Tektronix Phaser (Solid Ink)

What the Tektronix Phaser was

The Tektronix Phaser was a line of color printers built around solid ink, a printing method distinct from both laser toner and liquid inkjet. Wikipedia records that Phaser printers were originally manufactured and marketed by Tektronix, of Wilsonville, Oregon. Rather than spraying liquid ink or fusing powdered toner, the Phaser solid ink machines melted blocks of solid, wax-resin ink and jetted the molten material to build up a color image. The line spanned much of the 1990s under Tektronix before the Phaser brand passed to Xerox.

How solid ink (phase-change) printing works

Solid ink is described by the Solid ink history as a waxy, resin-based polymer that must be melted prior to usage, unlike conventional liquid inks. In operation the printer heats the solid sticks and jets the molten ink through printheads that use piezoelectric (polarized ceramic) elements in a drop-on-demand arrangement to eject droplets. Because the ink is solid at room temperature, it can be handled as cartridge-free sticks and only becomes fluid inside the machine. This phase-change behavior is what gives the technology its alternate name, phase-change inkjet printing.

The Phaser print mechanism

The vintageTEK Museum's account of the 1995 Phaser 340 describes the mechanism in concrete terms: a page-wide printhead jetted ink onto an aluminum drum coated with silicone oil, and the image was then transferred from that drum to the paper. This offset-transfer approach let the printer lay down a full color image indirectly rather than firing ink straight onto the page. The museum notes that the design displaced the printhead by twice the distance between nozzles to interlace passes and improve resolution, and that the Phaser 340 was recognized with awards by PC Computing and PC Magazine.

Models and development

According to the Solid ink history, Tektronix's PhaserJet PXi arrived in June 1991 at a cost of nearly US$10,000 US; the same source frames it as the next color solid ink printer, following earlier solid ink machines from Howtek and Dataproducts rather than as the first of its kind. A succession of solid ink Phaser models followed through the decade; the vintageTEK Museum dates the Phaser 340 to 1995 and credits it with significantly increased print speeds and color quality over earlier units. The underlying wax-jet-and-transfer concept was not invented at Tektronix alone: the Solid ink history notes that Howtek, Inc., founded by Robert Howard in 1984, pioneered early solid ink printing before the technology matured in the Tektronix Phaser line.

Place in printing history

The Phaser occupied a niche in office color printing during the 1990s, alongside color laser printers and liquid inkjets. Its consumables shipped as compact solid sticks rather than liquid cartridges, and solid ink is a phase-change technology distinct from both laser toner and liquid inkjet. Contrasted with laser printing, which fuses dry toner, and with thermal or piezoelectric liquid inkjet printing, solid ink was a separate approach to desktop color. The line therefore sits alongside the era's laser and inkjet models as one of the color output methods of the period.

From Tektronix to Xerox

The vintageTEK Museum records that Tektronix's Color Printing and Imaging Division grew to occupy the entire Wilsonville campus, and that the division was sold to Xerox for about US$950 million as Tektronix refocused on its test-and-measurement roots. Wikipedia states that Xerox acquired the Tektronix Color Printing and Imaging Division, including the Phaser brand, in 2000. Under Xerox the Phaser name continued on both solid ink and laser products; the Solid ink history notes that Xerox eventually discontinued selling solid ink printers around the first half of 2016.

Reference scope

This page records only facts that can be traced to authoritative sources — Tektronix and Xerox materials, encyclopedic references, and the vintageTEK Museum's archive. Specifications that vary from model to model within the Phaser line, and any figure that could not be verified against such a source, are omitted rather than estimated. It is a neutral historical reference, not a buying guide, and quotes no current pricing or availability. Each specification above carries its own citation.