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HP LaserJet

HP LaserJet

Image creditAtomic Taco from Seattle, WA, USA, via Wikimedia Commons
CC BY-SA 2.0

HP LaserJet

Year
1984
Creator
Hewlett-Packard Boise Division team
Company
Hewlett-Packard
Location
Boise, Idaho

Description

The HP LaserJet is a desktop laser printer that prints 8 pages a minute at 300 dots per inch. Hewlett-Packard introduced it in May 1984 at a price of $3,495.

Importance

The LaserJet was a desktop laser printer for personal computers, at a time when laser printers for large computers cost $100,000 or more. It used the same Canon print engine as the Apple LaserWriter, which ran Adobe PostScript. Hewlett-Packard used its simpler PCL language and sold the LaserJet almost one year before the LaserWriter at a lower price.

Interesting fact

Hewlett-Packard first planned the LaserJet as a printer for its own minicomputers, not for personal computers.

Sources

  1. HP LaserJet: The Early HistoryJim Hall, HP Computer Museum seminar notes · 2011
  2. Twenty Years of Innovation: HP LaserJet and Inkjet Printers 1984-2004HP Corporate Archives · 2004-05-24
  3. HP LaserJetWikipedia