Technological Last changes : 2009/11/03 16:43
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I believe this is the pattern: A new printing technology is first developed with the largest (easiest) markets (or most obvious applications) in mind. In the printing industry this generally means small size output (text output: listings, office documents, forms, a.s.o.). There is a need for the technology in "other applications"; users (and let's not forget the system suppliers!) may even apply the technology with limitations in its available form The industry adapts the technology to the needs for the "other applications" and develops dedicated products. It's not a law, but more or less what seems to happen in the history of printing. I'll illustrate it as follows: Electrostatic technology was developed at Varian. It uses special "dielectric" paper, liquid toner and paper-wide printing heads with thousands of electrodes (nibs) in a line. The special paper is charged as it passes the line of electrodes. Toner is then applied to the charged paper, creating the output. First application that the developers had in mind was faster text printing. The first product was an 11" wide printer. Some developers saw the shortcomings of the available output devices for CAD (penplotters) and found that the technology would lend itself for faster large size printing (plotting) in engineering. Benson and Versatec started making plotters with this technology. Initially these plotters were monochrome. New applications (electronics, seismic) required color. Versatec developed a multipass color electrostatic plotter. New applications (CAD in smaller offices, a.o. in architecture) required color, but the price of color electrostatic was way too high - for quite some time creators of graphic computer output had to live with the limitations of pen plotting, or small size prints from desktop printers. Direct thermal technology was developed as a relatively cheap and simple way of raster printing, with the advantage of industrially manufactured solid state printing heads (as opposed to the heads in electrostatic plotters which were handmade), but the disadvantage of poor durability of specially coated paper. The technology was mainly used in fax machines and small or very small printers (e.g. for calculators). Some Japanese developers saw a market for wide (engineering/ presentation) fax application and combined a couple of narrow printing heads to form a wide head (not very successful products, by the way, for reasons that are less relevant in this context). Other inventive Japanese then saw an application for large size plotting. Existing plotter manufacturers adopted the technology to produce cheaper alternatives for their electrostatic products. Unfortunately the technology is monochrome only. When these products were mature, other applications that were completely different from engineering office applications emerged: use for large size proofprinting for a.o. newspapers; all that was needed for this application was a proper RIP and new sales channels. By the way, direct thermal printing for large size output had an interesting short life cycle... it came up rapidly around 1990 and five years later it was almost obsolete. In a sense it helped to kill electrostatic products and paved the way for inkjet and electrophotographic products Thermal transfer (say "indirect thermal") uses a heated ribbon to produce prints on a wide variety of materials. The technology had been around since the early 80's for small size high quality printing in saturated colors, a.o. for company presentation purposes. Matan (Israel) introduced the first 36"-wide color thermal transfer printer in 1996. It was targeted at the screen- and sign-printing industries as a relatively high speed production printer for producing indoor and outdoor prints; with high fixed costs (machines well over 150.000$) and high variable costs for the media (the ribbons in particular), this technology produces expensive prints which can only be justified for certain niche markets. The technology is still in use. For a more in-depth description of the technology see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_transfer_printer Inkjet technology was developed at a.o. HP/Canon. First products were (relatively) low cost desktop printers for desktop applications. Some developers saw the shortcomings of the older existing technologies for wide format printing: pen plotters being unreliable and slow, offering limited colors and limited possibilities for solid filled areas; electrostatic plotters expensive, price-wise not compatible with low cost CAD workstations and small offices; direct thermal printing monochrome only on not durable, relatively expensive paper. Large size inkjets were brought to the market (Encad, HP, others later). Initially monochrome, but soon followed by color. Beautiful colors even. So existing users and new users saw new applications in presentation graphics. Initially only for indoor use, due to limitations of ink and media. Electrostatic color plotters got a (temporary) revival as printing devices for outdoor use, offering higher speed and better durability. Success in this outdoor presentation application led to development of new inkjet printheads and use of other inks and media and... new vendors - some completely new, some from the graphics industry. Electrophotographic technology was developed by a.o. Xerox. First products were analog copiers. Laserprinters for small print sizes (up to B/A3) followed later. The technology is now also successfully applied for color in small print sizes; products range from desktop color laser printers to high volume "digital presses". The wide format engineering drawings application (need) also existed ("give me a device that is faster than electrostatic, offers better quality, uses cheap plain paper, cheap toner, less environmental issues, ..."), but it took quite some time before the technology was ready for this application. Several products (Oce, KIP, Xerox, Ricoh) have their place in the market now (especially in environments with higher speed, higher print volumes) but there is one disadvantage: they are monochrome only (well... at least one product with one additional "spot" color). There are definitely wide format color applications for higher speed/higher volume, lower price per print. So the question is what will happen in these large size applications (Afaik most developers bet on faster inkjet technologies, but KIP has recently ('07) announced a full color A0-size (LED/laser-) electrophotographic plotter). Back to the History of Plotting
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Technological

Last changes : 2009/11/03 16:43

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I believe this is the pattern:

A new printing technology is first developed with the largest (easiest) markets (or most obvious applications) in mind. In the printing industry this generally means small size output (text output: listings, office documents, forms, a.s.o.).
There is a need for the technology in "other applications"; users (and let's not forget the system suppliers!) may even apply the technology with limitations in its available form
The industry adapts the technology to the needs for the "other applications" and develops dedicated products.

It's not a law, but more or less what seems to happen in the history of printing. I'll illustrate it as follows:

Electrostatic technology was developed at Varian. It uses special "dielectric" paper, liquid toner and paper-wide printing heads with thousands of electrodes (nibs) in a line. The special paper is charged as it passes the line of electrodes. Toner is then applied to the charged paper, creating the output. First application that the developers had in mind was faster text printing. The first product was an 11" wide printer. Some developers saw the shortcomings of the available output devices for CAD (penplotters) and found that the technology would lend itself for faster large size printing (plotting) in engineering. Benson and Versatec started making plotters with this technology. Initially these plotters were monochrome. New applications (electronics, seismic) required color. Versatec developed a multipass color electrostatic plotter. New applications (CAD in smaller offices, a.o. in architecture) required color, but the price of color electrostatic was way too high - for quite some time creators of graphic computer output had to live with the limitations of pen plotting, or small size prints from desktop printers.

Direct thermal technology was developed as a relatively cheap and simple way of raster printing, with the advantage of industrially manufactured solid state printing heads (as opposed to the heads in electrostatic plotters which were handmade), but the disadvantage of poor durability of specially coated paper. The technology was mainly used in fax machines and small or very small printers (e.g. for calculators). Some Japanese developers saw a market for wide (engineering/ presentation) fax application and combined a couple of narrow printing heads to form a wide head (not very successful products, by the way, for reasons that are less relevant in this context). Other inventive Japanese then saw an application for large size plotting. Existing plotter manufacturers adopted the technology to produce cheaper alternatives for their electrostatic products. Unfortunately the technology is monochrome only. When these products were mature, other applications that were completely different from engineering office applications emerged: use for large size proofprinting for a.o. newspapers; all that was needed for this application was a proper RIP and new sales channels.

By the way, direct thermal printing for large size output had an interesting short life cycle... it came up rapidly around 1990 and five years later it was almost obsolete. In a sense it helped to kill electrostatic products and paved the way for inkjet and electrophotographic products

Thermal transfer (say "indirect thermal") uses a heated ribbon to produce prints on a wide variety of materials. The technology had been around since the early 80's for small size high quality printing in saturated colors, a.o. for company presentation purposes. Matan (Israel) introduced the first 36"-wide color thermal transfer printer in 1996. It was targeted at the screen- and sign-printing industries as a relatively high speed production printer for producing indoor and outdoor prints; with high fixed costs (machines well over 150.000$) and high variable costs for the media (the ribbons in particular), this technology produces expensive prints which can only be justified for certain niche markets. The technology is still in use. For a more in-depth description of the technology see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_transfer_printer

Inkjet technology was developed at a.o. HP/Canon. First products were (relatively) low cost desktop printers for desktop applications. Some developers saw the shortcomings of the older existing technologies for wide format printing: pen plotters being unreliable and slow, offering limited colors and limited possibilities for solid filled areas; electrostatic plotters expensive, price-wise not compatible with low cost CAD workstations and small offices; direct thermal printing monochrome only on not durable, relatively expensive paper. Large size inkjets were brought to the market (Encad, HP, others later). Initially monochrome, but soon followed by color. Beautiful colors even. So existing users and new users saw new applications in presentation graphics. Initially only for indoor use, due to limitations of ink and media. Electrostatic color plotters got a (temporary) revival as printing devices for outdoor use, offering higher speed and better durability. Success in this outdoor presentation application led to development of new inkjet printheads and use of other inks and media and... new vendors - some completely new, some from the graphics industry.

Electrophotographic technology was developed by a.o. Xerox. First products were analog copiers. Laserprinters for small print sizes (up to B/A3) followed later. The technology is now also successfully applied for color in small print sizes; products range from desktop color laser printers to high volume "digital presses". The wide format engineering drawings application (need) also existed ("give me a device that is faster than electrostatic, offers better quality, uses cheap plain paper, cheap toner, less environmental issues, ..."), but it took quite some time before the technology was ready for this application. Several products (Oce, KIP, Xerox, Ricoh) have their place in the market now (especially in environments with higher speed, higher print volumes) but there is one disadvantage: they are monochrome only (well... at least one product with one additional "spot" color). There are definitely wide format color applications for higher speed/higher volume, lower price per print. So the question is what will happen in these large size applications (Afaik most developers bet on faster inkjet technologies, but KIP has recently ('07) announced a full color A0-size (LED/laser-) electrophotographic plotter).

Back to the History of Plotting

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