KAL

Printers and Phototypesetters

The first laser printers were:

developed in the mid-70's

text-oriented

cost more than $50,000!

Since then, performance has increased and the price has plummeted.

There are 2 main components:

The Print Engine which determines the dot resolution, page speed, paper handling etc.
The Controller which uses a command sequence to control the Print Engine

Fonts can be:

user-defined or downloaded

embedded in the Controller

Early laser printers stored 1 line at a time; modern ones may be more intelligent than the host computer!

Fonts can be stored as:

Bitmaps (like drawing their parts on graph paper). These are easier to edit, but take up LARGE amounts of space.

mathematically defined outlines which take less space, but more time to print. They are easier to change.

Send questions and comments to: Karen Lemone