How the Inkjet Printer shaped Graphic Design

In this post, we are looking at one of the older versions of an inkjet printer. This one in particular is the BJ-80 Bubble Jet Printer, launched in December of 1985. To understand how an inkjet printer works, you can also explore other printing innovations in the past such as the movable metal type or the typewriter. Both of these devices work by hitting the surface with letter-shaped objects which create some of our first printed books, texts, etc. 

The inkjet printer comes along and instead of metal markers/letter-shaped objects, fires dots of ink onto the page to create symbols and letters. The inkjet printer which was first worked on in the 1950s, finally became more commercialized by the late 80s and 90s. For the first time ever, inkjet printers allowed people to actually duplicate digital images that were generated by computers. 

The inkjet printer was and still is important to graphic design history because it allowed graphic designers to have access to large-scale printers. It allowed for more people to exercise graphic design technology and branding became a more personal exercise. For the first time, people could print something off a computer in their own homes.