Toshiba’s First vs Latest Printer
Charles Babbage, in the 19th century, designed a mechanically driven printer apparatus for his difference engine; however, his printer design was not realised until the year 2000.
The EP-101, made by the Japanese company Epson and released in 1968, was the first digital printer that was small and light. Mechanisms from electric typewriters and Teletype machines were widely used in the earliest commercial printers. New computer-specific systems were developed to meet the demand for speed.
The 1980s saw the rise of daisy wheel systems that were akin to typewriters and line printers that produced similar output but at considerably greater speeds, and dot-matrix systems that could blend text and images but produced very low-quality output. The plotter produced high-quality line art like blueprints.
Dot matrix printers were formerly the most popular type of printer on the market, but they were not the most liked machines, for good reason. Dot matrix printers were notoriously noisy, messy, produced poor quality prints, and frequently jammed.
The pins in a dot matrix printer’s print head press down on an ink ribbon to create individual dots. They also made use of special paper. A tractor feed would move the paper through the printer as the sheets were all attached to one another. It was necessary to remove the tractor feed section of the paper after printing was complete, and then to manually separate the pages.
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Comparing the Oldest and Newest Toshiba Printers:
Toshiba P1351 Dot Matrix
When it came out in 1984, the Toshiba P1351 printer stood out thanks to its novel high-density 24-pin dot-matrix print head. You could produce neat and legible letterheads at 100 characters per second (cps) and speedy draughts at 192 cps using this printer. You can select from a wide range of fonts due to the downloadable options provided by the software.
A Toshiba write-up stated: “The P1351 has more stuff to show. Like 180 x 180 dots-per-inch high-resolution graphics, 132-column-width platen (great for spreadsheets and Lotus 1-2-3 data processing and graphics), Qume SPRINT emulation, and a choice of either a forms tractor or automatic sheet feeder.”
With the new P1340, you paid a lot less but sacrificed some features. While the print head had been upgraded to a higher density 24-pin dot matrix, the graphics quality and emulation remained the same at 180 x 180 dpi with Qume SPRINT 5. However, this model also included an integrated forms tractor and accurate proportional spacing.
Gary Starkweather, working at Xerox’s New York research facility in 1969, created the initial drawings for a laser printer. Starkweather is widely regarded as the inventor of the idea of using a laser to reproduce an image on a photocopier drum in order to print that picture on paper.
IBM introduced the first commercially available laser printer to the world in 1976. Near the end of the 1970s, Canon introduced the world to the desktop laser printer. The Canon LBP-10 was a less expensive choice for specialised enterprises. Office laser printer history began with the Xerox Star 8010. By 1984, both Apple Computer and Hewlett-Packard had introduced laser printers of their own. The LaserWriter was a collaboration between Apple Computer and Lotus Development, and HP debuted their LaserJet series.
Fast forward to 2004 until today
When it comes to electronics, Toshiba is one of Japan’s most established and well-known manufacturers. The company’s roots can be traced back to a merger in 1939 between two pioneering Japanese businesses; one was the country’s first maker of telegraphic equipment, while the other established the country’s first plant to produce incandescent lamps.
Tokyo Shibaura Denki, the new firm’s original name, evolved into Toshiba, an integrated electric equipment maker, in 1978.
In October 2004, Toshiba launched the e-STUDIO 350EB Network-Ready MFP that supports “e-blue” erasable toner technology.
Toshiba’s e-STUDIOTM series of multifunction printers (MFPs) is a gold standard in the industry for both colour and black-and-white output. They range from small, affordable equipment for the home or small office to high-speed, high-capacity printers made for larger offices.
With Toshiba’s hybrid technology, you can print once and reuse the paper over and over again, as it blends traditional printing with erasable printing. All your workflows can be connected, integrated, and simplified with just one device, saving you time and money in the process.
Keypoint Intelligence, a major provider of information and testing data for the document industry, has recognised the e-STUDIO3508LP MFP as a top innovation for 2019.
The e-STUDIO 5015AC series of multifunction printers (MFPs), released by Toshiba, was recognised as the 2019 Innovative Product of the Year by Better Buys. When compared to competing high-volume colour MFPS, the series’ five machines performed exceptionally well and were lauded for its cutting-edge capabilities such as the Elevate™ customisation platform.