HP Logo: Old and New Compared

What changed in the HP logo

The HP logo under discussion is the company’s circular monogram: lowercase letters h and p set inside a circle. “Old versus new” usually means that long-running circle mark compared with a later, tighter redraw of the same idea. It does not mean Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which is a separate brand with a different identity after the 2015 company split.

Both eras keep the same core concept: two lowercase letters, a circular container, and a blue-and-light color pairing in standard corporate use. The redesign is a refinement of that monogram, not a new symbol. Readers comparing files, brand sheets or product packaging are looking at versions of one mark, then at a later split that assigned that mark to HP Inc.

The older circular monogram

The earlier HP mark that most people recognize is a circle holding a lowercase h and p. The letters sit as a compact pair, with the bowl of the p occupying the lower right of the circle and the h occupying the left. In typical applications the circle is a solid blue field and the letters reverse out in white or a light color. The full name Hewlett-Packard often appeared beside or below the circle as a separate wordmark rather than as part of the monogram itself.

Observable traits of that older drawing include more open counters in the letters, slightly more traditional proportions, and a circle that reads as a strong enclosing badge. Stroke weight and the exact curve of the h and p vary across decades of reproduction, so scanned or redrawn copies of the “old logo” are not a single geometry. Without original artwork, letter spacing, circle thickness and color values cannot be measured from a filename, a screenshot or a public download.

The later hp circle

The newer HP Inc. monogram is still lowercase hp in a circle. The letters were redrawn to look more geometric and even in stroke, with tighter interior spaces and a more uniform digital appearance. The circle remains the container, but the pairing is simpler at small sizes: fewer optical quirks, less of a “badge” feel, more of a flat icon. In product and marketing use the circle is sometimes dropped and the two letters stand alone, which is a usage change rather than a second official symbol.

A widely reported identity update in 2008 is the usual reference point for this cleaner circle. That date and the agency credit are documented claims about the program, not something visible in the artwork. What is visible is the shift toward more constructed letterforms and a mark built to hold up on screens and tiny device badges. Exact Pantone or hex values, circle-to-letter ratios and outline geometry belong in official artwork; they should not be inferred from a raster image or an .svg extension.

Side-by-side design traits

Trait	Older circular mark	Later circular mark
Core symbol	Lowercase hp inside a circle	Lowercase hp inside a circle
Letterforms	More open, traditional proportions	Tighter, more geometric strokes
Circle	Reads as a strong enclosing badge	Flatter, more icon-like container
Name lockup	Often paired with Hewlett-Packard	hp letters can appear with or without the circle
Color in common use	Blue field, light letters	Blue field, light letters
Brand after 2015	Historic Hewlett-Packard Company mark	HP Inc. continues this monogram

The table records observable structure and commonly documented brand assignment. It does not claim that every old file matches one master drawing, or that every new application still uses the circle.

HP Inc. is not Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In 2015 the Hewlett-Packard Company split into two companies. HP Inc. kept the personal-systems and printing businesses and continued the circular hp heritage. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is the enterprise-technology company and uses a different logo and wordmark. Mixing those two identities is the most common error when someone asks for “the new HP logo.”

If the job is PCs, printers or HP Inc. marketing, the relevant current mark is the hp monogram. If the job is HPE servers, software or services, the circular hp is the wrong brand. Historic Hewlett-Packard materials from before the split sit in a third bucket: period-correct old artwork, not a substitute for either successor.

What this means for vector assets

• Treat old-circle, new-circle and HPE artwork as three different assets, even when a file is labeled hp-logo.svg.
• A vector extension does not prove the paths match official geometry, that the circle-to-letter ratio is correct, or that you have permission to use the mark.
• Match the version to the era and the legal entity: historic Hewlett-Packard, HP Inc., or Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
• Prefer official brand artwork over traces of packaging photos, favicons or social avatars; those sources flatten curves and invent stroke widths.
• If a lockup includes the full company name, check whether that name is Hewlett-Packard, HP, HP Inc., or Hewlett Packard Enterprise before placing the file.

Gaps worth flagging: this comparison does not include measured outlines, official color codes or a year-by-year list of every HP drawing since 1939. Those details require the original identity documentation. The practical next step is to identify which company and which decade the work belongs to, then request that version of the monogram rather than treating every circular hp as interchangeable.