Founded and initially operated by Robert Howard (president) and Samuel Lang (vice president and owner of the well known K & L Color Photo Service Lab in New York City), the group produced remote terminals and systems for the casino industry.

Wang spun off the business in 1971 and Centronics was formed as a corporation in Hudson, New Hampshire with Howard as president and chairman.

Howard developed a personal relationship with his neighbor, Max Hugel, the founder and president of Brother International, the United States arm of Brother Industries, Ltd., a manufacturer of sewing machines and typewriters.

No products were ever produced, but Canon continued to work on laser printers, eventually developing a highly successful series of engines.

In 1977, Centronics sued competitor Mannesmann AG in a patent dispute regarding the return spring used in the print actuator.

In 1975, Centronics formed an OEM agreement with Tandy and produced DMP and LP series printers for several years.

During this period, Epson, Brother and others began to gain market share and Centronics never recovered.

Advanced Terminals (a manufacturer of sheet feeders) and BDS Computer Australia Pty Ltd were purchased in 1986.

The PrintStation 350 series serial matrix printer was highly successful in the OEM market, sold with the logos of Data General, ITT Courier, NCR, CDC, Decision Data and ISI.