Xerox was founded in 1906 in Rochester, New York as "The Haloid Company", which originally manufactured photographic paper and equipment. The company subsequently changed its name to "Haloid Xerox" in 1958 and then simply "Xerox" in 1961. The company came to prominence in 1959 with the introduction of the first plain paper photocopier using the process of xerography developed by Chester Carlson, the Xerox 914. Before releasing the 914, Xerox had also introduced the first xerographic printer, the "Copyflo" in 1955.

In 1970 Xerox opened the Xerox PARC research facility. The facility developed many modern computing methods such as the mouse and the graphical user interface. From these inventions, Xerox PARC created the Xerox Alto in 1973, a small minicomputer similar to a workstation and personal computer. The Alto was never commercially sold, as Xerox itself could not see the sales potential of it. In 1979, several Apple Computer employees, including Steve Jobs, visited Xerox PARC, interested in seeing their developments. Jobs and the others saw the commercial potential of the GUI and mouse, and began development of the Apple Lisa, which Apple introduced in 1983.

Xerox today manufactures and sells a wide variety of office & production equipment including Xerox Phaser printers, multifunction printers, large-volume digital printers as well as workflow software under the brand strategy of FreeFlow. The impact of Xerox FreeFlow products on the graphic arts market & the print industry has grown exponentially since May 2006. Xerox also sells digital presses. On 29 May 2008, xerox launched XEROX iGen 4 digital press.

Xerox sells both color and black and white printers under the Xerox Phaser brand, with the color consumer model. In addition, Xerox produces many printing and office supplies such as paper, in many forms; and markets software such as DocuShare, MarketPort and FlowPort, offers consulting services, ECM Digital Repository Services and printing outsourcing.