HP Designjet 130

[bwpuk]

H,

I'm considering buying the HP 130 printer, primarily for colour work. So before I jump in I'm wondering if there any pros and cons on this model. My main worries are what are  the best archival gloss and matt papers for it and also colour accuracy etc. I'd be grateful of any advice.

Cheers !

Barrie Watts

www.barriewatts.co.uk

[rljones]

Barrie,

I owned the HP130 for about one year, sold it and bought an Epson 7800 this past spring. While the images the HP produced were very dynamic, there are some serious issues with it.

Specifically, the images are water soluble, unless they're protected. I had some images damaged before they could be coated. There are also sporadic problems with marks from the rollers on roll paper. Next, and for me more important, you are limited with media on which you can print. There was no canvas stock possible (HP techs kept promising a product but none materialized while I owned it). I didn't particularly like the HP glossy material, so it only left the HP matte. Sometimes I wanted a different look, but watercolor or heavier stock paper was not possible. (I tried anyway, but the result was not pretty: too much bleeding, etc.)

I used ImagePrint for the HP, but even that didn't help much (whereas ImagePrint for the Epson 7800 is outstanding, espeically with PhatteBlack). The best profiles for the HP were from Neil Snape.

I do not regret migrating over to Epson.

Regards,

Robert Jones

[neil snape]

As Robert says it's much more limited than a polyvalent Epson or the new LFP HP's or Canon pigment printers.
It does do well at even excel at printing satin or glossy on media that encapsulates the dyes.
They are not water proof, and have to be handled with the care of traditional darkroom prints or even more so if mounting with gloves etc.
I do think you'd best mount your prints behind glass though for the HP and the Epson. It's only the recent B9180 and Z printers that maintain a much higher degree of stability in non glass mounted printing.
The 130 is inexpensive to buy and running costs are really ridiculously low compared to other printers.
So if you are to print photos as in photo repro similar to a Durst Lambda then it is the printer to have. If you print B&W, matte media, or need a large choice of media , best look at pigment printers.

[bwpuk]

Thanks Robert and Neil,

After digesting your comments and seen the news from HP these last couple of days I reckon I'll hold fire a couple of months and maybe save up for one of the new Z printers !

Neil do you reckon the new HP technology will eventually trickle down to desktop size printers ?

Cheers

Barrie Watts

[neil snape]

Thanks Robert and Neil,

After digesting your comments and seen the news from HP these last couple of days I reckon I'll hold fire a couple of months and maybe save up for one of the new Z printers !

Neil do you reckon the new HP technology will eventually trickle down to desktop size printers ?

Cheers

Barrie Watts
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=78001\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I see HP melting the lines. The Photsmart team in the US make a huge effort towards simplifying procedures, writing code that turns tricks easily, with the goal of making printing easy yet pleasing. The large format team strive for accuracy and measurable hardware precision. At this time the true LFP divisions are sharing their stuff with the DJ (Z) and Photosmart actively involved in sharing as well. It is all becoming thankfully mixed , so all HP user will benifit. And yes I think some of the Z tech will blend to desktop and vice versa.