Laser Printers - Laser Printing

There's something to be said about the progress of technology and the development of hardware, especially of the computer variety. I remember a score of years ago buying a tractor-fed ribbon printer from Radio Shack to work alongside my TRS-80 Model I computer, and paying over $700 for this behemoth printer that was noisier than most of the power tools in the garage, and shook more than any earthquake I've ever felt. While it slogged away at around 1 page per minute, I was happy that I had a means of printing computer code on to paper so that I could retype it in on another computer...now that's efficiency!

Over the years I've gone through myriads of impact, bubble-print, thermal, laser, inkjet, plotter, keystroke, and other printers, enough to realize and appreciate what they now cost and what they're capable of doing. The printers that you can buy today can printer faster, cheaper, and with higher qualities of print and resolution than anything before, and most with affordable price tags that can put more people into the publishing business, and force more out of it.

Not so many years ago, a colour laser printer would have cost thousands of dollars. But if you were in the business of selling colour copies, or publishing manuals, reports, or other materials that required some vibrancy, you might be able to earn enough money to pay off that expensive colour machine in a reasonable period of time. But today, you can buy colour laser printers for $100, and now everyone expects those reports, essays, and other materials to be done in colour. Myself, I bought a refurbished Minolta printer from a retail outlet for $150, and it has been printing steadily for me for over a year without any problems. While it doesn't have a scanner, photocopier, or fax machine built into it, it does have USB and a network connection so that every computer in the house can access it.

We already know that most new inkjet printers are practically disposable, especially when it can cost more money to replace the ink cartridges than it would be to buy a new printer, and it's getting close to the same picture with laser printers. But still, even the cost of colour ink toner is a fraction of the cost of that first black ribbon printer I owned, and there's less chance of me losing my hearing.