The Newest Innovations in Printing Technology - Laser Printers
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The first laser printer was developed in 1969 by Gary Starkweather, who worked for Xerox Corporation. The first laser printers were huge; they were used mainly at large companies that could afford the steep price tags.
It wasn't until 1981 that the first laser printer was packaged with a computer; it was called the Xerox Star 8010. This seemingly “prehistoric” computer/printer combo originally had a price tag of about $17,000! Obviously, it wasn't until laser printers evolved a bit and became cheaper that they became more mainstream to large and small companies, as well as with some consumers who printed in mass quantities.
Laser printers use a sophisticated technology that is similar to what photocopiers use to create copies of documents. Basically, a laser is used to determine the amount and placement of the toner to be placed on the internal drum of the printer. As the paper goes through the machine, the drum distributes the ink to the paper. The process creates a lot of heat, which is why the printed document feels warm immediately after it's printed.
Laser printers are ultra-fast printers. Some of the fastest laser printers can fire out over 300 pages per minute (black/white), while the fastest color printers can do over 100 pages per minute. The IBM Info print 4100 was introduced in 2005, and this laser printer prints about 330 ppm. Speed of printing is one of the advantages of owning a laser printer, as well as the fact that most of them don't require any maintenance until 50,000-100,000 pages have been printed (depending upon the model).
Here's a list of the top five consumer laser printers currently on the market:
Xerox Phaser 8560/N ($700) – This laser printer has a low cost-per-page, and produces excellent quality color images. This printer prints at about 30 pages per minute (ppm).
Lexmark C530dn ($500) – this eco-friendly printer uses low power output, and has a built-in duplexer for printing on both sides of the paper. This printer will print 24 ppm (monochrome).
Samsung ML-3051N ($200) – This excellent, inexpensive monochrome laser printer with networking capabilities prints about 28 ppm.
Oki C5500n ($550) – This great color laser printer works in a network. It will print color prints at a rate of 20 ppm.
Samsung ML-1630 ($200) – This very compact laser printer is inexpensive, relatively fast, creates very good quality prints, looks attractive, and will fit on your desktop. It will print about 16 ppm.
(Source: Computer Shopper)
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