HP DeskJet

The HP DeskJet launched in 1988 as a cheaper companion to the LaserJet — a thermal inkjet printer for the home. It used HP's own thermal inkjet method, in which a tiny heating element boils a droplet of ink so that a vapour bubble ejects it at the page. The first model printed 300 dpi and cost a fraction of a laser printer, if slower and with ink as the real expense — the cartridge with its built-in print head became the business model.

The DeskJet range added colour in the 1990s and, alongside Canon's BubbleJet, made inkjet the obvious home printer for a couple of decades.