While at Xerox PARC, he worked on the design of the Alto personal computer,[3] the first laser printers, page description languages and the initial PC-type operating systems.

In 1973, Sproull and William M. Newman wrote Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics; a second edition was published in 1979.

This led to the creation of Sun Microsystems Laboratories, where Sproull worked on asynchronous processor design.

He currently chairs the United States National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB).

[5] He has co-authored several books in addition to Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics, such as Logical Effort, and holds 7 patents.