Personal computers changed everything. Before the 1970s, printing happened on massive mainframes in dedicated facilities. When PCs landed in office cubicles and living rooms, they brought a new problem: how do you actually get words onto paper? The answer was a chaotic mix of clanking hardware and slow technological refinement.
Why the golden age of printing started with PC noise
The early days weren’t pretty. Most home and office PCs paired with impact printers, specifically dot-matrix and daisy-wheel models, both introduced in the early 1970s. Dot-matrix printers hammered tiny pins into an ink ribbon to strike the paper. Daisy-wheel printers did the same thing with a rotating wheel of pre-formed metal type. They were loud, mechanical, and slow, but they worked.
Then, in the mid-1980s, two new technologies arrived almost simultaneously and changed the game: consumer inkjet and laser printers.
How inkjet printing finally worked after 100 years of trying
Inkjet sounds simple. It was not. The technology took almost a century to move from theory to a product you could buy.
- 1867: William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) received a patent for a device using electrostatic technology to print telegraph messages via ink droplets on paper tape.
- 1951: Siemens released the first continuous inkjet printer, primarily for coding medical records. This technology still exists today for industrial use.
The real shift for consumers came with drop-on-demand inkjet. Instead of spraying constantly, the printer only fired ink when needed. Canon and Hewlett-Packard developed this independently using heat. The challenge wasn’t just the mechanism; it was the ink. Researchers had to formulate inks that could withstand heat, stick to paper, and dry quickly.
Three major players launched their first consumer models in 1984 and 1985:
- Hewlett-Packard (1984): Released the ThinkJet. It used disposable ink cartridges, moving away from the serial dot-matrix era.
- Epson (1984): Released the SQ-2000 (known as the IP-130K in Japan). This model used piezoelectric technology, not heat, to push ink out of the nozzle.
- Canon (1985): Released the BJ-80, marketed with their “Bubble Jet” technology.
All three were monochrome. They printed in one shade of black.
Why laser printers beat inkjet in the 1980s
If inkjet was the future, laser printers were the present. Their roots trace back to electrophotography (or xerography), invented by Chester Carlson in 1938. Unlike inkjet, which uses liquid, laser printing uses light, static charge, and powdered toner.
The timeline:
* 1959: The Xerox 914 copier used this technology.
* 1975: IBM released the first laser printer, designed for their mainframes.
* 1984: Hewlett-Packard released the LaserJet, bringing the tech to the desktop.
Why did laser win initially? Resolution. Early laser printers produced much sharper text than early inkjets. They sold better because they looked more professional.
Where the other printer types went
While inkjet and laser dominated, other technologies survived in niche markets:
- Thermal Transfer: Uses heating pins to melt a solid, wax-like ink onto paper.
- Dye-Sublimation: Heats ink on a film roll until it turns into a gas, transferring it to another material.
- Direct Thermal: Burns dots onto special heat-sensitive paper. No ink required.
- Dot-Matrix/Daisy-Wheel: Still used in specific industries for printing checks and invoices where durability and cost matter more than aesthetics.
How inkjet took over the market
The tide turned in the mid-1990s. Color inkjet cartridges arrived. The cost dropped. Resolution improved. The ability to print vivid color on cheap paper gave inkjet printers a massive advantage over both laser and the older impact types.
By 2014, Canon, Epson, and Hewlett-Packard still accounted for about 90% of global inkjet sales. They weren’t alone, though. Brother and Samsung entered the space, while Lexmark and Kodak stopped selling printers in 2012.
The dominance of these three giants is a testament to how quickly they solved the 1984 problems. But the question remains: with laser printing getting cheaper and smartphones printing less, does the desktop inkjet printer still have a future? Or is it just another relic we haven’t stopped using yet?
