| year/month |
Timeline |
| 1953 |
【World】Remington Rand developed a high-speed printer for the UNIVAC
|
| 1954/10 |
Fujitsu completed the Japan's first practical automatic printer for the FACOM 100 relay computer (printed 60 columns simultaneously).
|
| 1958 |
Shinko MechatroTech commercials Japan’s first SC-4 kanji-character teleprinter
|
| 1959/06 |
Oki Electric exhibited a belt printer utilizing the world’s first flying belt at Automath 59.
|
| 1959 |
【World】IBM announced the IBM 1403 line printer, which printed 600 lines per minute with 132 columns per line
|
| 1960/08 |
Fujitsu completed the FACOM 521 high-speed printer, the first commercial printer using a type drum (prints 500 lines/min when using 50-character set).
|
| 1960 |
Oki Electric Industry: Commercializes OKITYPER-2000, and electric typewriter with a paper tape reader and perforation function
|
| 1961/05 |
Oki Electric completed the OKITAC-5093 commercial high-speed printer utilizing a flying belt.
|
| 1961 |
Hitachi completed the H-136 line printer for the HITAC103.
|
| 1961 |
Hitachi completed the H-138/139 line printer for the HITAC201.
|
| 1963 |
Hitachi completed the H-333/335 line printer for the HITAC4010/5020.
|
| 1964/07 |
NEC completed the N422 high-speed form printer that prints 900 lines/min.
|
| 1965/05 |
NEC announced the N206A-1, N222-4, and N122A-1 form printers for use with the NEAC Series 2200.
|
| 1965 |
Hitachi announced the 8245/8246 line printers for the HITAC8000 Series.
|
| 1966/03 |
Fujitsu completed the FACOM 642 line printer, which used a type drum and flag bit control to achieve high-speed printing. (1, 500 lines/min when using 16-character set).
|
| 1966 |
Oki Electric Industry: Commercializes the compact and low-priced belt type 2400B line printer
|
| 1968 |
Oki Electric Industry: Develops Oki’s first dot wire printer using a dot-based printing method
|
| 1969 |
【World】Gary Starkweather at Xerox PARC developed the world’s first laser printer
|
| 1971/11 |
Fujitsu completed the FACOM 647 high-performance line printer, which used the company’s first “Form Stacker” form post-processing mechanism. (1, 890 lines/min when using 16-character set).
|
| 1972/07 |
Oki Electric completed the OKI ELECTRO PRINTER non-impact ultra high-speed line printer that prints 8, 000 lines/min.
|
| 1973 |
Hitachi completed the A241 line printer for the HITAC 8000 Series.
|
| 1974 |
NTT completed a high-speed line printer that prints 1000 lines/min (with 126-character set)
|
| 1975/03 |
Fujitsu completed the FACOM 651 line printer, the company’s fastest line printer of type drum type (prints 2, 400 lines/min when using 16-character set).
|
| 1975/06 |
NEC announced the NB-3000 serial printer, which has a badminton feather shaped head.
|
| 1975 |
Hitachi announced the 8276 and 8277 line printers for the HITAC M Series.
|
| 1976/03 |
Fujitsu completed the FACOM 650 line printer that used Japan’s first horizontally moving train cartridge to achieve high-speed, high-quality printing (prints 2, 000 lines/min when using 48–character set).
|
| 1976 |
【World】IBM developed the IBM 3800, the world’s first commercial laser printer
|
| 1976 |
Hitachi completed the H-8141 and H-8142 to create the world’s first 4-model series using the same technology.
|
| 1977/07 |
NEC announced the N7370 laser beam exposure kanji printer and the N7380 high-speed page printer that prints 21, 000 lines/min.
|
| 1977/09 |
Fujitsu completed the FACOM 655 low-speed line printer for small size computers that used a newly developed type belt and a printing magnet (prints 340 lines/min when using 62–character set).
|
| 1977/09 |
Oki Electric completed the DP-100, the company’s first dot line printer.
|
| 1977 |
Hitachi began shipping the H-8191, H-8195, and H-8171, the company’s first laser printers.
|
| 1978 |
NTT completed a high-speed line printer with the world’s fastest speed of 1, 500 lines/min.
|
| 1978 |
Hitachi began shipping the H-8192 and H-8196-20, which used a uniquely developed printer mechanism to achieve a printing speed of 7, 000 lines/min.
|
| 1979/02 |
NEC announced the N7344 and N7345 small line printers that used a type band.
|
| 1979 |
Hitachi announced the HT-5347/5344 dot printer and the HT-5641 page printer for the T-560/20.
|
| 1979 |
NTT completed a high-speed kanji printer that produced world-class performance with a printing speed of 15, 000 lines/min.
|
| 1980/03 |
Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6715D Japanese language line printer employing the company’s first dry electronic photographic method using laser writing (prints 2, 000 lines/min at 6 LPI).
|
| 1980/04 |
NEC completed the KLP60C, Japan’s first impact kanji line printer for use with small systems.
|
| 1980/08 |
NEC announced the N7384 Japanese language page printer for ACOS midsize computers.
|
| 1981/05 |
Oki Electric completed the DP-1000 kanji dot printer using the company’s first multi-head system.
|
| 1981 |
【World】Xerox began selling a laser printer for the Star workstation
|
| 1981 |
Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6982A wire dot impact printer equipped with multiple heads to achieve a printing speed of 150 lines/min.
|
| 1981 |
Mitsubishi Electric announced the M8310, the company’s first online kanji printer.
|
| 1982 |
Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6657A office printer that uses semiconductor laser writing to achieve high-quality printing.
|
| 1983/02 |
Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6700D ultra high-speed Japanese language line printer employing the dry electronic photographic method using laser writing (prints 10, 600 lines/min at 6 LPI).
|
| 1983/07 |
NEC announced the PC-PR201 small, low-cost printer for personal computers.
|
| 1984 |
Hitachi announced the H-8174 Xerographic paper printer, which includes a uniquely developed mechanism.
|
| 1985/09 |
Mitsubishi Electric announced the M8340 high-speed, multi-function kanji printer that uses an LED array.
|
| 1985 |
Hitachi announced the HT-4373/4374 dot printers for the 2020.
|
| 1985 |
Hitachi announced the HT-4371/4377 dot printers and HT-4555 page printer for the 2050.
|
| 1987/01 |
NEC announced the N7385-21 page printer, the first printer in the world that can simultaneously print two colors.
|
| 1987/02 |
NEC announced the NM-5020 Japanese language dot serial printer, which uses a piezo type printing head.
|
| 1987 |
Hitachi announced the H-6274/6273 kanji printer for the S-820.
|
| 1990/03 |
Fujitsu completed the F6722D Xerographic paper Japanese language line printer employing the dry electronic photographic method using light emitting diode array writing to achieve a high printing speed of a maximum of 125 pages/min.
|
| 1990 |
Hitachi began shipping the H-6286, the world’s fastest double-sided Xerographic paper printer.
|
| 1991/04 |
Oki Electric announced the ET-5320SII compact, 24-pin horizontal kanji printer
|
| 1991/05 |
Fujitsu announced the F6774D cut-sheet page printer with high resolution for the new JEF/AP system and outline fonts
|
| 1991/11 |
NEC announced the PC-PR4000/4 and other Japanese page printers that aimed to improve the print quality of paper publications
|
| 1992/01 |
Hitachi announced the H-6284 cut-sheet page printer that packed high performance (60 ppm) in a compact form
|
| 1992/02 |
NEC announced the PC-PR101/T165 and other thermal-transfer printers that used multiline print heads
|
| 1992/02 |
Fujitsu announced the F6671A and F6677C distributed printers for printing central-office data at branch offices
|
| 1992/02 |
Fujitsu announced the F6765N continuous-form printer (2,500 lpm) that supported JEF/AP
|
| 1992/08 |
Oki Electric announced the ML520 and the ML590 that were the first printers to include a wire motion detector and AutoGap
|
| 1992/09 |
Mitsubishi Electric designed the M8350 kanji printer with outline fonts and network connectivity and featuring fast print speeds, multiple functions, and high print quality
|
| 1992/10 |
Oki Electric announced the multifunctional DOC-IT 3000 and 4000 printers
|
| 1993/10 |
NEC announced the PC-PR101/TN103A and one other model that were lightweight notebook-sized Japanese color thermal-transfer printers
|
| 1993/11 |
Hitachi announced the H-6281 high-performance cut-sheet page printer intended for small volumes with a print speed of 20 ppm
|
| 1994/07 |
Oki Data announced the ML803PSII printer capable of printing A3 crop marks on A3 extended paper
|
| 1994 |
Mitsubishi Electric designed the M8720 online kanji printer that used an LED array and achieved a print speed of 5,200 lpm at 6 lpi
|
| 1995/04 |
Fujitsu announced the F6735D high-speed (800 lpm) dot line printer capable of duplicating forms and delivery slips
|
| 1996/03 |
Hitachi announced the 40 ppm H-6283 cut-sheet page printer with flexible form layouts (preinstalled with B&W types and two-color types)
|
| 1996/05 |
NEC announced a line of network multifunctionals, including the MULTINA i2000, that combined a number of office device functions − fax machine, printer, and copier − and permitted easy transmission and editing of information from a computer
|
| 1996/06 |
Oki Data announced the Windows-compatible ultra-compact OP4w/ML4w printer
|
| 1996/07 |
Oki Data announced the ML320 Turbo that offered faster printing than the ML300 series
|
| 1997/04 |
Fujitsu announced the F6708B high-speed (50 ppm) seven-color cut-sheet printer
|
| 1997/07 |
Hitachi announced the H-6257 continuous-form page printer with a speed of 22,080 lpm
|
| 1997/10 |
Oki Data announced the ML8580S serial impact printer with the worldﾕs fastest speed in its class of 230 Japanese characters per second
|
| 1997/12 |
NEC announced three printers, including the MultiImpact 201MX, that were the first Japanese dot impact printers with USB support
|
| 1998/05 |
Oki Data announced the ML905PSII printer with a 1,200 dpi LED head for very high resolutions
|
| 1998/09 |
NEC announced the PICTY 700 and other A4 color inkjet printers that could print as many as 5 color pages per minute
|
| 1998/10 |
NEC announced two laser network printers, including the MultiWriter 6050, that achieved very fast printing using a configuration of multiple print controllers
|
| 1999/03 |
Hitachi announced the H-6255 7,680 lpm printer with the flexibility for many different applications
|
| 2000/03 |
Mitsubishi Electric designed the high-speed M8740 multifunctional online kanji printer with a 480 dpi resolution and outline fonts
|
| 2000/06 |
Hitachi announced the space-saving H-6254 printer with a 3,400 lpm speed
|
| 2000/10 |
NEC announced three color inkjet printers, including the PICTY 960, with Bluetooth support
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