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A Brief History of Epson Inkjet Printers
Epson has been making quality products for decades and the company has been involved in making computer related products since the early 1960’s. Epson released their first computer printer, referred to as the EP-101, in 1968. Prior to releasing the EP-101 Epson had gained international fame as the company that helped keep time at the 1964 Olympic games and up to that point Epson had a long and successful history as a watch manufacturer.
As with their wristwatch technology, Epson took their computer printer technology very seriously and soon Epson had captured almost 60% of the computer printing market with their line of dot matrix printers. Epson was one of the first companies to introduce colour to dot matrix printing and they continued making printing advances until Epson had developed a way to bring printing technology within everyone’s reach.
In 1993 Epson developed a method of printing referred to as piezoelectric crystal printing which was a printing method that allowed printing to be done without first having to heat the ink. In 1994 Epson used this new technology to create the inkjet printer which was a cost effective printer that the home user could afford. Epson had brought printing home for the public to enjoy and even with this major step in home computing technology Epson was still not done inventing and creating.
In 1998 the Epson Stylus Color 800 color inkjet printer was chosen by NASA to be the printer used for the STS-95 mission. In an environment as critical as a space mission Epson was the manufacturer chosen to provide the method for printing critical documents. Epson went on in 1999 to create the Epson Stylus Color 900 which was the fastest color inkjet printer on the market when it was released. Epson was also one of the first companies to bring all in one printer, scanner, copier, and fax devices to market that could print in color.
Soon after the initial success of their 720 dpi resolution color inkjet printer was released Epson branched out into the computer technology market making scanners and other computer accessories that had features that were well ahead of most of the competition. Epson was one of the first companies to release a single pass colour scanner in 1989 and they continue to make advances in the area of LCD displays.
Epson continues to make advances in printing technology and the company has recently made several technological advances in the area of photograph printing for the home. As Epson continues to develop newer products for the home computing environment, and better printing solutions for business as well, they remain one of the top printer manufacturers in the world.
