HP LaserJet - WikiHQ

LaserJet is a line of laser printers sold by HP Inc. (originally Hewlett-Packard) since 1984. The LaserJet was the world's first desktop laser printer.

Although laser printers date back to the early 1970s, the first one, Xerox's model 1200, was not a desktop unit. The technology base was Xerox's photocopiers. Hewlett-Packard was first with a desktop unit.

These printers (and later on all-in-one units, including scanning and faxing) have, , a four decade plus history of serving both in offices and at home for personal/at home use.

In 2013, Advertising Age reported that HP had "78 different printers with 6 different model names."

Technology

thumb|The LaserJet 500 Plus (model 2686D) was the largest of the early LaserJet series.

thumb|Laser head from [[HP LaserJet 5L printer]]

Most HP LaserJet printers employ xerographic laser-marking engines sourced from the Japanese company Canon. Due to a tight turnaround schedule on the first LaserJet, HP elected to use the controller already developed by Canon for the CX engine in the first LaserJet. In spring of 1989 The New York Times said that HP "dominates" the PC laser printer market. HP chose to use their in-house developed Printer Command Language (PCL) as opposed to Apple, which adopted the PostScript language, as developed by Adobe Systems. The use of a less-ambitious and simpler Page description language allowed HP to deliver its LaserJet to the market about a year before Apple's CX based product, and $1000 lower street price. It was a 300-dpi, 8 ppm printer that sold for $3,495 with the price reduced to $2,995 in September 1985. It was controlled using PCL3. Due to the high cost of memory, the first LaserJet only had 128 kilobytes of memory, and a portion of that was reserved for use by the controller.

The LaserJet printer had high print quality, could print horizontally or vertically and produce graphics. It allowed them to round out their portfolio of desktop publishing products and itself was very successful commercially.

The LaserJet IID was released in the fall of 1988, It was the first desktop laser printer capable of duplexing. Priced at US$1,495 by HP, and 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. It was also the first no ozone print engine.

Aftermarket replacement scanner assemblies remain available today.

1990s

thumb|Laser and scanning mechanism from a 1991 LaserJet III

thumb|HP [[LaserJet 4 series printer]]

In March 1990 HP introduced the LaserJet III, priced at US$2,395, with two new features: Resolution Enhancement technology (REt), which dramatically increased print quality, and HP PCL 5.

In October 1992, HP introduced the LaserJet 4 featuring a Canon EX engine with native 600-dpi output and Microfine toner for US$2,199. This model also introduced TrueType fonts to LaserJets which ensured that the printer fonts exactly matched the fonts displayed on the computer screen. (TrueType fonts could print on an original LaserJet Plus or later, but they would be printed as graphics, making the printing slow and restricted to a limited page area or reduced resolution.)

thumb|[[JetDirect J2555 print server card for connection to a Token Ring network]]

By installing an HP JetDirect print server card, a LaserJet 4 / 4M printer could be connected to a network, for example as a departmental printer in companies instead of the larger III Si and 4 Si models.

In 2020 The New York Times wrote "by the 1990s, it was a staple of offices around the world." Instant-on fusing was introduced with the LaserJet 4L in the spring of 1993. It included a new low cost print engine. They supported HP PCL 6, a printer-language which gave 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 models were updated next year.

The Color LaserJet 5 and 5M were introduced in March 1996, with 1200 dpi resolution. The LaserJet 6P and 6MP were introduced October 1996. They included infrared technology, for wireless printing.

In November 1996, HP introduced the network-ready LaserJet 5Si, a major revision and upgrade to the 3Si (IIISi) and 4Si, which had used the Canon NX engine. The 5Si, based on the Canon WX engine, could thus provide 11"x17" printing at an unprecedented 24 pages per minute and at 600 dpi with resolution enhancement. An internal duplexer enabled full-speed double-sided printing. Automatic personality switching (between PCL and PostScript), a feature that first appeared on the 4SiMX, was standard on the 5SiMX. The 5Si series were true workhorses, but initial production models were somewhat hobbled by a vulnerability to slightly low voltage (i.e. crashing if mains voltage was less than 120 Volts) as well as a weak clutch in Tray 3 (thus resulting in paper jamming for Tray 3 as well as the optional 2,000-sheet Tray 4), and also a weak solenoid in the manual feed tray (Tray 1). These paper-handling issues were easily dealt with, and many 5Si LaserJets remain in service today. The HP 5Si Mopier, a 5Si equipped with all available options, was marketed as the first network printer that was optimized to produce multiple original prints (mopies). It had a 100,000 copies-per-month duty cycle, and 24 ppm print speed.

In 1997, HP introduced the LaserJet 4000 family of printers. They included features from the LaserJet 5 plus higher resolution of 1200 dpi. These are mostly used in offices, and most recently in people's homes mainly to replace the LaserJet 4/5 series if the user had them previously. In 1999, HP released the LaserJet 4050 series, which was identical to the HP 4000 but with a faster formatter and an easily accessible paper registration area (where the paper is stopped, registered, and then advanced for printing; a flip-up cover here made clearing of this component easier.) The 4000 series, as well as the 4050 and the 4100, used partly external duplexers.

The world's first mass market all-in-one laser device, the LaserJet 4101 MFP, debuted 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 1200x1200-dpi resolution without significant performance loss.

In the network laser-printer market, the 5Si series was succeeded by the 8000, and later by the 8100 and 8150. The 8000 brought 1200x1200-dpi resolution, which was continued in the 8100 and 8150. The 8100 and 8150 brought faster printing (32 pages per minute), but this speed was only realized for single-sided (simplex) printing; double-sided printing remained at 24 pages per minute. These models, which used the Canon WX engine, provided durability and good maintainability.

2000s

thumb|[[HP LaserJet 1012, a low-end personal laser printer]]

thumb|HP Color LaserJet software installation disc

In December 2000 HP shipped its 50-millionth LaserJet printer.

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

In 2002, the 8150 was discontinued and was replaced by the 9000 series, which produced 50 pages per minute and used an internal duplexer. Meanwhile, the 4100 was replaced by the 4200 (later 4250) and 4300 (later 4350), which brought speeds of up to 55 pages per minute. 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(multifunction printers), a copier-based line of high-volume multifunction printers.

In 2006, total LaserJet sales had reached 100 million. A numeric keypad and other specialized buttons are also included for job storage, copy, and fax usage on models with those features.

Key innovations

Spring 1984 – First HP LaserJet
Summer 1994 – First HP Color LaserJet
Spring 1997 – First printer-based multifunction device
Spring 2006 – World's smallest-footprint LaserJet
Summer 2011 – HP Extraordinary Colors
Spring 2015 – JetIntelligence

Industry firsts

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

Models

The model numbers do not necessarily have anything to do with the order of product development or the type of print-engine technology. For example, the LaserJet 1018 printer has newer, smaller, and more energy-efficient technology than the LaserJet 4000. The 1018 also features USB while the older 4000 does not.

Some mid-1990s models accepted the LaserJet Companion, a sheet-fed monochrome scanner that connected to the parallel port of a LaserJet and provided copy functionality, as well as software scanning and fax functions.

Mono

HP LaserJet Original Printer series
HP LaserJet Printer (March 1984)
HP LaserJet Plus Printer (November 1985)
HP LaserJet 500 Plus Printer (March 1986)
HP LaserJet II Printer series (March 1987)
HP LaserJet Series II Printer
HP LaserJet IID Printer (1988)
HP LaserJet IIp Printer (1989)
HP LaserJet IIp Plus Printer (1989)

Upgrading memory of older models

Many older LaserJets and other HP printers (including LaserJet 4+, 4MV, 4MP, 4P, 5, 5M, 5MP, 5N, 5P, 5se, 5Si MOPIER, 5Si, 5Si NX, 6MP, 6P, 6Pse, 6Pxi, C3100A; DesignJet 330, 350C, 700, 750C, 750C Plus; DeskJet: 1600C, 1600CM, 1600CN; and PaintJet XL300) used proprietary 72-pin HP SIMMs for memory expansion. These are essentially industry-standard 72-bit SIMMs with non-standard Presence Detect (PD) connections. One can often adapt a standard 72-pin SIMM of appropriate capacity to support HP PD by soldering wires to pads, a simple task. HP printers of this type specify that RAM not faster than 70ns be used; this is probably due to a limitation of the PD decoding, and faster RAM can actually be used so long as the PD encoding indicates a speed of 70ns or slower. All printers will work with FPM (Fast Page Mode) memory; many, but not all, will work with EDO (Extended Data Out) memory.

Some even older models, such as the LaserJet II, IIP, IID, III, IIID, and 4/4M (i.e. not 4 Plus/4M Plus), used proprietary memory expansion boards. For example, the II and IID models used a roughly 4" square memory expansion board populated with DIP DRAM chips and a two-row header connector (with pins on standard 0.1" centers), while the 4/4M used 72 pin parity memory (and would fail to POST with non-parity memory). For the 4/4M (and the 4 Plus/4M Plus) memory modules of 4, 8, 16 and 32 MB were available.

Vulnerabilities

In November 2011, researchers at Columbia University announced the discovery of widespread vulnerabilities in LaserJet printers that allowed malicious firmware to be uploaded to the printers remotely. Using weaknesses in the printers' Web-based control interface, attackers could traverse the directory tree of an unpatched computer's data storage, and then locate cached copies of otherwise restricted information, moments before or even after it has been printed. This information can then be forwarded to hackers for accumulation to facilitate harmful actions.

The malicious firmware could also be crafted to exfiltrate printout data over the network, to attack other computers on the network, or even to cause a printer to intentionally overheat.

In September 2015, HP added new features to its printers to address security vulnerabilities, releasing what they called the "World's Most Secure Printers".

Repairs

HP offers a standard one-year warranty on all of its LaserJet printers. Owners of its products can contact HP directly or any of its Authorized Service Providers to fulfill warranty service. After the first year an extended warranty can be purchased to continue coverage.

After 7 years has passed since a model has been discontinued, manufacturers are no longer obligated to produce new parts to repair printers. HP has generally continued to produce parts after this time to continue support for their LaserJet printers, but there are a number of models for which new parts are no longer available from the original manufacturer:

Mono: 1100, 1150, 1160, 1200, 1300, 1320, 2100, 2300, 3015, 3020, 3030, 3050, 3052, 3055, 3100, 3150, 3200, 3300, 3310, 3320, 3330, 3380, 3390, 4, 4+, 4000, 4050, 4100, 5, 5+, 5si, 5000, 5100, 6, 6L, 6P, 8150, 9000, M1522, M2727;

Color: 1500, 1600, 2500, 2550, 2600, 2820, 2840, 3500, 3550, 3600, 3700, 3800, 4500, 4550, 4600, 4650, 8500, 8550, 9500, 9550, CM4730, CP3505. Third-party maintenance companies may have limited supplies of parts from their own stocks or from cannibalized equipment, but eventually recommend migrating to newer equipment.

References

External links

HP Virtual museum: LaserJet printer
Twenty Years of Innovation: HP LaserJet and Inkjet Printers 1984–2004