As we continue to work our way through our archive of photos, we run across some that are a bit out of the ordinary.  They may be humorous or unique but they stand out from the other photos. We post new photos here monthly with the previous photos in the slideshow.

Our September Photo of the Month features printer and tablet products from Tektronix Information Display Division. This photo was used in brochures in 1981. With the introduction of Tektronix first graphics terminal, the T4002 in the 1970 catalog, the company realized the importance of providing customers with a means of reproducing screen content on paper, referred to as “hardcopy” at the time. The 4601 Hard Copy Unit, making use of 3M Corp’s dry-silver paper, was Tektronix’ first in a long line of printers, plotters and other graphics accessories sold from the Wilsonville-based, Information Display Division.

Pictured in the photo, starting at the bottom/right and proceeding counter-clockwise, is as
follows:

• The 4611 and 4612 were both electrostatic printers using a dry toner process with specially-treated paper. Appearing almost identical, the 4611 was designed to support printing from Tektronix proprietary storage terminals, while the 4612 was used with raster terminals and other sources of a video signal. Both sold for $4400 in 1982.
• The 4632, which like the 4601 exposed dry silver paper using a Tektronix made CRT incorporating a fiber-optic faceplate. The 4632 was advertised as able to create photographic-quality images.
• The 4956 Graphic Tablets were capable of digitizing, tracing or free-hand drawing to enter graphics images into a computer. The active area for this tablet was 20 x 20 inches. This 4956 sold for $5195 in 1981.
• The 4956 Graphic Tablet, Option 06, had an active area of 44 x 60 inches and sold for $7995 in 1981. Its controller is seen under the tablet.
• The 4663 was the first C-size (31 x 38 inches) digital plotter. It was capable of making prints with interchangeable multi-color pens. The base price for the 4662 was $11,000 in 1981.
• The 4662, a B-size (10 x 15 inches) digital plotter. A later version with an additional turret, sold as the 4662 Option 31, could automatically interchange up to eight different colored pens under program control. The 4662 sold for $4600 in 1980. Both of these plotters incorporated onboard memory that allowed some built-in processing capability in order to free the host computer from some operations.
• There is a pack of Tektronix-branded data disks at the bottom of the photo. Those of a certain age will recall that these 8-inch “floppies” were in fact fairly flexible, unlike the subsequent 5¼-inch and 3½-inch versions, even though those were still called “floppy disks”.

Photos of the Month:  Jan 2025 - Present

Photos of the Month:  Feb 2019 - Dec 2024