Deskjet
Encyclopedia
Inkjet printer
An inkjet printer is a type of computer printer that creates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers are the most commonly used type of printer and range from small inexpensive consumer models to very large professional machines that can cost up to thousands of...
s manufactured by Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
. These printers range from small domestic to large industrial models, although the largest models in the range have generally been dubbed DesignJet. The Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
-compatible equivalent was branded as the Deskwriter and competed with Apple's StyleWriter
StyleWriter
The StyleWriter was Apple's line of inkjet serial printers, targeted mainly towards consumers. They produced print quality that was better than the dot matrix ImageWriters, and were cheaper than the LaserWriters...
.
The HP DeskJet 500 printer has four built-in typefaces and is compatible with TrueType fonts in Windows. The HP DeskJet 500 printer prints on plain paper with a print speed of up to three pages per minute.
The Hewlett Packard 500 was one of the first popular Black and White Inkjet printers. It created letters and patterns by spraying tiny drops of ink
Ink
Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...
from a cartridge against paper.
HP developed thermal inkjet technology in 1979 and launched their ThinkJet in 1984, with color following in 1987 thanks to the PaintJet. Launched in February 1988, the HP Deskjet was the world’s first single-sheet, desktop printer. Originally priced at $995, the reliable HP Deskjet featured an average speed of just 2 pages per minute. It was the least expensive non-impact printer on the market at the time it was introduced, when most small non-laser printers were still impact-based and laser printers remained relatively expensive. The first color DeskJet, the 500C, launched in 1991. It featured swapable print cartridges, one black, the other three-color; the unused cartridge was to be stored in a "garage" to avoid drying out.
Over time, through innovation and large scale production, the price was brought down considerably, being less than half by 1993, by which time inkjet technology and color printing were increasingly popular with consumers and DeskJets had both black and three-color cartridges installed simultaneously, starting with the 550C model.
Today, the HP Deskjet has transformed into a high-speed, lightweight printer with a multitude of features from wireless connectivity to intuitive software and hardware installation for quick and easy setup.
DeskJets are unusual amongst consumer-level inkjet printers in featuring an inexpensive, disposable print head built into the cartridge itself. This allows consistent print quality since the head is replaced frequently, along with the ink. Under some circumstances it may also reduce the need for frequent head-cleaning cycles, which consume ink. This business model of proprietary cartridges has proven very profitable for HP.
The DeskJet developed into HP's current DeskJet, DesignJet, PhotoSmart and Professional Series printer lines, all of which are based on thermal inkjet technology. The latest photo printers use several shades of ink to produce a wide color range.