Xerox Celebrates the Innovation of Laser Printers

Xerox is celebrating the launch of its first commercial laser printer Xerox 9700 that has revolutionized the digital printing industry.

According to Xerox, Xerox 9700 was released in 1969 and has generated more than $120 billion in global annual revenues and $1 billion in annual revenues today. Also, the 9700 transformed office printing with the generation of laser printers and multifunction devices using the technology.

“The laser printer is arguably the greatest invention made in a Xerox research center,” Steve Hoover, chief technology officer, Xerox Corporation, commented, “The 9700 was the first in a long line of iconic products that were made possible by Gary Starkweather’s invention, including DocuTech and today’s iGen family.”

Forty years ago, Xerox engineer Gary Starkwearher improved the speed of an early fax machine, leading to an invention of laser printing. This technology improvement changed the way people and business communicate around the world and paved the way for variable information printing by personalizing each document in a production run.

Jeff Hayes, managing director of KeyPoint Intelligence, said, “The Xerox 9700 helped usher in the wave of computer-driven automation in the 1970s that transformed offices, data centers, copy departments, and ultimately, the printing industry around the world. Much of how we communicate in hard copy today can be traced back to this remarkable product.”

Although the 9700 was retired on the last day of 1997, ending 20 years of market leadership, many of 9700’s advanced capabilities are still relevant today, including automatic two-sided printing, cut-sheet paper and etc.