![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.tonercity.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/blog2-300x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all heard about laser printers, but how many of us have any idea how they work? Sure, the name lets you in on the fact that lasers are involved, to most that sounds kind of space age though.<\/span><\/p>\n In this article we\u2019re going to take some of the mystery out of how laser printers work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n You might be surprised to hear that the first laser printers were actually just modified photocopiers. The actual process of dry printing was developed by an American physicist and inventor, Chester Carlson. He successfully patented the idea in 1942, setting the foundation for laser printing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After years of looking for a larger manufacturer to express interest in the technology, Carlson managed to negotiate a commercial rights deal with the Haloid Company. That company that would later rebrand to Xerox.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There is quite a bit going on every time you print out a document. But the broad strokes of it can be set out simply enough.<\/span><\/p>\n When you click print, you\u2019re sending millions of bytes of data to your laser printer. These ones and zeros are read by a smaller computer inside the printer. When it\u2019s ready, the little computer switches on something called a corona wire, a high-voltage wire that gives everything nearby a static charge. This static electrical charge is the core principle at work throughout the whole printer.<\/span><\/p>\n Something called a photoreceptor drum, an object that looks like a smooth metal rolling pin, takes on a positive charge evenly across its whole surface. Directed by a mirror, the laser draws precise areas of negative charge onto the photoreceptor drum. Leaving other areas on the drum positively charged. These patterns of positive and negative charge are the shapes that later become the characters and shapes printed on the page.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWho Came up with These Things?<\/b><\/h2>\n
So How Does It Work?<\/b><\/h2>\n