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HP LaserJets employ electro-photographic laser marking engines sourced from the Japanese company Canon. Most early printers used internal firmware, controllers, associated software, and drivers developed internally by HP and were considered their "value add" to the standard printer engines.
In the beginning, because Canon had produced the only laser print engine available, both the first HP LaserJet and the first Apple LaserWriter used the same Canon print engine. The internal engine design differences were mostly superficial, with the main difference being in the onboard RIP controller, and the user-interface design (discussed below). This sharing of an identical Canon engine in two competing products continued with the HP LaserJet II/III and the Apple LaserWriter II, which also used the same internal Canon print engines.
Beginning with the LaserJet 4000, HP nearly completely outsourced its print-engine design work to Oak Technology, now Zoran Corporation, among many other suppliers, creating a much greater divergence in print-engine design between Apple and HP.
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