HP Launches 9-ink Photo Printer

May 12, 2005: HP has released its first 9-ink A3 photo inkjet printer, the Photosmart 8750, which promises long-lasting, colour photos with the look and feel of traditional photo prints.
Selling for $899, the Photosmart 8750 is designed for HP’s Vivera inks and Premium Plus Photo papers, a combination that claims fade resistance of up to 108 years (based on Wilhelm testing). The inks are supplied in three cartridges: the HP 97 Tri-colour cartridge, which contains cyan, magenta and yellow inks; a new HP 101 Blue Photo cartridge with light cyan, light magenta and a new blue ink that expands the blue gamut; and the HP 102 Grey Photo inkjet cartridge, which contains light grey, dark grey and photo black inks. This ink set covers the full sRGB gamut range of colours and tones and allows users to produce exhibition quality prints.
The Photosmart 8750 can utilise high resolution input data of up to 1200 x 1200 dpi and outputs at 4800 x 1200 dpi with precise control of dot placement that minimises visual artefacts. The printer driver allows users to produce borderless prints in sizes ranging from passport-size and 10 x 15 cm snapshot prints up to A3 size. It also supports panorama printing at sizes up to 216 x 610 mm. For B&W printing, users can opt to print with the black inks only or select the entire ink set when ‘toned’ prints are required.
Comprehensive colour management tools include support for Adobe RGB, sRGB and ICC profiles. The Photosmart 8750 comes with a front-mounted HiSpeed USB 2.0 port and card slots that allow direct printing from any major memory card. It also has a built-in Jetdirect 10/100 Ethernet printer server that allows the printer to be shared on a small network. A backlit monochrome LCD panel displays up to two lines of text and two lines of icons for direct printer control. The Photosmart also comes with HP’s Image Zone editing tools, Instant Share direct emailing facility and on-the-spot proofing controls.

Announced concurrently with the Photosmart 8750 were the Deskjet 9860 printer (RRP $699), an 8-ink model for high-speed photo printing up to A3+ size and the Designjet 90 (RRP $2299) large format printer that supports output sizes up to A2+. HP has also launched a new series of Photo Value Packs that combine Vivera inks with Premium Plus photo paper and allow users to produce snapshot-sized prints for as little as 50 cents each. Two Photo Value Packs are available. The six-ink pack contains the HP 95 Tri-Colour and HP 99 Photo inkjet cartridges with a 125-sheet pack of 10 x 15 cm Premium Plus photo paper, while the three-ink pack has the HP 700 Tri-Colour ink cartridge plus a 125-sheet pack of 10 x 15 cm Premium Plus photo paper for an RRP. Each pack will sell for an RRP of $62.50. For more information, visit www.hp.com.au.