Review of the HP Photosmart Pro B9180

Inkjet printing has improved in quality over the last few years, and now it’s become the preferred method for printing photographs. However, one of the major obstacles with inkjet has been longevity of prints. Prints could change colour within months and noticeably fade in a couple of years, this meant you couldn’t sell photographs to collectors or paying customers. Gradually photographers have seen the advantage of using pigment ink based printers, the longevity issue is rapidly fading into a thing of the past. HP have just announced a new Pigment based A3+ printer, the HP Photosmart Pro B9180. The printer is built like a tank and will suit a professional studio photographer as well as the serious hobbyist and fine art photographer. The HP B9180 uses four replaceable printheads, each print head handles two colours and can be easily replaced at any time. The printer boasts eight colours, two of the inks are Photo black and Matte black, these are switched automatically depending on the media type selected. The eight ink cartridges, which each hold 28ml of ink, are stored in a compartment at the front of the printer and remain in the same position at all times. Paper is front loaded via a heavy duty paper tray, this accommodates media sizes from 10 x 15 cm to A3 and envelopes. As with most HP printers the media passes through a U-bend feed system. There is also a straight paper path which is located directly above the paper input tray, this supports media with a thickness of up to 11.5 mil. Prints are delivered onto an extendable output tray. A very simple to use control panel is located on the front, this gives the options to Print a test page, Print a sample page (using a HP image), Network settings, Clean printheads, Align printheads, Calibrate printer – this automatically adjusts the printers colours to match the media type. Finally a graphically and numerically display to show you how much ink is left in each cartridge. The printer installation includes an Adobe Photoshop plug-in. This is accessed in Photoshop via File > Automate > HP Pro Print. The user can now to set all the printer options, colour management, media type and other settings from this central dialog box. In use this printer is very easy to set up, you don’t have to wade through a thick manual first. I had reservations about a U-bend feed system, I have always used rear gravity feed printers, using this printer made me quickly realise some of the less obvious advantages, namely the media is well protected against dust and other objects falling into the rear of the printer. In the five months I have been using this printer I have not had any paper jams. Although the printer we have here is a beta version and still needs the profiles to be tweaked, the quality of printing so far is outstanding. HP have put a lot of thought and work into this printer and I am sure the final retail version is going to give other manufacturers something to worry about