Digital Photography Now Printer Reviews | |||||||||
3-part series: Photo ink-jets laid bare | |||||||||
By Ian Burley | |||||||||
Part 2: Photo ink-jet print quality | |||||||||
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Hewlett-Packard psc-950 | |||||||||
Click a thumbnail below to see larger versions of these comparative test images:
Text modified: 29th April 2002 Although we happen to have tested an HP psc-950 all-in-one model, parallel testing with a HP Photosmart P1218 confirms that print quality is identical, though the psc-950 is slightly slower. I like HP products a lot - they are almost always built to last and feature great design features. But I do fear that HP’s reliance on its Photoret III technology is a mistake of growing proportions. Photoret is a fancy name that hides a basic inadequacy in photo printing terms. Only three colour inks are used by HP, forcing it to depend on a dot-layering technique to synthesise the many thousands of colours that are required to make up a full colour photo. All of HP’s key competitors use at least an extra shade of cyan and magenta ink to ease this task. And it shows. HP’s competitors are improving their photo print quality steadily and I feel the gap between them and HP is growing appreciably. On a more positive note, HP’s use of black pigment ink makes it among the best for text printing on plain paper. Even colour printing on plain paper is comparatively good. For flyers and posters on plain paper and featuring photos, HP is the only choice. Undoubtedly, HP makes superb all-round printers. But in strictly photographic terms, HP has a lot of catching up to do. Colour
Real world results aren’t disastrous, though we’d advise turning the print driver’s brightness up. Colour tends to be on the garish side, which can mask the limitations of the printer’s colour range. Viewed on their own, psc-950 prints are acceptable, but viewed alongside the results of all the other printers, HP’s limitations are exposed badly. GrainAgain, HP is bottom of the class. Photoret produces the biggest and most discernible dots. Hold a print back at arm’s length and you’re OK, but look a bit closer and those dots jump out at you. SharpnessWith the biggest dots, sharpness is inevitably compromised. It’s not fatal, just not as good as the others. ConsistencyGenerally, print consistency is good, until one of the colours runs out. We have noticed a minor tendency towards clogged nozzles, but this is reliably cured by the head cleaning option in the printer control application. In our experience, HP Photoret printers only work acceptably in quality photo mode using HP photo paper. The tight 180 degree paper path of HP ink-jet printers precludes the use of many thicker papers and card. FinishHP premium photo paper has a nice weight to it and a good gloss before it’s used. However, once printed, the gloss dulled. It’s also noticeable that areas of white on a print remain shiny because they haven’t been exposed to a layer of ink. We do find the printed surface noticeably less durable than others, even well after the ink has been allowed to dry. Second opinionsAlmost unanimously, our panel rated the photo printing capability of the psc-950 fourth out of the four, though one member did rate one of the test prints best in its category. Test summaries - printer by printer: | |||||||||
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