How closely is the laser printer related to the office copier first developed by Chester Carlson?
We were able to use the copier technology by replacing the lens that imaged the copy sheet to the photoconductor with a laser beam scanner that exposed the photoconductor. A laser scanner is just a pointwise method of exposing the photo-conductor. The same toners and developer packages used for copying products could be used with the laser scanner systems we developed. Other folks, like IBM, had to create their own electrophotographic technology specifically for the printer they built. This required a much heavier investment. Didn’t the patent on xerography expire after 17 years? There were a lot of upgrades that came along that kept the patent pretty much in a fresh state. There were new additons and capabilities and features that came along in the xerographic system…you certainly could build a 1959 copier, but who’d want to? Anything else you want to say about the development of the laser printer? It was more fun than anyone had a right to expect. Xerox was very generous in its sup
