Don Lancaster


Donald E. Lancaster is an American author, inventor, and microcomputer pioneer.

Background

Lancaster is a writer and engineer, who authored multiple project articles for computer and electronics magazines of the 1970s, including Popular Electronics, Radio Electronics, Dr. Dobb's Journal, 73 Magazine, and Byte. He has written books on electronics, computers, and entrepreneurship, both commercially published and self-published.
An early project was his "TV Typewriter" dumb terminal. This design was accepted by early microcomputer users as it used an ordinary television set for the display, and could be built with around US $200 in parts, at a time when commercial terminals were selling for over US $1,000.
Lancaster was an early advocate and developer of what is now known as print-on-demand technology.
Lancaster produced his self-published books by re-purposing the game port of an Apple II to transfer PostScript code directly to a laser printer, rather than using a Macintosh running PageMaker. This enabled continuous book production using an inexpensive Apple II, rather than tying up an expensive Macintosh until the print run was complete.
He helped design and manufacture the Apple I keyboard, and formerly held a ham radio license.
Lancaster now publishes articles related to his areas of interest on his website, .