Xerography

What Does Xerography Mean?

Xerography is an electrostatically-charged based technique for photocopying and printing documents. It is most commonly used in laser printers, photocopiers and fax machines to reproduce and print images, data and office documents for various purposes.

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Xerography is also known as electrophotography.

Techopedia Explains Xerography

The word xerography originated from two Greek words: xeros (meaning dry) and graphos (meaning writing/drawing). The process of xerography relies on photoconductive properties of substances which show a decrease in electrical resistance when exposed to light, hence naturally grayscale images are better quality-wise. In fact, xerography was originally only for printing or reproducing grayscale images. It was later developed to print colored images as well. The technique has been rapidly gaining popularity since its introduction in the 1940s.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…