Good Printers?
- Thread starter Sirtovin
- Start date
I've always felt that in terms of their inkjet line, any of their deskjet 900 - 1200 series are the best. I have the 932c...
You get the most ink in their cartridges (42ml in the black, 38ml in the large colour), print heads on each cartridge, photo-ret 3 tech / 2400x1200dpi. Add to that, the ability to add the duplex printing module to the back of that entire line. Quick, quiet and don't usually break down.
They ofcourse, also work in OSX, classic, and just about most modern OSes.
As for their current crop...they've purposely decreased the ink cartridge size, and have bumped up the dpi (who cares about 5760dpi? When you print, that doesn't affect quality!). I'm certainly not a fan of the 5550/7550.
You get the most ink in their cartridges (42ml in the black, 38ml in the large colour), print heads on each cartridge, photo-ret 3 tech / 2400x1200dpi. Add to that, the ability to add the duplex printing module to the back of that entire line. Quick, quiet and don't usually break down.
They ofcourse, also work in OSX, classic, and just about most modern OSes.
As for their current crop...they've purposely decreased the ink cartridge size, and have bumped up the dpi (who cares about 5760dpi? When you print, that doesn't affect quality!). I'm certainly not a fan of the 5550/7550.
Sirtovin
Senior Switcher Tech Guru
I gave my mom my HP 940C printer... because I felt Epson was the way to go with Mac...
I brought the Epson 62C... Here is why I hate it now...
1. Eat ink like there is no tomorrow.
2. Tends to cycle itself for 30 seconds before a print job which can be noisey.
3. Paper often jams... and makes me pissed off during critical print outs...
Now I would like to go back to HP...
I miss the bottom load paper tray feature...
The fact that when you open the top the HP printer aligns itself so you can easily eject the cartridge out in seconds... The fact that you do not have to wait 30 seconds for the printer to actually print.
I am looking at the 5550 and the 7550 model because they offer what I said above...
Brad in TX
Registered
Have had a 960c for, oh, a year. Good points are flat paper tray, good paper feed, good ink capacity, button to cancel a print request, good print speed BW and color, very good print quality.
One bad thing is the stupid interrupt prompt that supposedly tells you when you're getting low on ink. It won't let you continue the print job until you acknowledge it. I wish it could be disabled because it warns you WAY WAY before you are actually low on ink. I suspect people in offices see that warning and immediately put in a new cartridge, which is great for HP income. I usually get several hundred more B&W pages before the ink really does run out.
Anyone know how to kill the ink warning?
WORST quality is that in X.2.4 you lose ability to print in color and some other abilities, I don't remember what-all, just that I have to go to Classic to print and that is a real crock.
One bad thing is the stupid interrupt prompt that supposedly tells you when you're getting low on ink. It won't let you continue the print job until you acknowledge it. I wish it could be disabled because it warns you WAY WAY before you are actually low on ink. I suspect people in offices see that warning and immediately put in a new cartridge, which is great for HP income. I usually get several hundred more B&W pages before the ink really does run out.
Anyone know how to kill the ink warning?
WORST quality is that in X.2.4 you lose ability to print in color and some other abilities, I don't remember what-all, just that I have to go to Classic to print and that is a real crock.
lurk
Mitä?
I have one of the newer 7150s and have been really happy with it. One problem with comparing it with previous HPs is that it uses a pigment based ink rather than a dye based one. That is it is more like paint than ink. The advantage of that is that it allows the printer to place smaller and more controlled dots on the page which bleed less. The relative size of the cartridges is really irrelevant since the technology is different. I would expect that the smaller cartridges actually cover more area per ml that the old ones but that is just random conjecture on my part.
As for the improved resolution being irrelevant it actually is very important for giving you better color when printing photos. Just like a newspaper an inkjet printer makes different colors by printing several colored dots close together. I could be printing a 1 cm square box and really having an 75 DPI printer would be fine for getting the shape right, however the color would be hard to match with so few pixels to work with. There is no delicately blending ink to match a color - the bugger squirts or it doesn't - so having higher DPI gives you higher color resolution. One technique that would be useful here would be to vary the size of the droplet produced to help control color. Epson has a patent on that technique so HP can't use it and HP has had to compensate with better inks and color management software. I think they have succeeded because when I was comparing the results of the different printers side by since I thought the HP was better.
-Eric
ObDisclamer: I am a former HP employee but I worked in the Big Iron division and I learned all that printer stuff from researching my own purchase. So don't think any of that info is HP official cause I hae never had any connection to the printer folks. I was and am just a consumer in this area like the rest of ya'll.
As for the improved resolution being irrelevant it actually is very important for giving you better color when printing photos. Just like a newspaper an inkjet printer makes different colors by printing several colored dots close together. I could be printing a 1 cm square box and really having an 75 DPI printer would be fine for getting the shape right, however the color would be hard to match with so few pixels to work with. There is no delicately blending ink to match a color - the bugger squirts or it doesn't - so having higher DPI gives you higher color resolution. One technique that would be useful here would be to vary the size of the droplet produced to help control color. Epson has a patent on that technique so HP can't use it and HP has had to compensate with better inks and color management software. I think they have succeeded because when I was comparing the results of the different printers side by since I thought the HP was better.
-Eric
ObDisclamer: I am a former HP employee but I worked in the Big Iron division and I learned all that printer stuff from researching my own purchase. So don't think any of that info is HP official cause I hae never had any connection to the printer folks. I was and am just a consumer in this area like the rest of ya'll.
I'm in business for myself and up to 3 years ago I had used an old deskwriter. When laser printers started to come down in price I investigated it for months. I finally found this guy on line who fixed printers and although he said that Brother's were good, he emphasized that the best line was HP in that they had very very very little problems at all, ran for practically forever and rarely if ever jammed. Brothers jammed alot and overheated.
I've had a 2100 NT for 3 years and absolutely love it! Absolutely no problems whatsoever ever! I bought an extra paper tray. It also does envelopes beautifully.
I then bought my wife the lower model, I think it was the 1200se and same thing: perfect and quiet and fast and cheap.
good luck. I know these models are not what you inquired about but just my 2 cents.
I've had a 2100 NT for 3 years and absolutely love it! Absolutely no problems whatsoever ever! I bought an extra paper tray. It also does envelopes beautifully.
I then bought my wife the lower model, I think it was the 1200se and same thing: perfect and quiet and fast and cheap.
good luck. I know these models are not what you inquired about but just my 2 cents.
lurk
Mitä?
Is that clearer than the 7550? If so it makes since because the 5550 ships with the normal tricolor carterage and the black. The 7550 comes with the tricolor and then a second photo ink tricolor. When printing black with the photo carterage installed the printer uses all of the colors to make black with is not a nice as having a real black carterage.
The cool think with those printers is that you can swap a black cart into th 7550 or the photo carterage into yours and get better text or photos depending on your needs. That is why there was that little black carterage clamp in the box with the printer so that you can actually swap out the one you aren't using and put it in the "clamp" so that the heads won't get damaged and the ink won't dry out. There is no cripple chip in those carterages so you can swap them as much as you like.
-Eric
See disclaimer above
Sirtovin
Senior Switcher Tech Guru
Originally posted by lurk
Is that clearer than the 7550? If so it makes since because the 5550 ships with the normal tricolor carterage and the black. The 7550 comes with the tricolor and then a second photo ink tricolor. When printing black with the photo carterage installed the printer uses all of the colors to make black with is not a nice as having a real black carterage.
The cool think with those printers is that you can swap a black cart into th 7550 or the photo carterage into yours and get better text or photos depending on your needs. That is why there was that little black carterage clamp in the box with the printer so that you can actually swap out the one you aren't using and put it in the "clamp" so that the heads won't get damaged and the ink won't dry out. There is no cripple chip in those carterages so you can swap them as much as you like.
-Eric
See disclaimer above
The 7550 is a better printer than the 5550 but i didn't want to spend the extra 50 dollars for it.
I think the extra 50$ would be definitly worth it for the 4 types of memory cards you can hook directly up to the printer and print from. Plus you can upload the photos to the computer!
Another nice advantage to the 5550/7x50 line printers is you can print in "Reserve mode" which allows you to print with only one ink cartridge in.
Another nice advantage to the 5550/7x50 line printers is you can print in "Reserve mode" which allows you to print with only one ink cartridge in.