitted with replaceable laser toner and its own laser toner cartridge, was a model for IBM called the IBM 3800. It first made its appearance in 1976 and was used for the bulk printing of such documents as mailing labels and invoices. Unlike today’s printers the IBM 3800 was huge and took up the whole room. Despite this many of these original “antique” laser printers are still in use.

The first contemporary looking laser printer was the Brother HL2040, which was designed for use with a personal computer. However it was an expensive system that also came with a Xerox machine and it cost $17,000. The first mass-market laser printer was the HP LaserJet 8ppm, which was released in 1984. This printer was quickly followed by the release of other printers from Brother and IBM.

Apple computer also revolutionized personal desk printing by distributing the Apple LaserWriter for the Apple Macintosh one year later in 1985.

These laser printers used to cost three to four thousand dollars each and be quite heavy. Nowadays they have evolved to be light and portable and some perfectly efficient black and white laser printer models even cost less then a hundred dollars.

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