In order to improve the quality of text and graphic printers in electrophotographic powder marking technologies, the resolution of the imaging subsystem has been increased and the diameter of toner particles has been decreased. We present a new electrographic printing technology called contact electrography, which has the potential for a high image quality without the need for further improvements in toner particle size or image resolution.Contact electrography works for example with square metal pads on 50 μm centers (500 dpi) fabricated on an insulating layer of a metal cylinder (image cylinder). A write head with a row of electrodes (metal fingers) is in contact with a row of the metal pads of the image cylinder. Voltages are applied to the metal fingers so that the metal pads are charged and an electrostatic latent image is formed during the rotation of the image cylinder. The following steps (development, transfer, fusing, and cleaning) are very similar to conventional electrophotography.Laboratory systems using this technology have been built and tested. These systems have demonstrated the ability to print for the first time, to our knowledge, in any powder marking system based on electrophotography, both black and white single pixels at 500 dpi, using conventional 9 μm diameter toner. The reasons for this improved image quality have been investigated and an explanation for this result is presented.