While laser and inkjet printers are increasingly popular, older technology still has value in daily life. Dot matrix printers are similar to manual typewriters, with a history dating back over 100 ...

Before the 1980s, laser printers were expensive, high-volume units. At that time, dot matrix printers commanded the early PC desktop market for homes and businesses. Compact laser printers, introduced ...

Impact printers, whether they use dot-matrix technology that uses small pins or daisy-wheel technology that uses a wheel with pre-formed characters like a typewriter, all work by having an element ...

In an excerpt from his book The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age, [Thomas Mullaney] explains how 1980s computer tech — at least the stuff that was developed in the West — was ...