Paper Tray Names and Numbers

Paper tray nomenclature has evolved over the years, and we now have a mix of alphabetical and numerical tray identifiers. This note is meant to clarify the evolution and usage of paper tray identification terms.

Early Practice

The original LaserJet, and the LaserJet II and III all had a single paper tray that HP referred to as a “paper cassette”. The machines had provision for manual feed, but there was no such thing yet as a separate multipurpose tray for manual feed. In the early two-tray machines such as the LaserJet IID and IIID, the modifiers 'upper' and 'lower' were sufficient to clearly identify which tray was which.

The Multipurpose Tray and the Lower Cassette Module

The introduction of the LaserJet 4 brought with it two new pieces of printer architecture -- a multipurpose tray, and an optional add-on tray module that went beneath the printer. HP's terminology for these trays went like this:

MP Tray -- Multipurpose Tray; aka “manual feed tray” or “bypass tray”. The reason HP chose the term “multipurpose” is that in addition to being a manual feed tray, it can also be filled with a stack of paper or envelopes and treated by an application as if it were an extra paper tray.

PC Tray -- Paper Cassette Tray. The printer's integral paper tray. Here, HP simply kept the term from the earlier machines.

LC Tray -- Lower Cassette Tray. The optional add-on tray that goes underneath the printer. Hence, “lower cassette”.

Numerical Tray Identifiers

With the introduction of the LaserJet 5 series, HP abandoned the alphabetical tray identifiers and went to a numerical system. All subsequent printer models adhere to the same rules. The multipurpose tray is always called Tray 1. Tray 2 is the highest paper cassette in the machine. (Usually the machine’s single integral tray. Note that the 5Si, though, has two integral trays.) Tray 3 is the next tray down and so on. The following table illustrates this.

Lexmark

Lexmark’s practice is a little different from HP’s. Lexmark calls the multipurpose tray a “multipurpose feeder,” and does not give it a tray number. All the other cassette trays in a machine are numbered from highest to lowest as per HP's method.