HP is the calculator heritage of the HP-35 and the HP-12C — built on Reverse Polish Notation, and now produced under licence by Moravia and Royal rather than HP itself.

HP follows Texas Instruments as the round’s heritage-licensed node — a storied calculator name whose devices are no longer made by the company on the box. Its answer to a round about who owns and where-makes the calculator is a brand-versus-maker split: the RPN heritage now made under licence.

Its identity is the RPN heritage now made under licence. The HP-35, the HP-12C and the licensing arrangement are the story here. The RPN heritage. The RPN heritage now made under licence.

(Honest notes, so the heritage, the signature and the licensing are framed accurately. HP sells calculators as heroes of a legacy line; we report its language as the brand’s own. On heritage: the HP-35 of 1972 was the first scientific pocket calculator with transcendental functions, and HP calculators are known for Reverse Polish Notation, or RPN, entry. On the signature: the HP-12C financial calculator, from the 1981 Voyager series, is the longest-running HP calculator line, still in production and a finance-industry standard. On the making, the key point: after the 2015 split of Hewlett-Packard into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP-branded calculators are made under licence, and since the first of November 2021, Moravia Consulting has been the licensee for all markets except the Americas and Royal Consumer Information Products for the Americas, both licensees of HP Development Company, so today’s HP calculators are HP-branded but made and sold by those licensees rather than by HP Inc. A trap: the brand is not the manufacturer. Its designs and the HP name are IP we describe but do not reproduce; there is no official brand hex; these tones are an unofficial interpretation.)

HP lives in an HP green. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

HP’s identity is heritage, RPN and licensed — an HP green, an ink, a pale green, a deep forest, and a paper. The palette leans HP green and deep forest: a clean, technical register that stands in for a calculator heritage rather than a loud logo colour. It signals the RPN heritage now made under licence — heritage, RPN and licensed. The honest caveat: with no official brand hex, these values are a technical, unofficial interpretation, not first-party colours.

The lesson is an HP green signals a heritage, RPN identity. HP’s world is the RPN keystroke and the HP-12C. For designers, it is a reminder that a clean green and a pale green can carry a heritage, RPN brand — a technical tone held as an accent, not a product shot. Because a mid hue can fail as small text, keep type dark and let the colour live in the accents, palette and band. The takeaways: date the HP-35 to 1972 and the HP-12C to 1981; feature RPN; state the licensing plainly; and keep the brand distinct from the maker.

The register is a licensed sans — heritage, RPN, licensed.

HP’s identity carries a heritage, RPN spirit — a name outliving its own factory. A licensed sans captures the mood: clean, modern and technical, the register of an engineering heritage. Set in an HP-green palette, the licensed sans feels dependable and earned — exactly the personality HP carries. It behaves like a made, moulded thing rather than a loud logo, mirroring a solar-line and an lcd-dot. (HP’s real products and the name are things we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not ours to use.) Because it is not ours to use, the honest description is “a licensed-sans brand,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the brand: heritage, RPN and licensed.

HP stands for the RPN heritage now made under licence.

HP sits third in the round as its heritage-licensed node. An HP-green palette, a licensed sans and the RPN heritage make one thing — the RPN heritage now made under licence — the whole identity: heritage, RPN and licensed. The HP-35 is the origin, the HP-12C is the survivor, and the licensing is the twist. The point is a storied name whose devices are made by licensees, in a round about who owns and where-makes the calculator.

Put to work, the identity is the brand told straight, the licensing stated and the maker separated. A brand in this spirit would date the HP-35 to 1972 and the HP-12C to 1981, feature RPN, state the licensing plainly, and keep the brand distinct from the maker. A reader in this spirit would keep the facts right: HP has a calculator heritage; the HP-12C endures; the calculators are made under licence; and the brand is not the manufacturer. HP sits after Texas Instruments and before Sharp. The honest editorial moves are to date the classics, to feature RPN, to state the licensing, and to separate brand and maker.

For designers and brand-builders, HP carries the calculator node: a heritage brand can outlive the company that made it. The lessons: a name can persist through licensees, here HP calculators; a heritage is dated, the HP-35 of 1972 the first scientific pocket calculator and RPN entry the hallmark; a survivor is featured, the HP-12C from the 1981 Voyager series, the longest-running line, still in production, a finance-industry standard; a licensing is stated, that after the 2015 HP split, and since the first of November 2021, Moravia Consulting makes HP-branded calculators for all markets except the Americas and Royal Consumer for the Americas, both licensees of HP Development Company; and a trap is kept, that the brand is not the manufacturer. It is also a reminder to state the arrangement: HP is the RPN calculator heritage now made under licence, not by HP Inc. — with the palette here an unofficial interpretation. The hook is that split: HP is the RPN heritage now made under licence, the calculator heritage of the HP-35 and the HP-12C, built on Reverse Polish Notation and now produced under licence by Moravia and Royal rather than HP itself. Read that way, HP is less a single calculator than the RPN heritage now made under licence: heritage, RPN, licensed. The lesson for a brand is that a heritage brand can outlive the company that made it, and stating the licensing keeps it honest. HP made the-RPN-heritage-now-made-under-licence the identity — proof that a licensed heritage can carry a node.

Keep HP’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.