Yesterday, we looked at the top five printing technologies that have made a revolution. Let's take a look at the rest:

6. Quick Start Lasers - While all other printing technologies have nudged forward, laser printing for the first print still takes a while. A new fuser technology is being tested which is estimated to reduce the printing time for the first print by four times.

7. Instant Scans - Much like laser printers, scanners take an era to boot up. Things are improving in scanners as well and LEDs have effectively reduced the warm up time significantly.

8. Solid Ink Technology - Xerox debuted solid inks for its laser printers and there was a heat of war between Xerox and HP over allegations and counter allegations on the pros and cons of the technology. The commercial product is yet to be released but the technology has been impressive so far.

9. Nano Printing - Nano technology based electronic components are now printable using an altered inkjet printer. This can change the face of electronic fabrication and there are reports that printed circuit boards are made commercially at some factories using modified printers.

10. 3D Printing - There is not a single website that hasn't talked about the latest hung-ho, 3D printers, which are capable of printing 3D models. My gut feeling is that 3D printing will be a parallel one from the common 2D printing and there shouldn't be any overlap or people switching sides.

From the reviewed technologies, it is clearly evident that HP has been the leader for not only its performance, but for several technological advancements it has seen over the recent past. But, we must be reminded that the rest are not too behind.

As for 2008, it is beyond our human periphery to think about the incoming inventions, not just in printing industry. We will be around to see the day and to celebrate technological advancements as and when it comes.