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Encyclopedia > LaserJet
Image:1984 HP Laserjet.jpg
HP LaserJet first model, 1984

It should be possible to replace this non-free image with a freely licensed one. If you can, please do so as soon as is practical.

LaserJet is the brand name used by the American computer company Hewlett-Packard (HP) for their line of dry electrophotographic (DEP) laser printers. The Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), commonly known as HP, is a very large, global company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. ... Chester F. Carlson Xerography (or Electrophotography) is a photocopying technique developed by Chester Carlson in 1938 and patented on October 6, 1942. ... 1993 Apple LaserWriter Pro 630 laser printer A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. ...

Contents

Technology

Laser head from HP LaserJet 5L printer.
Laser head from HP LaserJet 5L printer.

HP LaserJets employ electro-photographic laser marking engines sourced from the Japanese company Canon. Most early printers used internal firmware, controllers, associated software, and drivers developed internally by HP and were considered their "value add" to the standard printer engines. Beginning with the LaserJet 4000, HP has nearly completely outsourced this work to Oak Technology, now Zoran Corporation, among many other suppliers. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2592 × 1944 pixel, file size: 544 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Laser LED from HP LaaserJet5L printer File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2592 × 1944 pixel, file size: 544 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Laser LED from HP LaaserJet5L printer File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects... The HP LaserJet 5 is a group of monochrome laser printers produced in the mid-1990s as part of the LaserJet series by Hewlett Packard (HP) [1]. It was the successor to the HP LaserJet 4 series of printers, and in turn was superseded by the HP LaserJet 6 series... Canon USAs Silicon Valley offices Canon Inc. ... Founded in 1987, Oak Technologies is a supplier of semiconductor chips for optical storage devices such as CD-ROM, CD-RW and DVD. In 2003, Oak Technology was acquired by Zoran. ... The Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ:ZRAN) was founded in 1983 by Dr. Levy Gerzberg, with focus on DSP technology. ...


History

1980s

The first laser printer for IBM Compatible personal computers was introduced in 1984 by HP as the LaserJet (now called LaserJet Classic). It was a 300-dpi, 8 ppm printer that sold for $3,495. Dots per inch (DPI) is a measure of printing resolution, in particular the number of individual dots of ink a printer or toner can produce within a linear one-inch space. ...


It featured a 8 MHz processor and the Courier typeface. Due to the high cost of memory, the first LaserJet only had 28 kilobytes of memory, and a portion of that was reserved for use by the print engine. This rendered the LaserJet nearly useless for direct graphical image printing, with it only capable of printing a low-resolution 75-dpi image about 1 inch square before running out of memory. It took approximately two minutes for the first page to print out. Courier is a monospace slab serif font that resembles the output from a typewriter. ... For the origin and evolution of fonts, see History of western typography. ...


Instead the first LaserJet was primarily intended for use as a high-speed professional replacement for text-only daisy wheel impact printers and dot matrix printers. By using control codes it was possible to change the printed text style using font patterns stored in permanent ROM in the printer. A daisy wheel printer is a type of computer printer that produces high-quality type, and is often referred to as a letter-quality printer (this in contrast to high-quality dot-matrix printers, capable of near-letter-quality, or NLQ, output). ... A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer refers to a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like a typewriter. ... Read-only memory (often referred to as its acronym ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. ...


The LaserJet Plus followed in November 1985, priced at $3,995. It introduced "soft fonts," treatments like bold and italic and other features including a parallel (Centronics) interface. It also included 512 kilobytes of memory, which was just enough to print graphics at 300 dpi that covered about 70% of the letter-size page area. In typography, emphasis is the exaggeration of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text—to emphasize them. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Categories: Stub | Computer buses | IEEE standards ... Centronics logo 23 June 1986 Centronics logo 1971 Centronics Data Computer Corporation was a pioneering American manufacturer of computer printers, now remembered only for the parallel interface that bears their name. ...


In March 1986, HP introduced the LaserJet 500, which featured high-capacity duty cycle of 1,000 pages a month. In 1986, desktop publishing came to the world of IBM PC's and compatibles, after its origin on the Apple Macintosh and Apple LaserWriter. The HP LaserJet, along with Aldus PageMaker and Microsoft Windows, was central to the PC-based solution, and while lacking the perceived elegance of Apple's approach, this multi-vendor solution was available to a mass audience for the first time. Adobe InDesign CS2, one of many popular desktop publishing applications. ... IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ... The Macintosh 128K, the first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac The Macintosh, or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple. ... The Apple LaserWriter was one of the first laser printers available to the mass market. ... PageMaker was the first desktop publishing program, introduced in 1985 by Aldus Corporation, initially for the Apple Macintosh but soon after also for the PC. It relies on Adobe Systems PostScript page description language. ... Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary software operating systems by Microsoft. ...


HP introduced the world's first mass market laser printer, the LaserJet series II, in March 1987, list priced at $2,695. Many 20-year-old LaserJet II's (and its successor, the mechanically-similar LaserJet III) remain in use as reliable workhorses in offices and publishing houses; corroboration may be found by noting that a LaserJet II toner cartridge remains one of the most popular toner cartridges at a stationary store. Also in March 1987, the LaserJet 2000 was launched. A high-end, networkable workhorse, the LaserJet 2000 offered a duty cycle of 70,000 pages per month and the standard 300-dpi output. Priced at $19,995. Mass-marketing is the process of widely marketing a mass-produced item. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ...


In June 1988, HP shipped its 1 millionth LaserJet printer.


In September 1989, HP introduced the first "personal" version of the HP LaserJet printer series, the LaserJet IIP. Priced at $1,495 by HP, it was half the size and price of its predecessor, the LaserJet II. It offered 300-dpi output and 4 ppm printing with PCL 4 enhancements such as support for compressed bitmapped fonts and raster images. Retailers predicted a street price of $1000 or less, making it the world’s first sub-$1,000 laser printer. The LaserJet IIP (and its successor, the IIIP) were extremely reliable except for scanner failures, diagnosable by the lack of the familiar "dentist drill" whine and a "50" error displayed on the control panel; aftermarket replacement scanner assemblies remain readily available to this day.


1990s

HP LaserJet 4 series printer.

In March 1990 the newest model, the LaserJet III, priced at $2,395, was introduced with two new features: Resolution Enhancement technology (REt), which dramatically increased print quality, and HP PCL 5. Thanks to PCL 5, text scaling was easy, and thus customers were no longer restricted to 10 and 12-point type sizes. This had a dramatic effect on word processing software market. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 610 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1916 × 1884 pixel, file size: 632 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Self-taken photo on April 22, 2007. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 610 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1916 × 1884 pixel, file size: 632 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Self-taken photo on April 22, 2007. ... The HP LaserJet 4 (abbreviated sometimes to LJ4 or HP4) is a group of monochrome laser printers produced in the early to mid-1990s as part of the LaserJet series by Hewlett Packard (HP). ... Word processing, in its now-usual meaning, is the use of a word processor to create documents using computers. ...


The world's first network printer, the HP LaserJet IIISi, was introduced in March 1991. Priced at $5,495, it featured a high-speed, 17 ppm engine, 5MB of memory, 300-dpi output, REt and such paper handling features as job stacking and optional duplex printing. The LaserJet IIISi also was HP’s first printer to offer onboard Adobe PostScript as opposed to the font-cartridge solution offered on earlier models. Jetdirect is the name of a technology sold by Hewlett-Packard that allows computer printers to be directly attached to a Local Area Network. ... Duplex printing is a feature of computer printers that allows the automatic printing of a sheet of paper on both sides. ... PostScript (PS) is a page description language and programming language used primarily in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. ...


In October 1992, HP introduced its first printer with 600-dpi output and Microfine toner, the LaserJet 4, bringing publication-quality printing to the desktop. It was also the first LaserJet to ship with TrueType fonts, which ensured the printer fonts exactly matched the fonts displayed on the computer screen. Priced at $2,199. The HP LaserJet 4 (abbreviated sometimes to LJ4 or HP4) is a group of monochrome laser printers produced in the early to mid-1990s as part of the LaserJet series by Hewlett Packard (HP). ... TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobes Type 1 fonts used in PostScript. ...


In April 1994, HP shipped its 10 millionth LaserJet printer.


In September 1994 HP introduced the Color LaserJet, HP's first color laser printer. The printer had an average cost per page of less than 10 cents. The Color LaserJet offered 2 ppm color printing and 10 ppm for black text, 8MB of memory, 45 built-in fonts, a 1,250 sheet paper tray and enhanced PCL 5 with color. Priced at $7,295.


In April 1996, HP introduced the LaserJet 5 family of printers. They offered HP PCL 6, an improved printer language for noticeably faster output – especially with complex, graphics-intensive documents. They also featured 600-dpi output with REt, and a 12 ppm engine. Prices started from $1,629. The HP LaserJet 5 is a group of monochrome laser printers produced in the mid-1990s as part of the LaserJet series by Hewlett Packard (HP) [1]. It was the successor to the HP LaserJet 4 series of printers, and in turn was superseded by the HP LaserJet 6 series...


The world’s first mass-market all-in-one laser device, the HP LaserJet 3100 was introduced in April 1998. Users could print, fax, copy, and scan with a single appliance.


In July 1998, HP shipped its 30 millionth LaserJet printer.


In February 1999, HP introduced the LaserJet 2100 printer series – the world’s first personal laser printers in their class to offer high-quality 1200 x 1200-dpi resolution without significant performance loss.


2000s

HP LaserJet 1012, a low-end personal laser printer.
HP LaserJet 1012, a low-end personal laser printer.

In December 2000, HP celebrated the shipment of the 50 millionth LaserJet printer.[1] Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 750 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2820 × 2256 pixel, file size: 721 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): HP LaserJet 1012... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 750 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2820 × 2256 pixel, file size: 721 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): HP LaserJet 1012... The HP LaserJet 1012 is a low-end, monochrome laser printer from Hewlett-Packard that retails for US $199. ...


In September 2001, HP entered the low-end laser printer market with the introduction of the LaserJet 1000. It was the first sub-$250 LaserJet and the lowest priced monochrome HP LaserJet printer to date. Offered 10 ppm, HP Instant-on fuser, 600-dpi with HP REt boosting output effectively to 1200dpi, 2.5 cent cost per page, and 7,000-page monthly duty cycle.


In 2003, HP shipped its 75 millionth LaserJet printer.


In November 2003, HP entered the $24 billion copier market with the LaserJet 9055/9065/9085 MFPs, a copier-based line of high-volume multi-function printers.


In May 2004, HP celebrated the 20th anniversary of the original LaserJet and ThinkJet printers.


In May 2006 HP announced the 100 millionth LaserJet shipment.[2]


As of 2007, HP has several lines of monochrome (black and white) and color printers and multi-function products (copy, scan, and/or fax included) that range from 20-55 ppm and range in price from $149 to several thousands of dollars.


Evolution of the LaserJet control panel

HP LaserJet 4 Control Panel

The 1992 LaserJet 4L marked the transition between a control panel designed for an informed operator and one designed for a casual user. The 4L's predecessor, the IIIP, had an array of buttons and a cryptic numerical LCD display. The 4L was shipped with 4 LEDs, each with an icon to indicate a different condition, and a single pushbutton whose purpose varied depending on context (ie. Hold down during printing, the printer will cancel the job. Hold down when off, the printer will power up and print a test page including total number of pages printed. A short press would provide a form feed or tell the printer to resume from a paper jam or out-of-paper condition. The actual application of the button is far more intuitive than any possible written description - basically, the button tells the printer "Whatever you're doing now, do the next most logical thing".). A 4L's four status LEDs will also light in unusual patterns to indicate service requirements; for example, a lit error light and a lit ready light would indicate a fuser problem (usually just needs to be reseated - most 4L problems can be resolved by simply disassembling the printer, cleaning it, then reassembling it). Interestingly, the 4L used early light pipes, with surface-mounted LEDs on the control board on the left side of the printer, and plastic channels to conduct light from the lit status LEDs to the top of the printer. To this day, professional-grade LaserJets retain more comprehensive displays. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 474 pixelsFull resolution (2216 × 1312 pixel, file size: 268 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Self-taken photo on April 25, 2007. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 474 pixelsFull resolution (2216 × 1312 pixel, file size: 268 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Self-taken photo on April 25, 2007. ... The HP LaserJet 4 (abbreviated sometimes to LJ4 or HP4) is a group of monochrome laser printers produced in the early to mid-1990s as part of the LaserJet series by Hewlett Packard (HP). ...


Before the 4L, the control panel typically had buttons with names like Online, Menu, Shift, Continue, Reset, +, -, and Form Feed. This interface was loved only by engineers, since it also included seemingly conflicting status indicators like Online and Ready. A printer that is offline but ready does not print, though this is not immediately clear to new users. (As a consolation, even prior to Office Space, PC Load Letter was a commonly confusing error message mocked as a monument to poor user interface design and was commonplace on LaserJets prior to the 4L. "PC Load Letter" means, "Paper Cartridge - Load (insert) Letter (8.5"x11") paper" - for very minimal costs, the message could have probably alternated between "OUT OF LETTER / TOP CASSETTE" ) Office Space is a cult 1999 comedy film written and directed by Mike Judge. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...


When a LaserJet is controlled by a Windows PC, the Form Feed button usually never does anything when pressed. It had a small indicator light, and was only used with very simple DOS programs that did not eject the last page after sending data to the printer. The Form Feed button would print whatever was remaining in memory and prepare the printer to accept any new data as if it were being typed at the top of a new blank sheet of paper.


Also, the Online button was a poorly named toggle switch, such that if the printer was already online, pressing Online actually makes the printer go offline and could be used to stop a runaway print job. Pressing Shift-Reset would then clear the remainder of the unwanted document from the printer's memory. None of this complexity of operation was obvious to new users unfamiliar with the printer.


This was in stark contrast with the original Apple LaserWriter which had no buttons at all, and just three status lights: Ready, Busy, and Paper Jam. The only user interaction with the LaserWriter was to open it to clear paper jams, and when closed the printer would immediately auto-resume without further prompting. All other control, including canceling print jobs, was done from the Macintosh computer. Apple continued the tradition of buttonless controls and only status lights on up through the LaserWriter II product line, while the HP LaserJet models continued to bristle with unusual buttons, intended for users of simple DOS software incapable of sophisitcated automatic printer management and monitoring. The Apple LaserWriter was one of the first laser printers available to the mass market. ...


But by 1999 the PC was now firmly into the Windows 95 era with DOS fading fast. Many of the original manual control buttons like Form Feed were no longer necessary, because the Windows 95 print-spooler subsystem offered even simple Windows applications a much greater control over the printer than was available to DOS applications, which had to constantly rebuild and re-engineer basic printer management systems from scratch. This new Windows-oriented interface was highly intuitive and obvious to the casual user, who needed little familiarization with the printer to use it effectively.


Raw unformatted text-only support still exists, but is hidden away in the professional LaserJet printers. Most professional LaserJet printers include a PCL menu where the number of copies, the font style, portrait or landscape printing, and the number of lines per page can be defined. These settings are ignored by graphical PCL/Postscript print drivers, and are only used for those rare situations where a LaserJet is used as a raw text-only lineprinter.


Key innovations

  • Spring 1984 – First HP LaserJet
  • Fall 1994 – First HP Color LaserJet
  • Spring 1997 – First printer-based multifunction device
  • Spring 2006 – World’s smallest footprint LaserJet

Industry firsts

  • Spring 1984 – Personal laser printing
  • March 1991 – Network printing
  • April 1993 – Web Jetadmin
  • November 2005 – Universal Print Driver

See also

1993 Apple LaserWriter Pro 630 laser printer A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. ... The following is a partial list of products manufactured under the Hewlett-Packard brand. ... The HP LaserJet 4 (abbreviated sometimes to LJ4 or HP4) is a group of monochrome laser printers produced in the early to mid-1990s as part of the LaserJet series by Hewlett Packard (HP). ... The HP LaserJet 5 is a group of monochrome laser printers produced in the mid-1990s as part of the LaserJet series by Hewlett Packard (HP) [1]. It was the successor to the HP LaserJet 4 series of printers, and in turn was superseded by the HP LaserJet 6 series... The HP LaserJet 1012 is a low-end, monochrome laser printer from Hewlett-Packard that retails for US $199. ... // Previous product The HP LaserJet 2400 Series is the replacement for the HP LaserJet 2300 Series. ... A HP LaserJet 4000/4050 printer. ... The HP LaserJet P3005 is a series of black & white laser business printers. ...

References

  1. ^ HP Virtual Museum: Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer, 1984
  2. ^ HP – 100 Million HP LaserJets Shipped

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
LaserJet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (218 words)
LaserJet is the brand name used by the American computer company Hewlett Packard (HP) for their line of dry electrophotographic (DEP) laser printers.
The HP LaserJet, along with Aldus Pagemaker and Microsoft Windows, were central to the solution.
While the internal firmware/controllers/associated software/drivers are still mostly developed by HP themselves, and is considered their "value add" to the standard printer engines, such is now increasingly being outsourced to offshore vendors like Wipro.
HP LaserJet (326 words)
HP LaserJet 1150 printer is a high-performance monochrome laser printer designed for personal use.
HP LaserJet 2300 fl and white laser printer is the ideal solution for business professionals and small workgroups that.
HP LaserJet 9000dn is an incredible 80 per cent performance boost over the 4100n and even comes close to matching the A4.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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