Setting the scene

Abstract

Never since its invention by the Chinese in ad 1041 and its introduction to the Western world in ad 1450 by Gutenburg has printing experienced such a turbulent time as it has over the last decade. For many centuries the fundamental printing processes remained essentially unchanged: advances came about by the application of improved technology to the processes. This mature calm has been shattered in the last decade or so! Novel printing and imaging technologies have burst on to the scene; these are fundamentally different to the old, mature technologies. Some are so good in terms of performance and cost that they are displacing, indeed obliterating, some established printing and imaging technologies. Electro- photography, the technology which embraces photocopiers and laser printers, and ink jet printing, fall into this category. Photocopying is the undisputed technology for the reproduction of documents, especially black-and-white documents, in the office. Laser printers, together with the more recent ink jet printers, are now the standard printers for the office and home, having displaced the once dominant impact printers such as typewriters, daisywheel and dot matrix. It was estimated that in 1994 there were a total of c. 55 million photocopiers/laser printers (c. 40 million photocopiers and 15 million laser printers) and c. 16 million ink jet printers worldwide. Ten years earlier, there were virtually no ink jet printers or laser printers! Indeed, in a comprehensive review of printing processes in 1982 (Bruno, 1982), out of the 53-page article only two paragraphs were devoted to laser printing and ink jet printing!