Photocopier
A machine that copies documents using xerography or other technologies.
A photocopier—also known as a copier, copy machine, or, historically, a Xerox machine (a generic trademark)—is a device that produces copies of documents and images onto paper or plastic film quickly and at low cost. Most modern copiers rely on xerography, a dry process that uses electrostatic charges on a light-sensitive photoreceptor to attract and then transfer toner powder onto paper, forming an image. The toner is then fused to the paper with heat, pressure, or both. While other technologies like inkjet exist, xerography remains the standard for office copying.
Commercial xerographic office copiers gradually replaced earlier duplicating methods such as Verifax, Photostat, carbon paper, and mimeograph machines. Photocopying is common in business, education, and government. Although some predicted that photocopiers would become obsolete as digital document creation and distribution reduced reliance on paper, they remained widely used as of 2015. During the 1980s, high-end machines began merging functions into what became known as multifunction printers, combining copying, faxing, scanning, and network printing. By the 1990s, low-end color copiers and printers became dominant in home offices as prices dropped. High-end color copiers, capable of heavy workloads and large-format printing, remain expensive and are mostly found in print and design shops.
**History**
Chester Carlson (1906–1968), the inventor of photocopying, was a patent attorney and part-time researcher. His job at a New York patent office required many copies of important papers, and his arthritis made this painful and tedious. This led him to experiment with photoconductivity. In his kitchen, he worked on "electrophotography," and in 1938 he applied for a patent. He made the first photocopy using a zinc plate coated with sulfur, with the words "10-22-38 Astoria" written on a microscope slide placed on sulfur under a bright light; after removing the slide, a mirror image remained. Carlson tried to sell his invention but failed because the process was underdeveloped. At the time, multiple copies were usually made at the source using carbon paper or manual duplicators, and few saw a need for an electronic copier. Between 1939 and 1944, over 20 companies, including IBM and General Electric, rejected him, believing there was no significant market.
- Inventor
- Chester Carlson (1906–1968)
- First photocopy date
- October 22, 1938
- First xerographic copier
- Model A (1949)
- First electrostatic color copier
- Xerox 6500 (1973)
- First full-color copier
- 3M Color-in-Color (1968)
- Cost per xerox print (1969)
- $0.03 including paper and labor
- Cost per verifax print (1969)
- $0.15
Lore & Background
Chester Carlson, a patent attorney and part-time researcher, invented photocopying after finding manual copying painful due to arthritis. In 1938, he made the first photocopy using a zinc plate covered with sulfur, producing a mirror image of the words "10-22-38 Astoria" written on a microscope slide. After being turned down by over 20 companies including IBM and General Electric, Carlson contracted with the Battelle Memorial Institute in 1944 to refine the process. In 1947, Haloid Corporation licensed the technology and, with Carlson, renamed the process xerography from Greek roots meaning "dry writing." Haloid introduced the first xerographic copier, the Model A, in 1949 and became Xerox Corporation in 1961.
Commercial xerographic office copying gradually replaced earlier technologies such as Verifax, Photostat, carbon paper, and mimeograph machines. During the 1960s and 1970s, Xerox marketed specially designed paper for xerographic output, though by the end of the 1970s paper producers made xerographic runability a standard requirement. In the 1980s, a convergence began in some high-end machines toward multi-function printers combining copying, faxing, scanning, and network printing. Low-end color copiers increasingly dominated the home-office market as prices fell during the 1990s.
Reader's Guide
Photocopying became widely used in business, education, and government sectors. The technology's key advantages over earlier methods included the ability to use plain office paper, implement duplex printing, scan multiple pages automatically with an automatic document feeder, and eventually sort and staple output. The retail chain Kinko's, founded in 1970 in Isla Vista, California, expanded to over 1,000 locations worldwide, becoming a hub for academic, business, and personal publishing. During the 1970s through the 1990s, the copy machine played a notable role in punk, street art, and DIY movements. Digital technology increasingly replaced analog in new photocopiers, offering advantages such as automatic image-quality enhancement, the ability to build jobs by scanning page images independently of printing, and automatic digital collation—scanning each page only once to produce multiple sets. While predictions suggested photocopiers might become obsolete as digital document creation and distribution increased, as of 2015 they continued to be widely used.
Did You Know?
- The term 'xerography' was coined from Greek roots meaning 'dry writing' after Haloid felt 'electrophotography' was too complicated.
- In 1969, a Xerox print cost $0.03 including paper and labor, while a Verifax print cost $0.15.
- The first full-color copier was 3M's Color-in-Color in 1968, using a dye sublimation process.
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