3 Printing Pioneers

AUGUST 21, 2018| SpeedPro East Bay

August 21st is Senior Citizens Day and with that, we want to celebrate the accomplishments of those who have come before us in the digital and printing world. SpeedPro East Bay prides itself on its state-of-the-art printing technology-but where would we be without the people who invented and pioneered this technology? Here are three inventors who were instrumental in engineering the printing technologies of today.

Gary Starkweather

Laser printing, which uses a laser beam to transfer an image onto paper, is ubiquitous nowadays in the form of laser printers.  Gary Starkweather invented the laser printer in 1971 while working with Xerox PARC going against corporate officials who deemed laser printing technology as too expensive and ineffective.  He is now 80 years old living in California and still continues his love of technology working for Apple.

Benny Landa

Another popular form of printing, digital printing, is featured heavily in inkjet printers today. Its inventor, Benny Landa founded Indigo Digital Press in 1977 which is credited for inventing the digital printing process, and many hail Landa as the “father of commercial digital printing”.  He did this by taking his previous discovery in black and white imaging and took small color particles and an electric charge to form a thin, smooth, plastic layer on paper.  This enabled the high-speed production of high-quality color images which then led to the first discovery of the digital offset printing press.

Jack S. Kilby

Thermal printing, which uses heat to integrate ink solids into a surface, is a form of printing used in several industries including geo-engineering and seafloor exploration, due to its portability.  Jack S. Kilby was the early inventor of this when he came up with the idea that an entire circuit could be constructed from a single piece of silicon with no connections by employing different doping levels.   He designed, molded, and tested the first integrated circuit, and had a full working sample.  This experience with circuity led to his invention of the thermal printer.  In 2000 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his research in integrated circuits and he later died in 2005 at the age of 81.