We are the pivotal generation in business, with many of us having been there when Harvard graphics made the presentation a startlingly easy professional capability. With all due respect to history, the introduction and adaptation to these new technologies was a reasonably smooth process. We have mastered every new device from the electric typewriter to the Okidata 5000 printer and Okidata 5000 replacement toner.
We have come a long way from inking up carved wood blocks as a means to mass produce the written word. The movable type introduced mass printing to the world in a big way back in 1450 with the Gutenberg press and the printed King James Bible, which still took over a year to print. Then came the typewriter, which seemed like one device that would be around forever, my how technology changes things.
But the changes took on speed in the 20th century when we saw the invention of printers. The typewriter soon had a new version, a typewriter combined with a screen allowing the typist to review several sentences before sending it to print. This was soon face to face with a word processor, a true revolution. No longer would we have to retype a whole page because we got a case of fat fingers near the end.
As soon as the ability to see the typed words and make alterations before printing became a possibility, it was inevitable that the word processor would be invented. While we have seen numerous iterations of the technology, the fundamental idea has remained the same, but now spelling and grammar checking and thesauruses were added. Always the pursuit of speed and quality drove the improvements in written communications.
The appearance of the impact printer was a major step forward in bringing printing into the office. While the initial models were bulky and noisy and could only use one font which was not terribly different from the typewriter whose ability to change fonts meant changing the typing head. Soon after, the dot matrix printer began to come into its own. The quality was not as crisp initially as the impact printer, but the cost of the machines and its flexibility made up for that inconvenience.
Still, to truly make its mark in the business arena, the printer needed to be able to produce professional documents in the office, and technology was up to the task. The drive for faster and better quality printing generated new ideas and processes for getting our thoughts into writing. The ink jet, bubble jet and laser technologies made the leap to professional in office printing.
The step up from the dot matrix was twofold, dot matrix printers gained more dots, improving print quality. Then came the new ideas; ink jet and laser printing. Both allowed for faster, high quality printing and infinite flexibility. As the prices dropped, they became ubiquitous features of the offices environment.
Once these new methods of printing caught on, there was no turning back. Now anything that could be printed could be printed in the office, no more need for graphics divisions or outsourcing. Even photographic images can be handled in the office or, as the prices and sizes became ever more reasonable in the home, and with devices like the Okidata 5000 printer and Okidata compatible toners, the quality is always professional.
