HP’s latest Photosmart is literally packed full of the latest print technology to get the most from text or photos. Several new types of paper are available for use with the B9180.

The new ink formulation and flexible media handling allows reproduction on exotic media such as stretchable 385 gsm canvas suitable for framing. Hp’s Vivera pigment inks are water resistant and have been independently tested and found to last up to 200 years.

The B9180 uses eight individual ink tanks: Photo Black, Matte Black, Light Grey, Light Cyan, Light Magenta, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. This combination of ink allows a wide gamut of colours as well as effective black and white prints.

Two black cartridges are installed simultaneously, but used individually depending on the type of paper you’re printing on – Photo Black for glossy paper and Matte Black for matte finish.

Four print-heads supply ink to the paper, offering a total of 8,448 nozzles. HP doesn’t disclose the print DPI in any of its literature, but trust us, it’s very good. Although, the print heads are designed to last for the lifetime of the printer, they can be replaced without shipping the printer for repair should they become worn.

When you turn on the printer for the first time, an automated self-calibration process is initiated. This procedure uses a few sheets of paper (provided in a special pack) to ensure that the printers colour output is exactly as specified.

The B9180 prints each test page and then measures it with a built-in densitometer, tweaking its internal settings as necessary to ensure the printed image remains within specification over the life of the printer. No user intervention is required other than feeding the paper.

A large selection of ICC colour profiles is provided with the printer, to ensure consistent and accurate colour matching, whichever type of paper you choose. If you’re making the most of the B9180, then you’re likely to be changing paper types quite frequently. Because different papers all need different colour profiles, HP has provided an application to help you keep them all organised and incorporate profiles of your own.

Many Photographers use Adobe Photoshop for processing and printing their images. HP has provided a Photoshop plugin to bring together all appropriate settings in one place and allow you to save frequently used configurations.

Two print trays are provided. The lower tray is fully covered and accepts up to 200 pages of plain paper or 60 sheets of photo paper. The upper tray folds down to allow a single sheet of paper to be fed with a thickness of up to 1.5mm.

Printing a 6in x 4in photograph at the best quality settings took a little under two minutes, stepping down to fast draft mode reduced this time to 42 seconds. However, much of this time was taken up by the printer setting up to print. Once ink had started hitting the page, only 12 seconds elapsed before the finished print was in our hands.

In all our tests, and no-matter what paper we printed on, results from the Photosmart Pro B9180 were simply stunning. When printing on speciality papers such as canvas and watercolour paper it’s hard to believe they were produced by an inkjet printer. On a variety of gloss, matte and semi-gloss papers, photographic output is just about the best we’ve seen.

Colour reproduction, black density, image detail and finish are all superb. We’re used to seeing excellent reproduction from most modern inkjets, but the Photosmart Pro B9180 stands out terms of both the quality and the breadth of what it can do.

If you just want to print out holiday snaps, then there’s no need to spend this kind of money on a printer, but if you’re into creative photography or graphic arts, for fun or for profit, then the B9810 will bring your images to life in ways you had never imagined.

Whether you’re just a keen enthusiast or a seasoned professional, the HP P hotosmart Pro B9180 delivers the quality, speed and longevity of prints you’ll need to exhibit or even sell your work.

Also consider:
Canon PIXMA iX5000 inkjet printer
The Canon Pixma iX5000 is good at what it does, but card slots and an LCD screen wouldn’t go amiss.

HP Photosmart 8750 Pro inkjet printer
The HP Photosmart 8750 Pro represents excellent value for a printer that can handle such a diversity of prints. Photo print quality is excellent too.