Printers get a glimpse of OLED tech

The Japanese company has created a print head that uses organic light-emitting diodes as a light source.

To date, OLED elements have appeared primarily in displays, and rather small ones at that.

Currently, printers and copiers use either lasers or standard LEDs as light sources.

An OLED print head would have two advantages.

It doesn’t use backlighting like LCDs, so its power consumption is lower and screens can be slimmer.

Epson is one of the two largest printer makers in Japan, competing head-to-head with Canon.

Hayashi Sakawa of CNET Japan reported from Tokyo.