Editing Laser printing (section)

==History==
[[File:Gary Starkweather.jpg|thumb|left|[[Gary Starkweather]] (seen here in 2009) invented the laser printer.]]
In the 1960s, the [[Xerox Corporation]] held a dominant position in the [[photocopier]] market.<ref>{{cite news  |newspaper=The New York Times |title=Jacob E. Goldman, Founder of Xerox Lab, Dies at 90
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/business/jacob-e-goldman-founder-of-xerox-lab-dies-at-90.html
|date=December 21, 2011
|quote=In the late 1960s, Xerox, then the dominant manufacturer of office copiers ...}}</ref> In 1969, [[Gary Starkweather]], who worked in Xerox's product development department, had the idea of using a laser beam to "draw" an image of what was to be copied directly onto the copier drum. After transferring to the recently formed [[Palo Alto Research Center]] (Xerox PARC) in 1971, Starkweather adapted a Xerox 7000 copier to make SLOT (Scanned Laser Output Terminal). In 1972, Starkweather worked with [[Butler Lampson]] and Ronald Rider to add a control system and character generator, resulting in a printer called EARS (Ethernet, Alto Research character generator, Scanned laser output terminal)—which later became the [[Xerox 9700]] laser printer.<ref>{{cite magazine| last=Gladwell| first=Malcolm
   |title=Creation Myth - Xerox PARC, Apple, and the truth about innovation
   |magazine=The New Yorker| date=May 16, 2011
   |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/16/110516fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all
   |access-date=28 October 2013}}</ref><ref>{{ cite book 
|title=Milestones in Computer Science and Information Technology 
   |author=Edwin D. Reilly |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2003 
   |isbn=1-57356-521-0 
   |quote=starkweather laser-printer.
   }}</ref><ref name="Allan2001">{{cite book
|author=Roy A. Allan
   |title=A History of the Personal Computer: The People and the Technology
   |url=https://archive.org/details/A_History_of_the_Personal_Computer
   |date=1 October 2001 |publisher=Allan Publishing|isbn=978-0-9689108-3-2|pages=13–23}}</ref> In 1976, the first commercial implementation of a laser printer, the [[IBM 3800]], was released. It was designed for [[data center]]s, where it replaced [[line printer]]s attached to [[mainframe computers]]. The IBM 3800 was used for high-volume printing on [[continuous stationery]], and achieved speeds of 215 [[pages per minute]] (ppm), at a resolution of 240 [[dots per inch]] (dpi). Over 8,000 of these printers were sold.<ref name="Kasdorf2003">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNIRkAqOzLUC&pg=PA383|title=The Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing|author=William E. Kasdorf|date=January 2003|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-12499-7|pages=364, 383}}</ref> 

Soon after, in 1977, the [[Xerox 9700]] was brought to market. Unlike the IBM 3800, the Xerox 9700 was not targeted to replace any particular existing printers; however, it did have limited support for the loading of [[Computer font|fonts]]. The Xerox 9700 excelled at printing high-value documents on cut-sheet paper with varying content (e.g., insurance policies).<ref name="Kasdorf2003" /> Inspired by the Xerox 9700's commercial success, Japanese camera and optics company [[Canon Inc.|Canon]] developed in 1979 the Canon LBP-10, a low-cost desktop laser printer. Canon then began work on a much-improved print engine, the Canon CX, resulting in the LBP-CX printer. Having no experience in selling to computer users, Canon sought partnerships with three [[Silicon Valley]] companies: [[Diablo Data Systems]] (who rejected the offer), [[Hewlett-Packard]] (HP), and [[Apple Computer]].<ref name="Ujiie2006">{{cite book|author=H Ujiie|title=Digital Printing of Textiles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UOZRAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5|date=28 April 2006|publisher=Elsevier Science|isbn=978-1-84569-158-5|page=5}}</ref><ref name="Malone2007">{{cite book|author=Michael Shawn Malone|title=Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KMSH_wzyDaEC&pg=PA327|year=2007|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-1-59184-152-4|page=327}}</ref> 

In 1981, the first small personal computer designed for office use, the [[Xerox Star]] 8010, reached market. The system used a [[desktop metaphor]] that was unsurpassed in commercial sales, until the [[Apple Macintosh]]. Although it was innovative, the Star workstation was a prohibitively expensive ({{US$|17,000}}) system, affordable only to a fraction of the businesses and institutions at which it was targeted.<ref name="Strassmann2008">{{cite book|author=Paul A. Strassmann
   |title=The Computers Nobody Wanted: My Years with Xerox
   |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b5for5RdBCoC&pg=PA126|year=2008
   |publisher=Strassmann, Inc. |isbn=978-1-4276-3270-8 |page=126}}</ref> Later, in 1984, the first laser printer intended for mass-market sales, the [[HP LaserJet]], was released; it used the Canon CX engine, controlled by HP software. The LaserJet was quickly followed by printers from [[Brother Industries]], [[IBM]], and others. First-generation machines had large photosensitive drums, of circumference greater than the loaded paper's length. Once faster-recovery coatings were developed, the drums could touch the paper multiple times in a pass, and therefore be smaller in diameter. A year later, Apple introduced the [[LaserWriter]] (also based on the Canon CX engine),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.printerworks.com/Catalogs/CX-Catalog/CX-AppLW-LWPlus.html|title=TPW - CX Printers- Apple|work=printerworks.com|access-date=2014-07-19|archive-date=2013-08-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130801183228/http://www.printerworks.com/Catalogs/CX-Catalog/CX-AppLW-LWPlus.html}}</ref> but used the newly released [[PostScript]] page-description language (up until this point, each manufacturer used its own proprietary page-description language, making the supporting software complex and expensive). PostScript allowed the use of text, fonts, graphics, images, and color largely independent of the printer's brand or resolution. [[PageMaker]], developed by [[Aldus Corporation|Aldus]] for the Macintosh and LaserWriter, was also released in 1985 and the combination became very popular for [[desktop publishing]].<ref name="Allan2001" /><ref name="Kasdorf2003" />
Laser printers brought exceptionally fast and high-quality text printing in multiple fonts on a page, to the business and home markets. No other commonly available printer during this era could also offer this combination of features.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}