LaserWriter Seeds
4 days ago
- #Computer History
- #Xerox PARC
- #Laser Printing
- Xerox PARC researchers developed an ecosystem for personal computers focused on writing and printing documents.
- Gary Starkweather proved laser printing with an SLOT printer, but printing directly from a computer was challenging due to memory and processing limitations.
- The solution was offloading processing to external hardware, leading to the Research Character Generator (RCG) for handling fonts and printing.
- The EARS system (Ethernet, Alto, RCG, SLOT) unblocked printing bottlenecks and became a precursor to later technologies like Apple's LaserWriter.
- Bravo, a word processing application by Simonyi and Lampson, allowed mixing fonts, styles, and images in documents, advancing document creation.
- Press, a page description language by Sproull and Newman, streamlined printing by describing entire pages in compact files processed externally.
- Xerox commercialized the technology as the 9700 Electronic Printing System, a high-end product that missed the network computing opportunity.
- Key innovations from PARC, such as Bravo and Press, influenced Microsoft Word, Aldus PageMaker, and Adobe PostScript.
- Gary Starkweather attributed Xerox's failures to a lack of imagination rather than knowledge, driving talent away from PARC.