The technologies embodied today in mass-produced electronic devices are designed to provide them, on the one hand, with maximum flexibility and ease of use, and on the other hand, with the greatest functionality. This applies to absolutely any product – from computers and cell phones to vacuum cleaners and refrigerators. Indeed, the consumer today is interested in the most advanced models capable of satisfying an extremely wide range of his needs, moreover, not requiring tedious mastering of operational features and at the same time pleasing to the eye.
Fierce competition is forcing companies that produce electronic (and not only) equipment to invest colossal money in the development of the latest technologies, to shorten the development-implementation cycle in production, which ultimately benefits customers. Indeed: the term “digital printing” that arose a few years ago for an ordinary person today means quite specific devices – printers, cameras, scanners – that allow this very printing to be carried out independently.
Hewlett-Packard is among the leaders of the global industry producing a wide range of computer equipment. In the summer of this year, the company has significantly updated and expanded its lines of printers, scanners, digital photographic equipment and multifunctional devices. The new items were officially announced on July 25 during a special presentation in Nakhabino near Moscow as part of the Big Bang (Big Bang) campaign, and since autumn they all actually went on sale.
Note that at the event held in Nakhabino not only new products were announced – a significant part of the program was devoted to new technologies from Hewlett-Packard. The company’s strategy in the field of digital printing is to create a complete range of products that allow the user, depending on their needs, to configure the hardware complex to achieve specific tasks. When creating devices, the company’s developers take into account all possible aspects of their joint use in the office and at home, ensuring not only the usual by today’s standards compatibility at the hardware level, but also maximum software versatility.
Therefore, when we had at our disposal two new products – the HP Photosmart 320 camera and the HP Photosmart 7350 photo printer, we paid special attention to their software.
The HP Photosmart 7350 Photo Printer replaces the highly acclaimed HP Photosmart 1115 and HP Photosmart 1315. In addition to the sleeker design that will delight the eyes at home and in the office, the increased number of flash card readers stands out. -memory. In addition to the previously available CompactFlash and SmartMedia, slots for Secure Digital and Memory Stick cards have been added. A front-facing USB port has been added, allowing you to print directly from the camera – it’s more convenient than from a memory card, because in this case you can view images and evaluate their quality on the camera’s LCD monitor. Naturally, the differences do not end there. The main and main difference of the Photosmart 7350 is the new HP photoset
IV inkjet technology. With six-color printing with a drop volume reduced to 4 picolitres, the printer delivers lifelike, photo-quality images with a wider color gamut.
Especially for the renewal of the line of HP printers, the developers have timed the release of the new premium photo paper HP Premium Plus Photo Paper (51634Z), as well as inks for photo printing. Strict, very stringent requirements are imposed on paper for inkjet photo printing. This is due to the fact that in order to ensure high printing speed, increased moisture and light resistance, resistance to fading from exposure to air, paper must have a set of qualities that are very difficult to combine with each other. It is also important to achieve an acceptably low price – clearly, satisfying users who need inexpensive but high-quality photo paper is not an easy task.
Modern printing paper has a multi-layer structure with different types of coatings, but there are two main ones. The porous coating provides fast drying and good resistance to smudging, but at the same time does not resist well enough to air and light without additional protection measures. The spongy coating has almost opposite qualities. Developed by the company.
s specialists, the highest quality photo paper with a sponge-like polymer coating allows you to get prints that are almost completely identical to traditional photographs, both in physical properties and in appearance. The multi-layer structure of the new paper is formed in such a way that the specific layers of the paper provide its various physical and chemical properties. These properties include light and moisture resistance, resistance to air, gloss and texture, lack of smudging and sticking in the stack.
The increased quality of prints is due not only to paper, but also to special dyes. The new inks with reduced particle size not only provide more lifelike prints, but also penetrate deeper into the paper structure for a higher gloss level, which brings prints closer to traditional photography. Tested by Wilhelm Imaging Research, the dyes used in new 6-color printers have a predicted resistance to light fading (under glass – no harsh air) on HP Premium Photo Papers for over 65 years. Of course, assessment techniques based on tests with high light intensity are very rough estimates and do not take into account all factors that degrade the quality of the prints. However, if we take into account that the average user most often stores photos in a photo album or in a frame under glass, and not on a windowsill by an open window, such estimates can be considered quite acceptable.
We used a standard set of tests to evaluate print speed and quality on the HP Photosmart 7350. Without going into details, we note that six-color printing and a resolution increased to 4800 × 1200 dpi, undoubtedly, outperform models with traditional four-color printing. For greater clarity, we will illustrate what has been said with enlarged fragments of the test print.