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Most HP photo printers now use the Vivera ink set and results on either HP or Kodak paper are as good as the best from Epson or Canon photo printers. HP claim up to 108 years life for prints displayed under glass, so stability is also excellent, especially if you use HP Premium Plus Photo Paper. Using the cheaper HP Premium, not Premium Plus, paper halves the figure, but is still very good. Claimed print life with earlier HP dye inks were also exceptionally good at about 70 years. HP Fade Test

Overall HP photo printers are capable of some of the best results available, producing attractive, bright but accurate, colours. The main down sides are running costs, which are higher than average, and some of the most over complicated driver software I’ve ever had to deal with.

HP Vivera Inks
HP Photosmart 8250 photo printer

HP Photosmart 8250 Review

hp 363 inks - 6 colour

Also used in the hp 3110, 3210, 3310, 7160, 7360 and 8200.

Vivera inks now used in most hp Photosmart printers

Older HP Inks

Before the HP Vivera inks appeared, many HP photo printers used the no: 57 and 58 cartridges, which offered excellent quality and fade resistance, provided you used HP’s own Premium Plus Photo Paper. All HP printers really only work well with HP’s own paper, or Kodak photo paper which is very similar. Where Canon or Epson photo printers work quite well with most makes of photo paper, HP printers won’t.

The opposite is also true, in that Canon and Epson printers don’t work well with either HP or Kodak photo paper. Part of the reason is that HP papers are swellable and absorb ink in a completely different way from Canon or Epson papers.

This all has an impact on running costs. To get good results from all HP Photosmart or Vivera ink based printers you need to budget for HP inks and paper. That plus the fact that many HP printers have a print head built in to every single cartridge, make HP printers in general more expensive to run than the equivalent Canon or Epson.
HP7150 photo printer

HP Photosmart 7150 Review

HP 57 and 58 inks - Also used in the HP Deskjet 450Ci, 450 WBT, 3647, 3650, 3845, 5145, 5150, 5550, 5552, 5652, 5655, 5850, 9650, 9670, 9680 and HP Photosmart 7260, 7345, 7350, 7450, 7459, 7550, 7560, 7755, 7760, 7762, 7960 and the PSC 1210, 1311, 1312, 1315, 1317, 1340, 1345, 1350, 2105, 2110, 2115, 2171, 2175, 2179, 2210, 2410, 2510 plus Officejet 4214, 4215, 4219, 4255, 5610 and the HP Digital Copier 410

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All text and images copyright David Gold 2006 - 2009
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davidgold@ezeedsl.co.uk
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