HP Photosmart B9180 media and icc profiles

[newindustar]

I have been researching this printer and ran across an anomaly. Here is the

supported HP branded media list from their site:

 

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF29a/18972-18972-3328063-15100-3328076-1143049.html#150141

 

There in no link to icc profiles or information on what HP media profiles are

included with the printer driver. I was in a chat session with them to try and

find out what icc profiles are provided for their own media to no avail.

 

Now for third party media profiles they selected all these medias and created

profiles:

 

http://h30267.www3.hp.com/country/us/en/support/photosmart-b9180-icc.html

 

That is very nice of them but they neglected their own media.

 

The traditional designjet medias:

http://h30267.www3.hp.com/country/us/en/designjet/supplies/searchmedia/178-.html?pageseq=638485

 

don't show support for the B9180. They seem to be relying on the Advanced Series

vs the Designjet series medias. Is this a good or a bad thing? The typical best

paper for the Designjet 90 for example Premium Plus Photo Satin does not seem

to be supported.

 

If anyone has one of these hooked up I would like to know what the included icc

profiles are.

 

Are the medias from :

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF29a/18972-18972-3328063-15100-3328076-1143049.html#150141

 

Advanced Photo papers and

the art materials like Aquarella and HP Hahnemuhle Fine Art Paper good? Is

Advanced photo paper the same as a Designjet paper with a different name?

 

Thanks

[philippartridge]

APP is a new series produced for the pigment ink B9180 and larger format Z series printers - much different from the dye inkset papers Hp made some time ago. The B9180 comes with a host of APP profiles, their papers are made by Hahnemuhle; the APP satin matte and soft gloss are very good indeed. They have a new pro paper out soon, a Pro satin type.

 

You are advised to seek information on dpreview 'printers' forum and on iphoto, and to google Neil Snape, a beta tester for the new HP printers. There is also a Yahoo group with a multitude of paper/ink profiles available that actually work very well on ALL B9180s, thanks to the calibration system. Wonderful output, by the way...and no clogs, no ink swaps, calibration for consistency over time, replaceable print heads, the longest archive life papers, a PS CSx plug-in, etc.

[nels]

I use a variety of Hahnemuhle papers with B9180 and have downloaded profiles from Hahnemuhle's website. They work great.

[nels]

The printer driver CD comes pre-loaded with several profiles, including (but not limited to):<p>

HP Advanced Photo Glossy, Soft-gloss, and Satin Matte<br>

HP Aquarella Art, and Artist Matte Canvas<br>

HP Hahnemuhle Smooth Fine Art, and Watercolor<p>

 

I have successfully tried all of the above except Aquarella paper.

<p>

The rest of the profiles, e.g. for Hahnemuhle papers, can be downloaded from paper manufacturer's website.

<p>

It's a great printer, and more important than <a href="http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/HP%20B9180/page-1.htm">printer review</a> itself, my choice was motivated by the longevity of the prints made with HP's Vivera inks as <a href="http://www.wilhelm-research.com/hp/WIR_HP_B9180_2006_09_10.pdf">tested by Henry Wilhelm</a>.

[newindustar]

Thanks very much for the excellent responses. Thatgives me all the info I need to go foward with the purchase. I wish there was a 17" version or something between this and the new wide format Zs.

 

The HP chat session tech also sent me a good link to show the driver supported medias. It is this data sheet:

 

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/pscmisc/vac/us/product_pdfs/1143049.pdf

 

Thanks

[havanai]

This may be going a bit astray, but how does the performance of this printer compare with the Epson 3800 or the Canon iPF5000? Or at significantly higher prices, are these comparisons unfair to HP?

[nels]

I'd be very interested in the 17" desktop version too, and my decision to purchase it would be sealed if they also made that version a 12 ink model with a built in spectrophotometer a la their Z series. I hear that the gloss optimizer ink cartridge in the 12 ink Z series model does wonders for color prints on glossy media.

[newindustar]

As an update I did install two of these and they are wonderful. I think I prefer the Satin matte over the gloss and it does not compromise on color saturation at all over the gloss. I wish the advanced papers had a heftier base as they dent easily.

 

The black and white is great and efortless. I think I had better luck converting the grayscales to rgb before printing.

 

One issue I found was that these printers wash out quite a bit in cmyk which is typical for a lot of inkjets. I never completed the process of tryig to match them to rgb files. This is a real issue for commecial environments but not for pure photographic purposes.