2003 No.194 Special Edition on Printing Solutions
About the special edition on printing solutions [59KB] 
Masahiko Kawai
Printer technology: evolution and future prospects [57KB]
Yasushi Hoshino
Trends in the field of non-impact printers [59KB]
Minoru Mizutani
The estimated number of color page printers sold on the world non-impact printer market has doubled. At Oki Data, we will concentrate on single-path color type color page printers that have digital LED heads and will resolutely press forward in providing products having low cost, high speed, high printing quality, compactness and capable of supporting multiple media types.
The trends in LED printheads [114KB]
Yukio Nakamura
This article compares the design of systems using LED printheads and laser scanner heads, discussing the problems involved in each type of system, and tracing Oki's steps towards the development of a colour LED printhead.
Trends in dot impact printers [58KB]
MHitosi Sekine, Noriaki Nagahashi
Looking to the future, we expect the market for serial dot impact printers to continue declining. However, markets for line printers that focus on multipart form printing and improved operability, and specialized markets for applications that exploit the advantages of serial dot impact printers, such as high reliability and low running cost, are expected to continue to develop.
Color page printers: market view and color technology trends [71KB]
Tsutomu Miyamoto, Hiroshi Hayashi, Tim Deppa
Color page printers are predicted to be the highest growth segment within the overall printer market. This article explains the market forecast, and the applications and customer requirements that will likely drive the growth. Lastly, important trends in color management are explained as they pertain to color printers.
The European market for business printing [58KB]
Judith Dunne
Economic down-turn and technology saturation have stalled printer market growth in the developed countries of Europe. This article discusses how the dual drivers of colour being incorporated into standard office documents, and new in-house colour applications, will enable strong future growth for colour page printers at the expense of mono-only devices.
A color printer solution [241KB]
Yoshinori Takahashi
Color printers have various uses, even some that could not predicted when the printers were developed. Users teach us how they want to use color printers, and we earn their satisfaction by fulfilling those requests. This article introduces one such case.
New small-size color LED printer [448KB]
Masanori Maekawa, Takeshi Asaba, Osamu Izaki
This article introduces an innovative color printer which, by actualizing the product concept of "small, low-cost and fast," will erase the previous image people have had about color printers. It is small enough to be placed right beside the user, and yet it has the high speed and excellent image quality needed for business applications.
High-speed color printer engine [87KB]
Kiyoshi Matsuda, Eisaku Muto, Kazuhiko Nagaoka, Hiroaki Sato
As color printers become ever more popular, a fierce competition is shaping up in terms of their speed and print quality. In addition to increased speed and increased image resolution, Oki Data's newly developed color printer engines incorporate innovative technologies for automatically measuring print density and paper thickness, and for feeding this information back to the printer controller. This paper describes those features and the resulting benefits.
High-speed color printer controller hardware [80KB]
Osamu Ishikawa, Shoichi Ii
This article introduces trends in color printer controller hardware as well as the Single Pass Color® type color printer controller hardware that Oki Data provides. In the article we consider the basic design and configuration of both high-end and low-end controllers.
Software technology for high-speed color printer [163KB]
Kazuhiko Ito, Yutaka Inoue, Takashi Inoue
This paper provides an introduction to printer driver technologies for high-end color printers incorporating PDL and for low-end color printers that create data on the host, network management which is a technology common to both printer types, driver installation technologies, and color adjustment technologies.
Controller firmware technologies for high-speed color printers [109KB]
Hirohiko Nakazato, Yoshitaka Nishiyama, Takaaki Hosoda, Masahiro Yoshimoto
This article introduces controller firmware technologies for high-speed color printers. Discussed are firmware technologies that use object-oriented language, network processing technologies, and color processing technologies.
Newly developed compact monochrome printer [141KB]
Toru Miyazaki, Hisao Ono, Yasuhiro Shimizu, Tatsuhiko Shimomura
A compact monochrome electrophotographic printer, which uses an LED array head, has been developed. The printing speed for A4 size documents is 18 pages per minute (18ppm). It has been possible to create a compact and user-friendly printer by developing a new controller with a processing speed that measures up to the printing speed.
The MFP solution [98KB]
Hiroshi Endo, Tim Deppa, Yasumasa Shiraishi, Toshiyuki Ito
The concept of the multifunction product (MFP) underwent vast changes with the rapid development of the Internet. An introduction to our MFP technology is provided, centering around the relevance of the Internet.
Processing colour image information [159KB]
Nobuhito Matsushiro
This article looks at the subject of colour image information processing, one of the core technologies in colour printing solutions, and discussed our team's activities in colour science research, colour processing research and development, and colour printer product technology.
Colour image evaluation systems [139KB]
Noboru Otaki
Methods for evaluating image quality include both subjective analysis which is dependent on human visual skills, and objective analysis based on physical quantities. Subjective methods are problematic in terms of consistency of evaluation standards and work efficiency. Therefore, we have developed an image evaluation system which is able to measure image quality factors, quantitatively, using a commercial colour scanner. The article gives an overview of this system.
The virtual printer designer [201KB]
Mikio Takashi
Until now, virtual printer simulators have required all coding to be input manually, as with standard programs. In order to reduce this coding work, we have built tools to create source code from templates, based on graphical diagram inputs.
Environmental activities with the printer [90KB]
Koji Nitta, Taiji Arai, Masanori Okuda
The technology environment surrounding the printer continues to change by the improved PCs' capability and performance, progress in networking, digitization and color implementations. The fact that our printers are friendly to users and the global environment means they are already becoming a differentiating factor. As a global corporation, we have the responsibility to provide products that comply with environmental labels and ECO marks of standard for various countries throughout the world. This paper, special issue on printing solutions, outlines our technical activities for the development of products and our efforts in global environmental conservation, through the recycling of consumables that have a direct impact on the global environment.
Genome technology and electronics [87KB]
Yasuo Miyamoto
The deciphering of the blueprint of humans, the human genome, has been progressing and in recent years the subject of much discussion. This paper provides a general description of the genome-related technology and industry trends, from an electronic involvement perspective, along with recent topics.
The development of LED printheads [111KB]
Ichimatsu Abiko
The electrophotographic printer using an LED array light source is a proprietary system of Oki Electric. The first LED printheads developed involved a whole range of problems, relating to LED array yield rates, optical transmission mechanisms, mounting technology and other issues, but Oki has overcome all of these obstacles to arrive at its current position in the LED printer market. This article describes the initial development stages of LED printheads and traces their evolution to the present day.