Printer Reviews

I have had this printer for more than a week and for it low cost it has been very good!On initial printing start up it's a little noisy but NOT BAD compared to other low cost models.Easy installation,lightweight.Print quality is very good in text and color prints are real nice.,remember...this is not a top of the line printer so don't look for razor sharp photos.I mainly use it for text with no problem.If your looking for a decent printer this unit should do.I have had cannon and lexmark but this is better for me.The HP prints quietly.If it ever dies on me in the future i'd get another one.It's low price is a plus!Who needs a printer with all the bells and whistles just to mainly print!I'd give it 5 stars but i don't print photo's much so it get's 4 stars.

The printing resolution is excellent. I can hardly tell the difference in quality from the laser printer in both B/W and color. All the functions work just great if you consider the price tag. This is almost identical to its sibling PSC500. Only downside is that if you use MS Publishing 2000, can't use the built-in slot to print out the envelopes because of the limited printing option to choose. It's MS's fault. You can still work around it by importing it to MS Words. For this reason I give 4 stars, but would give 5 stars for the unit itself. And, I wish I can copy something in color to B/W. Wouldn't mind paying few bucks extra for it.

I am in medical school and do A LOT of printing at home. I am can't really address how this printer works in an office environment, but it is great at home! I had a Epson photo inkjet before buying the HP. The Epson was a good printer, but I was going through ink cartridges like crazy!

The HP Business inkjet 2280 has worked out great for me. The ink cartridges are expensive, but last a VERY long time (4 cartridges, Black, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow ...). In fact, they last long enough, that I can buy the cartridges over a pretty extended period of time as I can afford them!

The printer is very fast and high quality. I was having trouble getting my previour printer adjusted correctly for printing photographs. I plugged in the HP and printed one out without any adjusting anything, just to see how it looked. It came out great!

Another good feature is that it has a pretty large capacity for paper.

The only drawback is that this printer is relatively loud. It isn't really that big of a deal, but I was not expecting it, and was very suprised. You might want to go to a store and print out a sample for yourself to see how much noise it makes. Like I said, it really hasn't been a problem, but it was unexpected.

One more thing about the ink. With some of my other previous printers, I have resorted to buying "off brand" ink from internet supplies. As far as I can tell, that is not an option with this printer.

Overall, I am VERY happy with this printer!

The price is high, but this cartridge provides very good quality. I won't risk messing up my high priced printer by using cheaper reconditioned cartridges.

At about 23% lower cost per page, this is the HP cartrige of choice.

Using the HP 1220C/PS this paper is excellent. The quality is proffessional, and the results are stunning. The only downside is that HP ink will smear. This is only true on their glossy papers, so if you need a photo and you won't be publishing, laminating or framing it, you might want to try out some Matte finishes. I've also noticed that Kodak paper, while thinner, dries much quicker and doesn't smear as easily. However, again, there is a catch. The Kodak paper doesn't have as great quality. So all in all, it's great paper, great quality, and perfect for my needs. Go for it.

Company: Hewlett-Packard...

For graphic designers, accurate color output is a must. While many home Mac users are fine with an inexpensive ink-jet printer, designers need a post-script printer, good color-management tools, and reliable printing. Enter the DesignJet 10ps, a true post-script six color 2400 x 1200 dpi, and is touted by Hp to be able to reproduce 90% of the pantone color library.

Set-up is relatively simple. The DesignJet 10ps uses your Mac as the software RIP, rather than a more conventional network RIP (raster image processor) more generally found in large print shops and design studios. The DesignJet 10ps is not a networkable printer, but a stand-alone unit for one user. The solo graphic designer can rejoice, however, because you can use USB Print sharing with the DesignJet 10ps, making the unit somewhat a network printer. However, USB Print Sharing is a slow process, and those designers needing to share a large-format post-script printer would do well to look at the DesignJet 20ps, the [$$$$] cousin of this printer.

The DesignJet 10ps is a large format (A3+, or up to 13 by 19 inches) printer, meaning you can print full bleeds of spreads with crop marks. The DesignJet 10ps supports both gloss and mate paper.

Speed is relative. Those used to working with software RIP will understand that the DesignJet 10ps is not the speediest printer, but is acceptable depending on the speed of your printer. A 350MHz G4 will take forever, while a dual processor 1.2Ghz machine will speed right through the RIP process. Printing speed itself is remarkably fast, due in large part to the half an inch printing at a time. A full 13 by 19-inch color print, once the RIP was done, took less than one minute to print out. Impressive.

Print quality is very impressive. Using a Pantone guide, color accuracy seems spot-on. Also impressive is the ease of which the user can swap-out the ink in the system, lifting a simple transparent plastic door to access the printheads. Nice.

What is not so impressive is the cumbersome color management. While the software tools installed on both the OS X and Classic work, they are not easy to use. And I simply could not get an X-Rite to work with the DesignJet 10ps at all. Whether this was the RIPs fault or my Mac is unknown, but the standard color settings HP provides the DesignJet 10ps with seem to work. Besides, if you need perfect prints, you will probably want to look at a printer a little higher up the food chain than this printer.

I enjoyed my time with the DesignJet 10ps. For those operating a small print shop, say two people, or the freelance graphic designer who needs large format printing capabilities, give the DesignJet 10ps a long look. Under [$$$] is a very good price. One thing to keep in mind is that this is a six-ink system, meaning each print-head will set you back on average [$$]. (Or over [$$$] to change all print-heads.)

Pros: True post-script accurate printing, large format, speedy printing, and ergonomic attractive case. Great control and status window on the unit itself. Easy print-head access. ColorSync Compatible.

Cons: Excessive fan noise at idle, slow RIP, very poor documentation.

MacMice Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Tim Robertson...

I was able to print over 12000 copies before changing drums. This included several thousand color copies. I did not get a drum low warning, theprinter went right to drum out. Once you go to drum out you can't print. It's a good idea to have a spare on hand. ...

This is a great printer and delivers on HP's promises. It is very versatile for small office printing. In our office though, we have a particular need to print from Autocad. This printer will not print properly as a system printer from Autocad (at least not in Windows 2000). There is a problem with the HP driver. This was solved by configuring the printer to print from Autocad using an older driver for a Laserjet 5. I do get an annoying device conflict warning every time I print though. This was accomplished, I might add, with no help from HP whatsoever. Not that I didn't try. Their primary solution seems to be to throw a bunch of HP users together and let them help each other. No one had a solution for my particular problem. HP makes great products, it is a shame that their support is so substandard. Product quality 5, minus 1 for lack of support.

The Good:

Very fast very clear, 6-10 seconds to print 1st page. I got an avg. of 51 pages per min. (HP says 45 PPM)

1200 x 1200 dpi with REt, UltraPrecise toner, HP ProRes 1200, HP FastRes 1200.

Paper: 10 envelopes-optional envelope feeder for 75 envelopes, Letter, legal, executive, No. 10 envelopes, Monarch envelopes,(plain, letterhead, prepunched, bond, color, preprinted, recycled), transparencies, labels, card stock, user-defined up to 20lb media weight.

Memory: 4300 64MB. 4300dtn,4300dtns, 4300dtnsl, 4300n, 4300tn 80MB. Max Memory 416MB

Get the base model 4300 and add the print server card (JetDirect 615N). The price is better. Memory is not expensive now so you can add 128MB if you need more than 64MB, that will be less than buying the 4300 w/ the print server.

The Bad:

IEEE 1284-compliant parallel interface port, NO USB. NO Print to/from Bluetooth, infrared built in.

One-year limited warranty; RETURN to HP ONLY You will pay to ship this 65lb Monster to HP for repair.