In 1969, an engineer frustrated by noisy printers created an idea that transformed office printing

Even before there were sleek office printers, printing out documents was often a loud and slow affair. Workplaces were filled with impact printers, which used metal characters to stamp characters onto paper by striking it through an inked ribbon. They were loud, produced low-quality output, and were poorly suited to computer use.

In 1969, a Xerox engineer named Gary Starkweather had an idea about how to do it differently. The idea was simple, but a radical departure from existing printing methods - rather than strike the page, what if a laser could create images and text on it directly from computer data? That concept eventually became the laser printer, one of the defining office technologies of the late 20th century.

A problem hidden in plain sight


By the late 1960s, businesses had become highly dependent on computers, but printing technology had fallen far behind. The vast majority of computer printers in use at that time relied on the same impact-based technology as a typewriter.

As The Engines of Our Ingenuity from the University of Houston reported, Starkweather realised that Xerox's already established photocopying technology could perhaps be adapted to create an output device that produced original pages directly from computer instructions rather than copies. This was a fundamentally different approach to office printing.

Xerox management initially rejected the idea. The same source mentioned that Starkweather's proposal was turned down by management; after all, a copier company would have no reason to be in the business of computer printing.

Yet Starkweather continued refining the idea.

The move that changed everything
The turning point for laser printing occurred when Starkweather moved to the recently formed Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, commonly known as Xerox PARC.

The Computer History Museum indicates that the basic concept for the laser printer was actually developed at Xerox's Webster Research Center prior to the move to PARC, early in the 1970s. In this environment, away from the management resistance, Starkweather was able to successfully develop the technology. His alma mater, Michigan State University, reported that Starkweather joined Xerox PARC in 1970, designing his first functional laser printer in less than 9 months. This first laser printer prototype was capable of printing at two pages per second - a remarkably fast rate of output for the period.

Speed was not a trivial consideration. Any new office technology had to serve a practical business purpose beyond being a merely clever demonstration of engineering. A device that could turn out a stack of crisp, clear documents quickly had obvious commercial potential.

Why was the laser printer revolutionary?
The genius of the laser printer wasn't merely in its use of a laser beam, however. The real revolution was its ability to turn electronic information into a fully realised printed page. A focused laser beam and optical components create images on a photoconductive drum in a laser printer. A subsequent transfer of toner to paper renders a far more detailed and consistent page than impact printing.

Starkweather had recognised that he could leverage the fundamental technology of Xerox xerography (used in photocopiers) not to duplicate an existing page, but to "draw" an entirely new page based on information fed to the machine by a computer. According to the Computer History Museum, this insight became the basis of one of the earliest laser printers developed at Xerox.

This technology would have massive implications for businesses, allowing many businesses to produce high-quality documents directly from computer-generated data. Reports, letters, invoices, and presentations could be generated on demand and easily distributed.

From lab to office
The first commercially available laser printers bore little resemblance to the small, sleek desktop units that are common today.

The early commercial laser printers developed by Xerox were large and expensive systems aimed squarely at high-volume business printing applications. Among the first of these was the Xerox 9700, introduced in the 1970s. High-speed laser printers such as the 9700 demonstrated the commercial potential of the technology and were used for large-volume business printing.

Reportedly, the Xerox 9700 could print two pages per second and was used to replace slow, previously necessary line printers when statements, invoices, and other business reports needed to be produced. As computers became more commonplace in the workplace through the 1980s, laser printing technology became more accessible. Companies like Xerox, IBM, Canon, Apple and Hewlett-Packard worked to develop more cost-effective models that fit into typical office environments.

The quiet revolution that transformed the office
In hindsight, the invention of the laser printer impacted more than just printing. Michigan State University states that Starkweather's invention ultimately redefined both commercial printing and modern office work, making high-quality, digitally generated documents feasible for businesses operating at scale.

Today, the ease with which a computer-generated page can appear as a perfect printout on paper is completely commonplace, a feat that once would have seemed miraculous. However, the expectation that computer-generated documents can quickly be converted into high-quality printed pages owes much to Starkweather's invention.

What started as a simple frustration with noisy office machines would eventually evolve into a technology that closed the gap between the digital information world and the physical world of the printed page. Over half a century later, this concept still underpins a vast share of the pages printed worldwide today.