The HP Deskjet of 1988 offered the same advantages as a laser printer in terms of flexibility, but produced somewhat lower-quality output (depending on the paper) from much less-expensive mechanisms. By 1990, most simple printing tasks like fliers and brochures were now created on personal computers and then laser printed expensive offset printing systems were being dumped as scrap. Laser printers using PostScript mixed text and graphics, like dot-matrix printers, but at quality levels formerly available only from commercial typesetting systems. The introduction of the low-cost laser printer in 1984, with the first HP LaserJet, and the addition of PostScript in next year's Apple LaserWriter set off a revolution in printing known as desktop publishing. The plotter was used for those requiring high-quality line art like blueprints. In the 1980s there were daisy wheel systems similar to typewriters, line printers that produced similar output but at much higher speed, and dot-matrix systems that could mix text and graphics but produced relatively low-quality output.

The demand for higher speed led to the development of new systems specifically for computer use. The first commercial printers generally used mechanisms from electric typewriters and Teletype machines. The first compact, lightweight digital printer was the EP-101, invented by Japanese company Epson and released in 1968, according to Epson. This patent (US3060429) led to the Teletype Inktronic Printer product delivered to customers in late 1966. The ink was a red stamp-pad ink manufactured by Phillips Process Company of Rochester, NY under the name Clear Print. Winston, Teletype Corporation, using continuous inkjet printing. The first patented printing mechanism for applying a marking medium to a recording medium, or more particularly an electrostatic inking apparatus and a method for electrostatically depositing ink on controlled areas of a receiving medium, was in 1962 by C. The first computer printer designed was a mechanically driven apparatus by Charles Babbage for his difference engine in the 19th century however, his mechanical printer design was not built until 2000.

4.5 Monochrome, colour and photo printers.

3.2.2 Liquid ink electrostatic printers.

3.2.1.2 Teletypewriter-derived printers.

3.2 Obsolete and special-purpose printing technologies.

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