PC Load Letter
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PC LOAD LETTER is a technology meme which refers to a confusing or inappropriate error message.
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[edit] Origin
"PC LOAD LETTER" is an error message encountered when printing on older HP LaserJet printers. These include the LaserJet 4/4+ as well as the LaserJet II/IID and III/IIID series. The error is always displayed fully capitalized.
"PC" stands for "Paper Cassette"[1], the tray that holds blank paper for the printer to use. "Letter" is the standard paper size (8.5x11 inches) in the United States and Canada. "Load", in this context, is an instruction to "refill". The phrase means that there is no letter-sized paper in the paper tray. A variant is "PC LOAD LEGAL", meaning that the printer requires 8.5x14 inch paper be refilled.
The message is confusing to users for several reasons. The abbreviation "PC" is widely understood - especially in the context of electronic office equipment - as "Personal Computer", suggesting to many that the problem lies in the computer, not the printer. Furthermore, in many countries the word "letter" is not associated with paper size; A4 is the standard size used instead. Thus, they may believe that they are being instructed to somehow load the contents of their letter in the printer, even though they have already sent the job to the printer.
Older Laserjet printers do not automatically re-size a page when the page size of a document does not match the paper that is loaded in the printer. When trying to print a document whose paper size is set to "letter" on A4-sized paper the message occurs. The error "PC LOAD A4" does appear in countries using the appropriate paper size; however, as many programs use "letter" as the default format the confusing message is often encountered by non-American users, who are unaware of the recovery procedure (empty print queue and printer buffer or press "Shift/Continue").[1] With the Laserjet 5, HP introduced an easy-to-find "GO" button to override the warning message.
Finally, the LaserJet 4/4+ especially is known as an extremely robust model and was sold in large numbers between 1991 to 1995. Spare parts and supplies are inexpensive and readily available, and as of 2006 this printer is still frequently encountered in law firms, government offices, publishing companies, and other locations where large quantities of paper are printed. One may therefore rest assured that PC LOAD LETTER will continue to confound office interns for the foreseeable future.
[edit] Use in popular culture
The phrase is a long standing joke and cause for confusion for computer users because most users could not (and still cannot) decipher its meaning. The term was popularized by the cult movie Office Space. Michael Bolton (David Herman), one of the three main protagonists, reads the error message from the LCD status display on a computer printer (although it looked like a fax machine), after which he rhetorically asks, "PC Load Letter, what the fuck does that mean?" Ironically, this message appeared on the display just after Bolton filled the printer's cassette with blank paper (possibly the wrong cassette, or with the wrong size, or both). Frustrations such as this led the main characters of the film to take revenge on the malfunctioning printer by destroying it in a vacant field with a baseball bat.
Since then, the phrase has appeared in numerous guises: on t-shirts, on the Internet (particularly in blog entries), as a 2005 Seattle band name [2], and referenced in the "System Administrator Appreciation Day" song by Canadian comedy troupe Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie: "He's the only one in the office who knows what PC Load Letter means." This message is also displayed in Doom RPG game, in a computer terminal next to a broken door. [3]
[edit] Changing the display
The PCL protocol allows changing the default message on the printer's display panel, a trick used in March 2006 by Linux programmers at Indiana University Southeast to allow Internet users to compose their own messages for display via a Web cam. The phrase "PC LOAD LETTER" was a popular choice.
[edit] References
- ^ One of many official Hewlett-Packard technical documents defining PC as a short-form of Paper Cassette. Retrieved on March 30, 2007.
