File -> Print

No one breakthrough has allowed for such a diverse array of physical creations in the way that printers have. Printers, like the previously discussed displays, are generally peripheral devices that create physical manifestations of computer information and data (1). However, they have a history deeper than the simple nature of taking a screen and putting it on paper would suggest

The Past

A replica difference engine (10)
While it can be argued that the history of the printer lies in the typewriter, for this blog's purpose we look to Charles Babbage's design for the difference engine as the first direct ancestor of today's HP DeskJet. While the design of this device laid the groundwork for much of what we consider modern computers, it was the first device to output a physical product on paper (2). Since then the technology has rapidly advanced; the first electronic printer debuted in 1968 (3), and household versions came soon after.

The Present

A typical inkjet printer (9)

Today we can find printers with double-digit prices in many households. Most household devices rely on inkjet technology; this type of printer sprays ink onto paper to create images, text, and other output (4). Another common type of printer is the laser jet, which shoots a concentrated light beam at a "toner" tube that imprints powdered ink on the paper based on the strength and wavelength of the laser produced (5). A niche type of printer is the plotter (6); these are similar to what is used in seismographs and are often portrayed in movies.

The Future
Haley Dawson, 7 (8)
The future of printing can be summed up in two characters: 3D. 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, does what might be expected: output of three-dimensional objects (7). It is difficult to classify the immense potential of this technology. Usually, when one says another can "make anything they can imagine," they are raising the hopes of gullible toddlers or equally gullible freshmen in college. However, this sentiment is not an exaggeration for 3D printers, and it has already begun to manifest itself. Primitive home 3D printers have spread into some adventurous homes and can be found online; a seven-year-old girl threw the first pitch out at a World Series game last week with a 3D printed arm (8). Printers have come a long way in the past 150 years, and the rise of 3D printing seems to obscure the end of that road for quite some time.

(1) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/printer
(2) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/710950.stm
(3) https://news.dphotographer.co.uk/news/40-years-since-epsons-first-electronic-printer…/
(4) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ink-jet
(5) https://computer.howstuffworks.com/difference-between-ink-and-toner.htm
(6) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plotter?utm_campaign=sd&utm_medium=serp&utm_source=jsonld
(7) https://www.theengineer.co.uk/issues/24-may-2010/the-rise-of-additive-manufacturing/
(8) https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/28/a-seven-year-old-baseball-fan-with-a-3d-printed-hand-is-throwing-out-the-first-pitch-of-world-series-game-4/
(9) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Epson-inkjet-printer.jpg
(10) http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 1, 2017 at 7:27 AM

    I'm all for 3D printing. I've had the chance to work with some in my time, but they are very costly, and like most printers it's not the initial purchase that kills you, its replacing the cartridges. I complain about buying powder from my Inkjet; I can't imagine how I would feel buying huge things or plastic or whatever material I wanted to use. Also, I think it's good to notice how most of the world is getting away from actual paper printing. Most of everything I look at is digital at this point, so my question for you is: is traditional paper printing completely out and being replaced by digital and 3D?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Entry Number 5 - Output Devices with Input, Too! I/O and the Fusion of Information

Image
Output devices have been the focus of this blog series thus far, with one small exception. However, output devices have become fused with their input counterparts as time as gone on, to create I/O (Input/Output) devices that fuse those two ideas into one piece of hardware. They emerged as a niche idea; however, they have become much more useful as the 21st century has gone on. Let's take a look at a few of those types of devices. (5) Disk Drives A staple of the I/O world on the decline is the disk drive. Designed originally to read and write compact disks (or CDs), the disk drive has evolved to interact with all things round. The first CD drive was reportedly popularized by Hewlett Packard in 1995, and the device became widely popular for being inexpensive and ideally sized to house musical albums, among other things (1). However, as data, programs, and computers in general have become more complex, the limited storage space of CDs left it behind a field of more efficie
Read more

From CRT to OLED: A History of Displays (and a Lot of Acronyms)

Image
Displays are the primary output device that most consumers tend to interact with, and therefore tend to have the most attention of the average consumer. A display is defined as " an output device that visually conveys text, graphics, and video information." 1 For most intents and purposes, displays are screens. However, they weren't always the razor-thin panels that today's laptops, TVs, and smartphones have, and they won't always be, either. The Past: CRT While rudimentary display technology existed before the cathode ray tube (CRT) screen, no other display technology advanced the field nearly so much as the CRT did. While the roots of the CRT were planted in the mid-1800s, they came into their prime when the television was invented and became widely available, and progressed into a computer peripheral in the early days of the personal computer. According to ThoughtCo, "a cathode ray tube is a specialized vacuum tube in which images are produced when an
Read more

Wall-E But Worse? Virtual Reality and How We Might All Become Zombies

Image
A mildly unrealistic view of what happens to you in VR. (6) Picture this: humans of the future, living in an ideal world without conflict or reason for fear, perhaps with superhuman abilities or infinite lives. This future may be possible far sooner than you might imagine, and it's all thanks to one technology: virtual reality. Virtual reality, or VR, is defined by Merriam-Webster as, " an artificial environment which is experienced through sensory stimuli (such as sights and sounds) provided by a computer and in which one's actions partially determine what happens in the environment" (1). The big plastic boxes attached to people's heads have not always been the case, however. Let's take a look at where VR came from. The Past Okay, so that may have been a lie. In fact, plastic boxes mounted to the face have pretty much been the standard for VR since the beginning. While the exact origin of VR is disputed, an early ancestor of the technology was the &
Read more