| What is special about HP Ink? I have raved about | | | | breathtaking. |
| Canon Ink.... Sang the Praises of Epsons visual | | | | Vivera Cartridge List |
| masterpieces.... But I have left HP in isolation. To | | | | Matte Black |
| the Ink mobile my readers! | | | | Photo Black |
| HP Invest millions in their ink, they are not at the | | | | Light Grey |
| forefront of the market by chance. Endlessly | | | | Cyan |
| researching, with up to 3 years of stringent | | | | Magenta |
| product testing for every ink, they pay huge | | | | Yellow |
| attention to the chemical interaction between their | | | | Light Cyan |
| inks and papers to give the best quality image | | | | Light Magenta |
| and output life, for every... single.... print. We realise | | | | The addition of an extra black and grey gives the |
| the huge costs involved in original inks, but it's | | | | HP a great benefit, which is relatively unheard of |
| worth it. | | | | in availability for the home printing world - brilliant |
| HP have actually developed two completely | | | | black and white printing. |
| different ranges of inks for users... | | | | Granted, Grey doesn't make you sit up with |
| OfficeJet | | | | excitement, it is not the most inspiring of colours. |
| Vivera Photo Printing | | | | But you'd be surprised... |
| OfficeJet Ink: | | | | Benefits of the Grey Cartridge: |
| The simpler of the 2 ranges intended for plain | | | | Firstly, black and white printing. This is a popular |
| paper office-like printing. Its inks are pigment | | | | way of printing images, and typically the transition |
| based, which are designed for text printing with a | | | | between the blacks could be seen to tone-jump |
| long archival life in general; when coupled with HPs | | | | slightly. Adding in an extra black and grey makes |
| vast knowledge of ink technology I doubt these | | | | it beautifully smooth in colour and gives the |
| images ever fade. No figures for the OfficeJet | | | | picture a great professional feel. |
| inks are available - so you never know, tests | | | | Secondly: Illuminant Metameric Failure! Simply put - |
| may still be ongoing! | | | | normal printers use a combination of Cyan |
| HP have also responded to consumer qualms on | | | | Magenta and Yellow to make Grey, and if you've |
| ink levels, with the common issue of small | | | | never seen it, go print a black and white image |
| cartridges being addressed. A new range of | | | | now and view it under different lights, it will have |
| cartridges provide up to 10x more ink than older | | | | a greeny tint to it from some light sources, due |
| model cartridges, giving prints as low as a penny | | | | to the lights "spectral emittance curve". If you |
| a page coupled with brilliant quality. | | | | remove the use of differing colours to make |
| I am actually a bit disappointed at the level of | | | | grey, and utilise - shock horror - a grey cartridge, |
| information available for this ink range, even the | | | | all prints will look as they should under all lighting |
| HP website is lacking. But I am in the ink industry, | | | | conditions. Usually an issue for professional users |
| so here are my experiences on it. | | | | whom have to tailor their inks towards museum |
| My View On HP Officejet Ink: | | | | lighting conditions, it occasionally impacted home |
| To test, I sent hundreds of print requests | | | | users in annoying little ways - such as position of |
| through to my unknowing colleague. I think he | | | | the photos in a room in regards to the light |
| enjoyed the numerous images I sent through for | | | | source. |
| the sake of science. As far as performance goes, | | | | Now to counter those who don't want images to |
| it was Tres Magnifique. You can get the machine I | | | | last... Why would you want HP Vivera? They are |
| tested on for less than £90, approaching budget | | | | engineered to resist not just Light, but also |
| status, and it's output on ink intended for office | | | | Pollutants in the environment! |
| use was phenomenal. Beautifully clear and dark | | | | Finally.... the overall package of science. I |
| blacks (my unfortunate colleague could make out | | | | mentioned at the start of this article that the inks |
| a sentence printed in size 5 font with no effort, | | | | were built from the ground up. Designed in line |
| and it was not a complimentary sentence), vivid | | | | with the specialist HP ColourLok photo paper, used |
| colours... it gave me stupendously high | | | | together the quality is brilliant. This photo paper |
| expectations for the following image range of inks. | | | | has up to 6 layers, each specifically designed for a |
| So out of the home office and into the home | | | | job in mind. For example: |
| photo printing range, with HP Vivera in direct | | | | A layer to aid absorption |
| competition with the Epson Cheetah and | | | | Moisture Barrier |
| Hummingbird inks... | | | | Gloss optimising layer |
| Vivera Ink: | | | | With the chemical makeup of the cartridges |
| Derived from the word for Life and Longevity, | | | | tailored to react to each layer perfectly (up to |
| this ink has essentially been 'built' from the ground | | | | 1000 prototype tests on formulations to perfect |
| up for use with their branded photo papers utilising | | | | it), everything about the ink has a purpose. As |
| the ColorLok system. | | | | soon as the ink hits the page, the science is at |
| It can be both dye and pigment based; HP went | | | | work. Optimised absorption, ink spread, protection |
| to the effort of designing both kinds of inks so | | | | and the gloss finish means every single print you |
| you can tailor for printing onto different mediums. | | | | do will have the HP trademark of pure quality. |
| If that isn't impressive enough then have a tipple | | | | Minimising any chance of bleed in dye based inks, |
| at a quoted archival life of 108 years. I said this to | | | | guaranteeing a gloss finish for pigment inks, HP |
| a friend and they retorted with "sure, the picture | | | | really have achieved it all. And it is all accessible to |
| is still there after 108 years but I bet it looked | | | | you the home user. |
| rubbish after 1". Then it struck me, I know the | | | | HP Ink Summary: |
| science behind accelerated testing of | | | | Odds on you already have a HP printer, if not - |
| environmental factors.... but I didn't know the | | | | you are literally in the minority of printer users. |
| quality of the image which would constitute a fail, | | | | Overall, I feel like HP is a brilliant balance between |
| unacceptable! So I found out like any good | | | | Canon and Epson. The photo printing package can |
| employee would | | | | rival that of the Epson's, whilst matching the |
| The stringency of this test astounded me. Barely | | | | overall performance of the brilliant Canon series. |
| any image degradation is allowed before the | | | | I am intrigued how far HP's science can take the |
| image life is said to have ended, and it makes the | | | | performance of their cartridges... hopefully there is |
| 108 years in a controlled environment quite | | | | much more to come! |