The first books were produced in an assembly-line style; during the Renaissance, a printing press could print about 3,600 each workday. Printing spread rapidly, and by 1500, printing was in full swing throughout Western Europe. In 1620, English philosopher Francis Bacon felt confident in declaring that printing had changed the face of the world.

When Xerox copy machines hit the scene, it was only natural that certain employees in offices lucky enough to have them would seize the opportunity to utilize the technology for such purposes.

In the 1970s, the DIY aesthetic of punk created a thriving underground press, printed cheaply on photocopy machines.

In the 1980s, the concept of zine as an art form, rather than a fan magazine, took root.

The early 1990s saw an explosion of zines of “a more raw and explicit, more confrontational and definitely more gender-balanced nature.” How surprised would you have been to discover that the seemingly demure secretary you hired for the summer was staying late to make and assemble a small periodical called Riot Grrrl?

The presence of zines faded toward the late 1990s, concurrent with the rise of the internet. But print zines still exist, and are cherished by zinesters, DIY enthusiasts and dissidents all over the world.

In 2002, artist Delia Robinson made an accidental discovery: “A piece of paper run repeatedly through the color copier with sequential images acquired rich colors and a shiny patina. The results are random as colors combine and images meld in unpredictable ways.”

Here is how the artist describes her take on the world:

My view is bioptic, cross-eyed, fragmented, salty, bitter, yet still hopeful. My work is overloaded with information, stories, color, and images– most original, some pilfered, some in transition.

We think it’s quite beautiful. See more of her work, copy machine and otherwise, at her website: www.delia-robinson.com

Hooray! The copy machine turned 50 last month, commemorating the Xerox company’s first sale — a 648-pound copier as big as two washing machines.

This historic event reminds us of how much we take for granted nowadays. Way back when, before “Xerox” became a regularly-used verb, copy machines were much less reliable. The devices broke down all the time, sometimes even catching on fire. And they had trouble fitting through doorways.

For more info, be sure to check out CNN’s comprehensive article.

If you’re looking to buy, rent, or lease a copy machine, it’s important to figure out your expected copy volume. This will help you determine which kind of copier (or copiers) will best suit your office.

In this way, choosing a copier is much like choosing a car. If you’re planning to make frequent trips across the country, you’ll want a car able to stand up to a lot of mileage, and — if you’re leasing — it would be wise to secure a generous service agreement as well. Alternatively, if you’re only going to be driving to the supermarket once or twice a week, a top-of-the-line vehicle might be a waste of money.

How can you calculate your volume? If you already have a copier, this is as easy as examining the counter, which you can typically find beneath the glass. To obtain an estimate without a copier, we recommend looking at the receipts from your copy shop, in addition to checking out your month-to-month paper consumption.

After you’ve come up with a predicted volume, most experts advise inflating this number by 15 percent or more. This will factor in your business’s potential expansion, as well as manufacturers’ tendencies to overestimate their product capabilities. If your machine will be working as an office printer or fax, consider inflating your figure even more.

Note: If your expected monthly volume is under 700 copies, you probably don’t need an expensive industrial copier. Save some money by investing in a smaller office copier instead.

Even if your office copier occasionally malfunctions, you’ve still got to be happy it’s there – centuries ago, copying even a single page was a much more time-consuming process. Let’s take a look at some copying methods of the past:

By hand: Ouch! Until the end of the 18th century, the only duplicates were handwritten by copy clerks, a fixture at most offices. Even after the first typewriter was invented in 1874, hand copying remained popular throughout the subsequent decades.

By letter press: Drawing on a method used by the Chinese around the 8th century, letter press copiers emerged in the late 1700s and featured the legendary (and confusing) backwards-to-forwards transition also evident in the printing press.

By carbon paper: Still alluded to in email CCs and BCCs, carbon copying was invented in 1806 and uses sheets of carbon paper to replicate handwritten marks. In fact, certain industries continue to use carbon copying today!

Pushing a button sure sounds easier than any of that, doesn’t it?

Copy machine printing, for example, offers several advanced functions not available in standard printers, such as double-sided printing and automatic stapling. Plus, all of your employees can print from the same copy machine (as long as it has a network card). Printing with copy machines can also save you money, since per-page costs for copiers are about 80% than those of laser printers.

Copy machines make sending and receiving faxes easier as well. Some high-tech machines can read faxes from document trays, in addition to faxing pages from books and magazines scanned on the copier glass. Certain machines can even receive files to fax wirelessly from multiple computers.

Not ready to cough up the cash for these extra features? In that case, we recommend copy machine leasing. If you lease a machine compatible with printing and faxing upgrades, you can make the switch when the time is right for your office – and budget.