(Robert Howard) Research (named Howtek, Inc.

In 1982, Robert Howard came up with the idea to produce a small color printing system that used piezos to spit drops of ink. In the worldwide consumer market, four manufacturers account for the majority of inkjet printer sales: Canon, HP, Epson and Brother. In the late 1970s, inkjet printers that could reproduce digital images generated by computers were developed, mainly by Epson, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Canon. While working at Canon in Japan, Ichiro Endo suggested the idea for a 'Bubble jet' printer, while around the same time Jon Vaught at HP was developing a similar idea. The concept of inkjet printing originated in the 20th century, and the technology was first extensively developed in the early 1950s. By 2019, laser printers outsold inkjet printers by nearly a 2:1 ratio, 9.6% vs 5.1% of all computer peripherals.

Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensive consumer models to expensive professional machines. Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates.

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