I’ve seen this on copiers, printers, and fax machines. I realize it’s some sort of distress signal, and eventually figured out that you’re supposed to add paper. But my initial reactions to it were like Michael Bolton’s in Office Space. What the heck does it mean, and why don’t they just say “Add Paper” or “Paper Out” or something. Is “Load” a verb? If so, is PC plural? If it’s a noun, where’s the verb?
Paper Cassette. Put some Letter size paper in it. Letter being the standard US size for paper. You could have “PC Load A4” for example.
The printer, or whatever, is loaded with A4 and has been requested to print on letter sized paper (not A4) which you’d have to feed in separately. You can usually put the printer out of its misery by hitting an ‘ignore’ button, and it will go ahead and print on its normal paper.
‘Normal’ being A4 size in some localities.
Usually, when this message appears although the feed tray is stocked, it is because the printer driver settings have been left as the default after installation of a printer that originates in a region where the standard paper size is different from that which is in the tray.
Actually, “normal” being A4 size practically everywhere in the civilized world except the US and its adjacent regions. As with many other international scientific and industry standards, the ISO 216 paper system is yet another one the US has so far failed or refused to adopt. See Markus Kuhn’s article for an explanation of how the standard paper sizes work and all the neat benefits they entail.
The message is actually trying to be clear. It’s (user name) LOAD (the type of paper I need), which usually works out to PC LOAD LETTER. In a network printer your machine name will often appear in the user name field. For a printer attached to one PC via the parallel port or USB port it will often just say PC since it doesn’t know the machine name. If I were to try and print something on legal size paper, I might see the message MSPC LOAD LEGAL since MSPC is the name of my computer at work.
PC stands for “Paper Cassette”, the primary paper tray on a LaserJet. The other possibilities are MP for “Multipurpose Tray” and LC for “Lower Cassette” on printers so equipped.
Am I being whooshed here? “Load” is a fairly common verb in English. Have you never seen the word used in the context of loading a gun, camera or truck? I’m flabbergasted.
He was asking if Load was being used as a verb in “PC Load Letter.” Not if it was a verb in the English language.
The one I see most often (after PC) is MF for “Manual Feed”.
I think you’re right. That makes more sense.