The Chinese began the printing experience using blocks of words with ideographs carved into them and using primitive types of ink to promulgate the images. When the movable print was introduced around 1450, it provided a reasonably priced way to mass produce the written word. With the combination of word processing software and printers the progress made in business was quite significant.

The typewriter made the setting of print unnecessary and introduced the gentle yet cacophonous clicking of the typewriter to businesses everywhere. As fast as typists became, however, the desire to get things in print faster was ever present. Technology to the rescue; the typewriter merged with a new device, the computer, and we found a new ability, we could peruse a paragraph or more on a screen and make corrections before hitting the print button.

The word processor gave us the ability to completely perfect our document before printing them, thereby conserving paper and ink. At the same time, the word processor drove the desire for greater speeds and qualities in printing. The early impact printers provided clear typeset but had three major flaws, they only had one font, were exceedingly noisy and were slow.

But the digital era created consumers always impatient for better and faster devices and the printer world was no exception. Following the impact printer came the dot matrix printers which added font flexibility and some speed to the process of printing and considerably reduced the noise associated with the process. There were still concerns, however, as the dot matrix printers left much to be desired in the quality of print area.

Impact printers delivered the kind of speed business paperwork desired, but it was limited in font and some were hazardously noisy. The next printing phase showed us the dot matrix printer, providing greater font flexibility and speed and eliminating the noise. Unfortunately, most early dot matrix printers lacked print quality and had difficulty with paper handling functions.

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.

With continuing advances, anything that could be captured digitally, from the written word in any size and font to drawings and pictures could be printed out with ease and rapidity. Advances were now focused on two sided printing, special paper accommodation for photographs, and printing in bulk. The idea of sending out documents for printing externally is nearly over. With devices as progressive as the Okidata 5000 printer and Okidata printer toner, the future of documents is certainly bright.