Help with setting up HP Z9+

[Pasto]

A dear photographer friend passed away a year ago and I was gifted a Z9+ by his wife. He had purchased it in June of 2021 and it still contains about 25% ink in each the first full set of ink cartridges he bought. It wasn't used much as he became ill shortly after the purchase. After a long while in storage (plugged in), I finally decided last weekend to give it a go. I have no experience with HP printers, having only ever used Epsons in the past starting with the 3800 then 3880 and later the 7900, currently a P800. I'm by no means a printing expert, but so far I'm finding the set up of the Z9 to be rather confusing and problematic (probably user issues). I would be greatly appreciative of any support other users can provide as I try to make this thing work for my photography. Here goes:

Computer: Mac Pro 2013, Mac OS 12.7, printing with LRCC
Printer: connected to my computer via an ethernet hub/switch that's centrally located in my home, I have the latest firmware (June 2024) for the printer as available on HP's website.

I've already read through most of the user manual, a good part of the service manual, and about 50 or so of the latest forum posts relating to the Z9. Some questions that could help me get started:

1) After installing the printer driver, I have two apps: HP Utility and HP DesignJet Utility. I can't tell the difference?
2) If I'm managing color via LRCC, are paper presets needed at all? If yes, why? Is selecting an ICC profile (either from the paper manufacturer or my own with ColorMunki Photo) within LRCC not enough?

Baby steps....
Thanks.

[Kyle Jackson]

Hi Pasto, so sorry to hear about your friend  Photographer friends are extra special. A short while ago I learned a master photographer who helped me as a beginner years ago had passed away. I didn't know them super well, but when I thought about how much my photographic growth was influenced by them still to this day, it just hit different.

I don't have Z9 (or Mac) experience, so hopefully others chime in. But on the chance some things from Z3100/Z3200 world continued into the Z9, here's some info that might help...

If the "HP Utility" is version 1.17, then it sounds like the same legacy software that's been around for years. For the Z3x00 it's the main status/monitor software for the printers, and also where the paper profiling features are accessed (in the HP Colour Centre).

I've never seen the "HP DesignJet Utility" first hand, tho I've seen it mentioned. It's not a player in my Z3x00 world.

If the Z9 ecosystem is similar to Z3x00, then "paper presets" are media settings installed in the printer's firmware for things like paper thickness, ink limits, automatic cutter, etc. Basically media-handling settings. (Often called .oms files.)

ICC profiles are often bundled with those presets but are completely separate. Regardless of which actual paper you use, a preset must first be selected in the printer with settings suitable for that media (it's selected when loading the roll, but can be changed later in some cases). Then separately you can use any ICC profile you want in your colour-managed apps, like one from printer or paper mfr, or make your own (latter is best).

In Z3x00 these options are managed thru HP Utility > Colour Centre > Paper Management.

So my workflow to add a new roll is roughly:
- load roll in printer, selecting a suitable preset (some hp docs help choose)
- in HP Utility > Colour Centre > Paper Management > Add new paper
- follow the prompts to calibrate the paper, followed by profiling the paper.
- the ICC profile is automatically stored on my PC for my apps (and should be stored in the printer too, but sometimes I have to use the Sync feature for that to happen).

Calibrations expire after a certain amount of time and the software will prompt for redoing it.

ICC profiles last forever but of course may be "stale" if you've changed rolls, inks, humidity, whatever, so redoing those at important times is a good idea.

The presets list usually has a lot of HP media by name, and then some generics. Can pick any of them as long as its settings are suitable for the media. Sometimes need to experiment, particularly regarding ink limit. For example I'm using a generic preset ("Fine Art Paper - More Ink") on one HP paper because it's giving better results (higher ink limit so better gamut and Dmax).

Hope that helps somehow, cheers

[Pasto]

Thanks for this Kyle. It gives me a good overview of the process. The HP Utility I have is version 5.48, whereas the HP DesignJet Utility is version 1.3.4. Seem to be 2 independent pieces of software but functionally identical, I think.

One problem I noticed is that the connection between the utility and the printer is not reliable. I often get the message "unable to connect to the selected device" message. I can't see any particular pattern yet. It does mostly occur after the printer goes into sleep mode and I request that it wake up from the computer, but not exclusively.

When it does connect, I have a "paper preset management" icon that allows the creation of a new preset. When I click on it I'm taken to a mostly blank screen that I think would show a list of custom presets. I can click on a + at the bottom of the screen to start the process you described. I have the option of naming the preset, and then presumably selecting a paper type before continuing. The problem is that at this point I can enter a paper name but I don't have access to the paper type drop down list (it's grayed out). All I can do is cancel from here. I have no idea if it's my error or the utility...

[Kyle Jackson]

Ah okay sounds like the Z9 is running a completely different software suite then (for better or worse).

The comms issues could be driver-related. So here in z3100/z3200 land we had decent drivers specific to our printer models, but then hp switched to "universal" drivers for pretty much all designjets and those drivers are crap. Many printer features such as paper management, profiling, etc, don't work with them -- pretty much anything that requires bidirectional comms between PC and printer. So most of us just roll back to "old" drivers because they actually work. I'm not sure what your options are there for Z9 drivers.

And comms issues might also be why the options in the software aren't available/working.

For mine the software and drivers can be installed/removed separately, so you could try different drivers without removing the software utilities.

It seems printer users are increasingly hard to find so I'm not sure where is the hub of experienced z9 users (if there is one). And traffic on this site is nowhere near what it used to be. Sometimes if a thread here isn't getting answers I'll risk DMing someone who posted something related in recent years, and I've sometimes found help that way. Might be an option if no Z9ers stop by soon.

[Pasto]

Thanks again Kyle. I was just going to post that there is indeed an issue with the utility, as you suggest. I was getting confused between HP Utility and HP designjet utility. It turns out that the HP Utility appears to be a more general driver/utility that does not communicate well with the Z9. When I removed the HP Utility and ran the HP designjet utility, it finally communicated as expected and the paper preset management options worked. In fact I ran a calibration and profile on Epson Premium lustre photo paper as a test as I have a couple of 24 inch rolls of it. I did, however, end up with 3 ICC profiles! One was the profile I named with GE off, and the utility created and installed 2 other profiles with different names, one with GE on and the other with GE off. Wish I understood why...

Regarding experienced Z9 users, I must admit that I am surprised at how difficult it has been to get the input of users of this printer. Not sure if it means that photogs have abandoned HP. I'll wait patiently for a bit longer before doing as you suggest.

Best to you.

[Kyle Jackson]

Progress! haha... 

It's a little confusing sometimes because it does some auto-names as well as the ones we provide (at least mine do) and it's not always consistent between the names shown in the software or on the printer, and the names of the actual .ICC profiles. But after you run through it a few times hopefully you'll spot the pattern of what's it's doing. You might also be able to check the ICC profile date/time info to sort it out.

On mine it'll automatically create 2 profiles, for GE on and off (unless it's a matte paper).


I don't know the full history but I get the impression the Z6/9 series was a fizzle compared to the Zxy00 printers before it. The Z3100/Z3200 in particular seemed really popular and I thought actually dominated the segment early on, but then hp as a company seemed to turned its back on that market, other than continuing to make consumables. When they tried the Z6/9 it seems like many users had already left the brand (or printing entirely), or simply opted to stay with the legacy printers (I've seen many comments that they had better print quality). I read that the engineering division (Barcelona I think) was eliminated, tho I'm not sure whether that was before/after the Z6/9 launched. There are (or were) users here who used to interact with hp directly on various issues over the years, so they'd have more direct knowledge of how it evolved. But my TL;DR summary is they had a great product (Z3200), not so great support, and eventually abandoned the market segment. (Just like NEC colour-critical monitors...)

[Pasto]

Strange that this thing is still for sale new. In any case, from the first few prints I've made, even without a complete colour managed workflow, the prints are spectacular. Every bit as good as my P800. I think the black and white may be even better than the P800. If I can get it to print colours consistent with my monitor, I'll be happy to have it. Really looking forward to it....

[Kyle Jackson]

If the B&W capabilities of the Z3200/Z3100 series carried over to the Z9+, then I believe it -- those printers were often remarked as the best B&W printers made, especially on matte media so they use the full "quad-black" ink set (MK, PK, G, LG). The Z9+ pitched the LG but maybe they made up for it with other methods/technology.