| The HP LaserJet 4 was the first in a series of printers, | | | | we still use this print quality as our basic standard for |
| launched in 1992 and continuing on in production through | | | | black and white text printing. When HP created the HP |
| the mid nineties. This monochrome laser device was | | | | LaserJet 4L, they scaled down the overall size of the |
| intended for business use, but HP would soon release | | | | unit to aim at the personal use market. Unfortunately, |
| variations on the model for the individual, and home | | | | quality suffered drastically and topped out at only 300 |
| user. As an earlier laser printer, it came in an extremely | | | | x 300 dots per inch. |
| heavy package, was clunky, loud, and delivered a slow | | | | The original HP LaserJet 4's curb weight of 51.4 |
| print speed by today's standards. Still, it was one of the | | | | pounds made it almost completely immobile within an |
| most successful office printers of the time, and | | | | office setting. Its large footprint of 18.1 inches (W) by |
| spawned many of the HP printer lines we see today. | | | | 20.6 inches (D) also made it inappropriate for home |
| This grandfather laser printer was aimed at the smaller | | | | use, along with a height over a foot tall. And yet, HP still |
| office, intended as an affordable alternative to industrial | | | | referred to the device as a desktop printer. |
| grade, mass output machines. Operating at up to 8 | | | | With 2 MBs of built in memory, the HP LaserJet 4 was |
| pages per minute, its speed was slow by today's | | | | subject to slowdown when interpreting complicated |
| standard for a laser device, yet was absolutely top of | | | | source data. Luckily, HP incorporated a 72 pin SIMM |
| the line in 1992. Only a year later, the HP LaserJet 4Si | | | | slot for additional memory, though no greater than a |
| model would be released, which boasted a top speed | | | | total of 16 MBs. Though this is a small amount by |
| of 17 pages per minute. At the time, a print speed this | | | | today's standards, with only 8 pages per minute |
| fast was almost unheard of, and is still impressive to | | | | maximum, the additional memory would keep the |
| this day. | | | | LaserJet 4 running optimally. |
| Interestingly, as the original HP LaserJet 4 operated | | | | No built in networking was available for the HP |
| only on PC based systems, the HP LaserJet 4Si was | | | | LaserJet 4, but it did include both a Parallel port and a |
| intended exclusively for the Macintosh, and could only | | | | serial port. It was capable of interpreting PCL 5 and HP |
| be used on a Mac OS. Other Macintosh only models | | | | GL2 languages, but could not operate with Postscript, |
| would be released along side their PC counterparts in | | | | limiting its possible applications to a degree. The device |
| the years to come, as by-platform printers were still | | | | also only included twelve regular fonts and six True |
| uncommon. | | | | Type fonts, further limiting its usefulness in the overall |
| The HP LaserJet 4 could pull off a resolution of up to | | | | business world. |
| 600 x 600 dots per inch. Almost twenty years later, | | | | |
