Editing Dot matrix printing (section)

====LA36====
The LA30 was followed in 1974 by the LA36,<ref>{{cite web |title=The DEC LA36 Dot Matrix Printer Made Business Printing Faster |url=https://biztechmagazine.com/article/2017/03/dec-la36-dot-matrix-printer-made-business-printing-faster-and-more-efficient |access-date=2018-10-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181018122252/https://biztechmagazine.com/article/2017/03/dec-la36-dot-matrix-printer-made-business-printing-faster-and-more-efficient |archive-date=2018-10-18 |quote=DEC brought the LA36 to market in 1974}}</ref> which achieved far greater commercial success,<ref name="UK2">{{cite web |title=Digital DECWriter II |website=ComputingHistory.org.uk |url=https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/3367/Digital-DECWriter-II |access-date=2018-10-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181018122258/http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/3367/Digital-DECWriter-II |archive-date=2018-10-18 |quote=The LA36 DECwriter II was the companys first commercially successful ... The printer mechanism uses a dot-matrix technique to print 132 columns of text across standard 14 inch computer forms}}</ref> becoming for a time the standard dot matrix computer terminal. The LA36 used the same print head as the LA30 but could print on forms of any width up to 132 columns of mixed-case output on standard [[line printer#green bar paper|green bar fanfold paper]].<ref name="UK2"/> The carriage was moved by a much-more-capable [[servo drive]] using a [[DC electric motor]] and an optical encoder / [[tachometer]]. The paper was moved by a stepper motor. The LA36 was only available with a serial interface but unlike the earlier LA30, no fill characters were required. This was possible because, while the printer never communicated at faster than 30 characters per second, the mechanism was actually capable of printing at 60 characters per second. During the carriage return period, characters were ''buffered'' for subsequent printing at full speed during a catch-up period. The two-tone buzz produced by 60-character-per-second catch-up printing followed by 30-character-per-second ordinary printing was a distinctive feature of the LA36, quickly copied by many other manufacturers well into the 1990s. Most efficient dot matrix printers used this buffering technique.

Digital technology later broadened the basic LA36 line into a wide variety of dot matrix printers.