Brother MFC-8840DN Network Multifunction Laser Printer

• Multifunction office machine, prints, copies, scans, and faxes
• Up to 21 ppm printing and copying; up to 2,400 x 600 dpi print resolution
• 33.6 Kbps fax modem, 300 speed dial locations, up to 600-page memory
• Includes 50-sheet ADF; 32 MB memory, expandable to 160 MB
• Parallel, USB, and Ethernet interfaces; PC and Mac compatible

After doing a lot of research for multi-function printers I selected this printer and love it! I wanted a laser since it''s cheaper to maintain (no $$$ ink cartridges) and didn''t really need color (since I have a very nice photo printer for the rare times I want to print in color). I love the duplex mode (double side printing) to save paper and it''ll automatically print ''n'' pages to one physical page which is also handy. I have it networked between my computer and my husband''s so we both can use it. (DSL connection with separate Linksys router and DSL modem.)

All wasn''t 100% rosey at first.... I connected it via my network and it worked great but due to a problem using it while connected via VPN to my employer, I decided to use the USB connection (when I was on VPN I couldn''t see the printer). I got all features working fine except for the scanning (it wouldn''t scan at all). After reading so many bad reviews of Brother''s tech support I was leary to call them but after many reinstalls w/o luck, I finally called them. The support folks were GREAT!! I ended up calling twice; one for help uninstalling the network drivers and again for a scanning problem. The second call I was on the phone for almost an hour and they found a patch (from Scansoft) to my original VPN problem as well as a registry patch (from Microsoft) for the USB scanning problem. The fix for the uninstall problem was because I had to log in as Administrator not just be in the admin group (I''m running Win2k) so that''s why I couldn''t completely switch from network connection to USB (the network drivers were still partially installed). In both calls, the tech support folks were helpful, pleasant, and knowledgeable.

The only remaining problem is configuring the fax with an answering machine. The manual has a lot of info but their explanation of the features for the fax isn''t all that clear. Right now I don''t need the fax much so I''ll wait a bit and call tech support back again later.

I love this printer, I like that it has all the features I need in one nicely packaged unit, and for a change, I have good things to say about a company''s tech support. (Every company says customers are number one, but only a tiny % actually mean it.)

Other reviewers have complained about the included scanning software (Paperport 8.0 SE from Scansoft) but so far so good, it works ok for me. I haven''t tried the OCR feature though but supposedly it''ll let me scan pure-text documents for later edits (like in Word) as well as let me search for docments by providing words inside of the document (not just file name which isn''t too useful).

I ended up purchasing this printer at PCuniverse (free shipping and no sales tax) for the same price listed here. The reviews of the MFC 8840 printers in Amazon were a great help in selecting which printer to purchase.

Buy Brother MFC-8840DN Network Multifunction Laser Printer Now

i bought this unit hoping it would replace my separate fax machine, printer & copier. for the most part i''m very impressed. the print quality is very good the fax machine is excellent and because it''s a flatbed scanner, it''s very easy to use it a photocopier as well. i''m have a mostly mac network and the printeing is fine from both os 9.2 and os 10.3 as well as win xp. the install software is a little barbaric in that it doesn''t really let you know what it''s installing or give you the option to install just some of the components, the software install directions were all but worthless, but anyone with some mac experience will figure it out. the installer worked ok and left a text file log of where it put things. one nice thing is that you don''t have to use the brother printing extension (driver). it works fine with the standard apple laserwriter extention. however the brother drivers might be a little faster and they had some more printer options. also, under os x, it does support rendezvous for printing which makes network setup a snap!

my major gripes are that it doesn''t support network scanning via ethernet for the mac ( i think it does on pc). you have to run a separate usb cable. annoying, my biggest gripe is that the scanning twain driver is really lame. i couldn''t get it to work under os 9. it does work in os x, but it doesn''t have a descreen option. even though the scan quality is excellent, you will be stuck with a moire pattern on anything that is halftone like books, magazines and newspapers! unacceptable. if brother put a little more software effort into the mac side of things they would have a killer product for that market. but as it stands now, you have to run a separate cable for scanning and buy something like the extensis descreen (intelliscan $99) photoshop plugin to fix the moire problem. i''m under the impression that the pc software is more developed, but i haven;''t tested it for anything except network printing which works fine.

Read Best Reviews of Brother MFC-8840DN Network Multifunction Laser Printer Here

I would give this device 6 stars if I could!! The Brother 8840-DN scans documents to PDFs at a rate comparable to the much more expensive Xerox Documate at nearly half the price. Plus you get a lightning fast copying machine, a fast fax, a network printer and a flatbed scanner. What an amazing product!!! I did a good deal of research prior to purchasing this machine, and almost cancelled the order based on some last minute that I read. (Luckily I changed my mind.) PC world said it scanned documents rediculously slowly, taking 33 seconds to at 100 dpi. This turned out to be absolutely NOT true!!! I managed to get through a stack of fifty documents at 300dpi in less than 120 seconds, and that includes creating the pdfs. (I am running an AMD64 3000+ with 1 GB of ram). The print quality is about average for a laser printerit is nothing compared to the ultra-crisp text of the Minolta Color laser Engine (I also own a Minolta Magicolor 2350EN Color laser) but for less than half the price, I have no complaints. The network connectability is an added bonus. I can scan and even fax from my computer (without printing a hardcopy first) -all remotely. If you purchase this item, make sure to upgrade to the max 160 Mb of RAM (128 Mb DIMM available from crucial for 50 bucks) as this speeds things up even more.

I would recommend the Brother 8840DN to anyone looking for a well built and designed MFC device, and would take all the unjustified negative comments with a grain of salt.

Enjoy --

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Pro:

Fast copies and printing

Good image quality (though perhaps not quite up to standalone copy machine quality)

Good scanning ability

Con:

Paper tends to curl after going through impression

Unwieldy manual feed handler (awkward to change between letter size and envelope)

On 30th day, began printing black splotches at regular intervals--apparently from a drum in the process; I hadn''t handled the drum, so this was apparently caused by the machine itself

Gets confused when multiple functions run concurrently

Annoying buzzers (e.g. when you open paper tray to put paper in)

High toner consumption

I am quite impressed with the MFC-8840DN.

It''s loaded with useful features, and they all work.

The product is solidly designed, and there was obviously a lot of thought put into the mechanical design and control panel. The printed user manual is very good too.

The multipurpose tray is quite handy for keeping a few mailing envelopes or CD labels ready for printing at a moment''s notice.

The duplexer has no problem doing two-sided printing, and there are options for straight through paper feeding and output.

The document feeder works well, and the software also handles using the flatbed scanner conveniently. If you don''t use the document feeder, it prompts you for each page to be scanned on the flatbed.

I''m not using the fax at the moment, but that too has a multitude of useful features. If you do a lot of faxing, or have special fax applications this is worth looking at. You can do everything from fax relaying, broadcasting, and storing, to emailing faxes automatically to wherever you happen to be.

The network and software setup is in a separate manual, and may be a little intimidating, but everything works as advertised once you get it set up. If you want to use the scan buttons on the control panel, you will need to open some ports in the Windows Firewall. You can only register one computer to use the control panel scan buttons. The PC software scanning does work from multiple computers. You can buy a license if you need to have multiple computers appear in the control panel''s scan button menu.

I ran into one annoying problem, but it isn''t a big one.

There''s a web browser interface that you can use to change the configuration. It sometimes freezes, and at that point I had to power cycle it to be able to use the web browser to configure it again. I don''t expect to be changing the configuration a lot, and the problem happens infrequently.

This product supports an amazing number of network protocols, which makes it very useful for networks with a mixture of Apple, Windows, Unix, and other computers. About the only protocol it doesn''t support is NETBIOS over IPX/SPX. That''s a pretty unusual combination, but I did happen to be using it. I changed my configuration to NETBIOS over TCP/IP, and that is supported. NETWARE is supported with IPX/SPX protocol.

You can connect this to a 15 amp circuit, but don''t be surprised if it dims the lights when you turn the power on. It''s probably better to connect this to a 20 amp or 30 amp circuit. I had to relocate the printer because it was causing my UPS to detect a line voltage drop. That''s really a problem with the UPS being too sensitive, but it''s something to keep in mind if you have everything connected to the same circuit.

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Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer (C11CB32201) Save 33% off

• World''s fastest auto two-sided printing
• 50% lower printing cost than color laser
• Automatic two-sided copy/scan/fax
• 580-sheet paper capacity
• Up to 20,000 page duty cycle

The Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 is a fairly large, square-footprint, wireless, all-in-one inkjet printer designed to meet the demands of a small office. Notably, it has two paper trays for less down time replenishing paper and large capacity ink cartridges. It is easy to set up as a wireless network printer so that all the computers in the network can print to it. The buttons on the front and the large, lcd panel make it easy for anyone to use without having even read the user manual.

I am using it as a wireless, home printer. There are multiple computers and users in my home 7+ desktops and laptops as well as an iPad. We can all print to this printer and have had no problems at all

First thing you will notice is that the box is BIG! It''s also relatively heavy and because of the bulky size (it is well padded with packing styrofoam), you may need two people to pick it up and get it out of the box. The Amazon product page lists it as 22 pounds, but this is a mistake. The printer weighs 36.5 pounds without paper. It measures 18.1"W x 16.5"D x16.5"H. It is pretty much the same size and shape as a small, cube-shaped dorm refrigerator. And that is just the footprint size. You will need additional space around the front and the back of the printer to access paper trays and clear paper jams. I have it set up on one of my nightstands and it essentially covers the entire top.

There is an excellent START HERE document included, besides the users manual, which makes unpacking, assembling, and installing this printer a breeze. You will need a computer nearby and it is recommended that you have a usb printer cable (not included), even if you will be setting it up as a wireless printer. If you will be using it wirelessly, you will need to know your wireless router''s SSID and your security password, if you have one. If your wireless router is not set to broadcast, it is easy to enter it manually.

Set-up and installation of software takes about 45 minutes. You will also need to install the software on all the computers that will be printing to this printer, so it will take a little time if you have multiple computers on your network.

Epson claims the large capacity ink cartridges make your printing costs about half those of a color, all-in-one laser printer priced at $699 or less. I haven''t had it long enough to tell, but the cartridges seem to be reasonably priced at about $25/ea for the color cartridges (good for ~1200 pages) and the black is less than $40 (good for ~2400 pages). They are individual carts so you only replace what is necessary. Smaller capacity cartridges are included that should print about 1000 b/w pages and 900 color pages.

Epson also claims it prints faster than other inkjet all-in-ones priced at $399 or less. I don''t have a lot to compare that to, but it does seem to print very quickly.

How does it print? Very well indeed! Although it seems a little noisier than my Epson Workforce 840, it is certainly acceptable. Text is crisp and clear and the ink is dry almost instantly. The max resolution is 4800x1200dpi optimized. Colors are bright, but much more dazzling when using premium quality paper.

When printing to photo paper the result is quite nice, but not photo lab quality. On plain, cheap copy paper, color prints are underwhelming, although that is the case with most ink jet printers. I would say this printer is best for high volume, textbased documents that have color components and the occasional photo printing for personal use. If you plan to print a lot of photos on photo paper, there are better choices.

As an all-in-one, this printer scans, faxes, copies, and is capable of double-sided printing. I cannot fax because I don''t have a land line in my home. It scans at 1200x2400dpi hardware and 9600x9600dpi interpolated, and the resulting images are excellent. The scan utility works well and is pretty easy to use. You can even scan directly to an email or a .pdf. There is an automatic document feeder that makes scanning or copying a stack of pages much easier and quicker.

The copier allows you to reduce and enlarge from 25% to 400%. The touch screen on the front of the printer lets you quickly adjust these settings for whatever job you are currently working on. There is also convenient usb port on the front of the printer to allow you to easily print from a flash drive or a portable hard drive or even a camera.

A couple of surprising and exceptional features are AirPrint and Epson Connect. Airprint lets you print wirelessly from your iPad! You will need to install some additional software but that''s it. My iPad picked up this printer instantly and printed a page perfectly. There are only a few printers that feature AirPrint currently and I''m very excited this is one of them.

Epson Connect actually assigns your printer an email address and will print documents and pictures sent to it. This is cool. Your printer is available to you wherever you are. I had my son email some pics of my granddaughter to the printer and it received them and printed them out without me having to even turn on my computer! You can log into Epson Connect and set up your preferences, including an approved sender list, as well as change your printer''s email address to an easily remembered one. An approved sender list is a good idea because I can envision my printer''s email ending up on some mailing lists and having all sorts of spam print out. You could run through a lot of ink that way.

I am greatly impressed with all the capabilities of this printer and the ease of use. I think it really shines as a small office workhorse or a home printer where there are several users.

Buy Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer (C11CB32201) Now

: 0:47 Mins

The Treacherous Three! 3 New Epson Printers Compared! Which One''s Right For You? A Publisher''s Critical Review.

* A Look At the Printers/ Testing

** The strengths and weaknesses of each

*** Where can I get ink at a (relatively) reasonable price?

* We own a publishing company here in Miami. And, for roughly about 7 years we''ve owned only Epson. At the time, we moved away from HP because we thought that the Epson printers were improving enough to match HP quality and to beat them economically.

The traditional weakness of Epson had been its photo imaging. We made the decision to go with Epson when they introduced their "Durabright Ink" line of printers and the promise of film-like quality reproduction. While not bad, i.e. passable, it was never quite up to the mark set by the HP line.

That was then.

This year, we''re excited by what we''ve been seeing with Epson. Almost universally with the printers we have, the line of All-In-One printers matches quality and most definitely beats HP in price.

Here are 3 to consider, if you''re a small business ("prosumer"), an education setting and up.

* Epson WorkForce 840 Color Ink Jet Wireless All-in-One with Fax (C11CA97201)

* Workforce WP 4540 All-In-One

* Epson Artisan 837 Color Inkjet Wireless All-In-One with Fax (C11CB20201)

(I wouldn''t recommend the first two for personal use as Epson has some lower priced models, "The Stylus" series, that will suit your need for about half the price of any of these. The third, coincidentally, "The Artisan" printer, could very well be used in a home of discriminating digital artists.)

**

----Workforce 840-----

WF 840 is, at about 5 months, still a "new" model. It is a printer, copier, scanner, fax with a wireless "WiFi" connection for both the Windows and Mac OS''s. Since it was released in the Spring, there have been a slew of app''s, the "Epson iPrint" in particular, that will allow you to print either documents or jpg images from your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or any configuration of the Android 2.3 OS.)

The spec''s, Epson''s statement and my findings in .

+ Uses standard Durabright ink.

+ Can connect through several ports including a USB or through a wireless internet connection.

+ Print resolution is at (an impressive) 5760 x 1440.

+ Scan at a max. resolution of 2400 dpi.

+ Print speed: single sided, 15/9.3 ppm for black/color.

+ Print: double sided, 7.4/5.4 ppm.

+ About $300, retail. $200-225 street price.

The 840 is supposed to be the prosumer printer in this line. It can comfortably hold a ream of paper in dual trays. It feels, by weight, to be about the average weight of a printer, about 12-15 lbs. Our first Epson, All-In-One, felt like a toy in comparison.

*I printed out a pdf of a 200-page book. The double-sided, long-edge, printing at 150 dpi came out exactly 12:15. By my calculations, that makes it a 8.2 ppm double-sided printing. And, it also means that it''s better than 1 sheet more per minute than Epson states. And, the printing noise was barely noticeable.

If you need an All-In-One that has the basic the capacities of some of the more specialized printers, this model, WF 840, is a great consideration.

-----Workforce WP 4540------

The 4540, to be distinguished from the 840, is considerably larger AND heavier. It is designed for office use only. And, unless you have a VERY thriving business at home, the 840 may be the better choice for you. The 4540 has its purposes and it surrounds volumes of printing more than anything else.

The newest model, with double the printing capacity and faster printing speed, offers more in some areas and less in others for about $100 more.

Epson''s Spec''s

+ Print 16/ 11 ppm--black/color single page.

+ Print 9.2/7.1 ppmdouble-sided.

+ Print resolution of 4800 x 1200

+ Scan @ 2400

+ Life cycle of the print cartridge2400 sheet (black) / 1200 sheets (color).

+ $400

Of the spec''s that would be of interest to the office buyer, this is the high yield system. And, there are two (2) grades of ink-standard and ultra. These high-yield cartridges are considerably different and there are (at the time of this review) no substitute or recyclable alternatives, yet.

I reprinted the same pdf book as I did on the 840 and found, with the exact printing options that the 4540 actually printed the book in 11:45 seconds (see video still). That''s only :30 seconds faster than the 840 or 8.5 ppm.

The image (photo) quality from was acceptable, but not exceptional. But, the text quality was near or equal to a laser print.

One of the clients, my company is contracted to, uses Canon copiers. And, although, I like the Canons, an Epson like this is more economical. The comparable Canon runs through print cartridges every couple of weeks and at $100 a pop. Currently, these Epson cartridges are about $35 a piece.

----Artisan 837------

The 837 is an All-In-One that is especially geared toward high-resolution photo printing. And, since it''s an All-In-One, it is ideal for printing and graphic arts.

The spec''s

+ Print, scanner, copier and Fax with wireless printing and multiple thumb drive printing capabilities.

+ Print speed 9.6/9.1 ppm black/ color, single-sided.

+ Print 4.9/4.7 ppm, 2-sided.

+ Scans at 4800 dpi.

+ Print resolution at 5760 x1440.

+ 6 separate "Claria" ink cartridges. Standard and Ultra ink resolutions.

+ Cartridge cycle 520 each (standard), 805 high-yield.

* One of the best qualities of this printer is the resolution. I printed out several photos on standard Kodak photo paper and only saw marginally better resolution than an All-In-One printout from 4 years ago. But, when I used some bonus Ultra-fine photo paper, I saw a print that clearly was indistinguishable from film negative. This is a must-have for anyone who needs high-quality printouts.

***

-----Ink------

It''s no mystery that the least expensive purchase you''ll make is on the printer, itself. The cost of paper followed by the cost of ink is where the real money is at. Much like razor manufacturers that essentially give away expensive razors only to charge a premium for the blades.

What I find to be the most economical is to recycle and to only printout things that must be printed out, i.e., contracts and legal documents that require a hand-signature. We''re in the habit of just sending pdf''s for most things.

However, here''s where the best deal is on ink.

123Inkjet (dot) com

Amazon

DealNews (dot) com

So, to wrap it up.

*EPSON 840--A great general multi-purpose All-In-One. Prosumer, Small company printer. 5 stars.

*EPSON WP 4540--High-end, high capacity, All-In-One. Features not terribly impressive, but fast and with the new ink system, lower ink costs overall. 4 stars.

* EPSON ARTISAN 837. Specialized, arts-related printing system. 6-color, ink cartridge system. Ultra high resolution printing capabilities (on high-end photo paper). Prints photos at around 12 seconds. Multi-printing options available, including WiFi. 5 stars.

Read Best Reviews of Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer (C11CB32201) Here

Over the last 6 or so months I have bought 5 of these printers. One for the VP''s office one for the CEO''s office.. CEO''s grandaughter.. CEO''s home Study. And Receptionist. These are very low workload users and only print about 30 pages a week.

Immediately on buying the first two from Office Depot one right out of the box was DOA. BAD SIGN.

Now half a year later I have already had to call Epson and had 3 warranty replacements shipped out for various ones.. The VP''s started banding very badly and after about 20 head cleanings it only marginally improved.. The CEO only uses the one in his study once a week. Apparently that was too long to let it sit and the printer would not print at all then. The ink must of clogged the heads.. Endless head cleanings and new cartridges produced little on the screen.

I just got a replacement for the VP''s one yesterday. I unpacked and installed it.. It comes with 4 new cartridges as the instructions say you must return your old cartridges with the printer.. Well after setting up the replacement and installing the new cartridges the printer takes about 10 minutes to "prime" them.. Well during that procedure it told me I had to replace the Cyan , Magenta, and Yellow because they were bad. These were brand new sealed in the box cartridges I had just received. So I went and got some extras we had and installed them.. They worked in the replacement printer but after a few test prints the pages are banding on this printer as well.

I am currently staring at ANOTHER WP-4540 on the floor that I have to call Epson today and get a replacement.. These calls usually take about an hour while they tell you to go through numerous head cleanings and driver reinstalls that even though you already might have done them they have to go through them again.

Very disappointed in these printers... I mean the warranty is good and they will ship you another one, But it is a refurb and yeah.. you may have the patience for this one at home. I do not anymore. Was not even able to handle simple workloads of low page count . Colors are not true. Reliability is horrible.

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I selected this printer because I do a lot of volunteer work for the local animal shelter and this printer does a good job replicating my photographs for flyers on plain paper. Set-up was easy along with the easy-to-understand instructions, taking no more than 30 minutes to first page being printed. It gurgled for a bit during the set-up, but finally printed rather quietly and quickly.

I have my printer hooked up to the computer via a USB cable. I do not use wireless. (The USB cable does not come with this device).

It will take some time to see how economical this printer is, though. I do not use a printer much.

PRO:

Fast and quiet.

Great color

CON:

Build feels a bit cheap with plastic parts for the body.

Heavy

Insists on printing in color even when the "B&W" button is pressed before printing.

This printer came in a huge box, well-protected from harsh treatment. All moving parts were then taped down with durable nylon tape. That tape was all over the inside of this printer. Make sure to remove all the tape before installation!

Save 33% off

I have worked with several different types and manufactures of printers over the years and every printer in which I have personally invested has been a home-use inkjet. Each of these printers has had its pros and cons, some distinguishing themselves as standouts for very poor performance while others have shown brightly. This is my first really in-depth exposure to a higher-grade printer outside of a busy office and so far it has been a positive experience.

First off, this is a large printer, a bit bigger than the average inkjet or even all-in-one printer. As it is targeted against color laser printers this should not come as a surprise. Weighing close to 50 lbs. (according to the shipping info) this printer has a lot of heft.

The printer itself comes partially assembled and it takes a little time to put everything right, from attaching the base to removing all of the tape that holds everything in place. The hard part is that this is such a bulky and heavy piece of equipment; there''s nothing difficult about assembly, it just requires either one strong person to do the lifting or two people working together.

Once assembled and plugged in I turned on the printer and let it initialize. This took somewhere around 10 minutes, during which time it made all manner of odd noises and sounds until it finally offered to print a test page. I touched a button and it quickly cranked out the test page and then said it was ready. After that first power on, time-to-ready has been less than a minute every time.

I had no trouble setting this printer up and connecting it to my wireless network. I did have to fumble my way through the menus on the display to enter in the network key so that it could interact but this was relatively minor. Everything else fell into place easily and I had a minimum of troubles.

This is a FAST printer! One thing Epson does very well is build inkjet printers with astounding print speed and this printer follows that pattern. I have not done an actual measurement on the PPM speed but it seems to be only slightly slower than a professional-grade laser printer.

Some inkjet printers sacrifice speed for quality not this one. Everything I have printed so far has been clear, crisp and clean. This is important it would be a failure in its target market if it failed to deliver premium output, but Epson has worked hard on this printer and it shows. So far I have not had any glitches. To be fair, I have not tried printing out photographs yet.

I put this printer in front of the most demanding user I know my wife, the school teacher. She uses an all-in-one for all its worth, daily, particularly for its ability to make photocopies. I was able to explain to her how to use this printer''s copy functions and had her make some copies of papers she needed for a class she teaches. She quickly and easily figured out how to make two-sided copies and reduced the darkness level, as well as single-sided copies, collated copies and more. She was very impressed with this printer high praise from her.

So far I cannot find too much to fault with this printer. In the testing I have done I have been very impressed with the speed, functionality and the ease of set-up and use. This kind of printer is a bit overkill for the average home user, but in a small office or even a classroom setting this is a phenomenal device that earns its keep. Time will tell if the ink usage is better than that of most other inkjet printers I have used but if Epson''s claims are true and it can average 1000+ pages color and 2000+ pages black-and-white, then this very well may be the printer to consider instead of a color laser printer. All indicators are solid this is a good workhorse printer.

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HP Photosmart B8550 Inkjet Photo Printer

• Inkjet printer produces lab-quality photos as large as 13 x 19-inches
• 125-sheet tray holds paper from 4 x 6-inches to 13 x 19-inches; includes specialized tray for three common photo sizes
• Up to 32 pages per minute for black-and-white draft-quality letters; 95 seconds for 13 x 19-inch color photos
• Five-ink system lets you replace only the colors you need; 2.4-inch color LCD lets you review, select, and enhance photos without your computer
• One-year limited hardware warranty; one-year of technical phone support

இ Fuzzy Wuzzy''s Summary:

ѾѾѾѾ Recommended with warm fuzzies.

This printer joins my home office in addition to a Canon Pixma Pro9000 Professional Large Format Inkjet Printer (9995A001) large format photo printer and an older Epson RX500 All-in-One printer/scanner/copier. I tend to mainly use the Epson for low-color non-photo printing since it seems to be the most wasteful with ink usage (replacing its 6 ink cartridges is not cheap and the printer annoyingly always uses some of the 5 non-black color inks even if you are printing a black-and-white text-only page), with the HP B8550 and Canon Pro9000 being used exclusively for photo printing. I am a serious amateur photographer with way more DSLR cameras, lenses, and gear than can be justified given that I have never earned any income from my photography, but I enjoy printing everything from 4x6 photos to 13x19 enlargements. I frame the 13x19 photos and circulate displays of photos on walls around my house, as well as print photos for friends, so I suppose that is my "payback" for this hobby. My photography interests include people and pets, travel and vacation photos, nature photography and macro close-ups, and John Fielder-inspired wide-angle shots of landscapes and wilderness.

The B8550 printer''s size is typical for a large format printer. At 23 inches wide, it is overall smaller than my Canon Pro9000 since the Pro9000 also has a top-feed paper tray whereas the B8550 input and output trays both are in front of the printer. In fact, it is probably one of the smallest and lightest photo printers available that can print on 13x19 paper. But if you place this printer on your desk next to your computer, the footprint of this printer will likely occupy a large portion of your desk. My home office consists of one desk, one computer workstation table, four 2-drawer file cabinets, and several bookshelves. Both the Canon Pro9000 and HP B8550 printers now sit on separate 2-drawer file cabinets.

Like many printers, the B8550 does not include a USB cable (my Canon Pro9000 also did not include the USB cable, even though I think that it is lame for manufacturers to not include the cable with their printers). I actually had to combine a 10-foot A/B plug USB cable with another USB extension cable in order to place this printer on another 2-drawer file cabinet that was farther away from the USB hub sitting on my desk. When used with the optional HP bt500 Network adapter USB Bluetooth 2.0 EDR , you can connect this printer via Bluetooth. But I have not always been happy with the consistency of Bluetooth connections, and so I decided to use an extension USB cable instead. Another connectivity option that I considered was to use the HP Wireless Printing Upgrade Kit (Q6236A) , but judging from the widely varying opinions about that product, I also stayed away from that option.

I found that the top of the 23-inch-wide printer made for a convenient place to put 13x19 photos right after they are printed to ensure the inks are fully dry for a short period before further handling. And one nice aspect of 13x19-inch photo printouts is that they are very similar in size to the full-screen image that I preview on my 22-inch widescreen monitor. I also have to admit that after looking at my digital photos both on a 22-inch widescreen monitor and by selectively printing out 13x19 photos, I rarely print 4x6 or 5x7 photos anymore; 8x10 photos are now the smallest size that I print out.

ѾѾѾѾѾ Excellent 5-fuzzies feature ratings:

ѾѾѾѾѾ The HP B8550 is a quality printer with a variety of thoughtful features built into it that accentuate its usability for those looking for a mid-range large format photo printer. If your main interest is in printing lots of 4x6 photos or if you are just using a low-resolution digital camera with a tendency to take blurry photos, you may be just as happy using a less expensive photo printer since a 13x19 photo will accentuate the imperfections that were caused by a bad camera shot. Also, if you print more documents than photos, a photo printer like this should not be your only primary printer.

ѾѾѾѾѾ Unlike the Canon Pro9000, the B8550''s control panel includes a 2.4-inch color LCD display. It has a surprising variety of built-in functions. You can insert various memory cards into the printer and, just using the control panel without needing to access the computer, perform functions such as:

✸ Perform "Red Eye Removal" editing on your photos.

✸ Print out ruled notebook paper, graph paper, music paper, a task checklist, and even a fairly challenging maze.

✸ Clean and align the printhead.

✸ Print a "Printer Status Report" that shows the printer''s model and serial number, how many pages you have printed so far, and the date when you installed each of the 5 ink cartridges.

✸ Set language and country/region preferences for the displays.

✸ Create and assemble photo album pages, create panorama prints, create wallet and passport photos.

✸ View and edit photos that are on your memory card. Rotate, crop, resize, perform a "Photo Fix" adjustment (which I did not really ever find to be useful), adjust brightness on the photo, add a "Color Effect" of Black&White, Sepia, or Antique, perform a Print Preview, add a date stamp to the photo being printed.

While the basic photo-editing functions suffice for printing 4x6 photos without needing to use the computer, if you are printing larger photos (especially 13x19 photo paper), you really should be editing your photos from your computer where you can see a much larger screen since the 2.4-inch LCD display only allows rudimentary previews of photos similar to the 2.5-inch LCD on digital cameras. But it is nice to at least give the user the option to insert memory cards or a USB storage device into the printer and immediately start printing after performing some basic photo editing. You can also connect a PictBridge camera to the USB port on the front of the printer.

ѾѾѾѾѾ Installation and set-up of the B8550 printer hardware went smoothly. In addition to the included "Start Here" set-up instructions, when you first turn on the printer, the LCD screen also guides you, using short animated videos, through the installation of the printhead and ink cartridges, and the loading of the paper into the two trays, the "photo tray" that holds 4x6 and 5x7 photo paper and the "main tray" that holds the larger paper sizes on up to the 13x19 paper.

ѾѾѾѾ Good 4-fuzzies feature ratings:

ѾѾѾѾ Taking into account the mid-range price of this printer and the fact that it is one of the most inexpensive 13x19 photo printers, I would rate the print quality quite good. I selected various scenery and nature photographs that were taken using a Canon EOS 40D 10MP DSLR. On 4x6 photos, the B8550 output is pretty much identical to my Canon Pro9000. When comparing 13x19 photos using the best quality settings for both printers, however, my Canon Pro9000 does have better color quality, better color accuracy, and clarity than the B8550. But the differences are usually very subtle... which is a very pleasant surprise since I was comparing the output from the 4-ink-color (cyan-magenta-yellow-black) B8550 to the output from the 8-ink-color Pro9000. During these 13x19 photo comparisons, I was printing photos on the B8550 using both HP Advanced Glossy Photo Paper and HP Premium Plus Photo and Proofing Gloss paper. And the Pro9000 was printed using Canon papers. The Pro9000 is also about 40% more expensive than the HP B8550. Canon''s Pro9000 is also packaged with far better software (aimed at the pro or serious amateur photographer) compared with what is included with the B8550.

Even though HP advertises that their "Vivera inks offer instant-dry, smudge-resistant photos", I left one slight thumbprint on the very edge of one of my first 13x19 printouts using their recommended HP Advanced Glossy Photo Paper when I immediately picked up the sheet the moment it fully came out of the printer. But if I carefully lifted the just-printed photo from the bottom and let it sit by itself for a few minutes, the photo ink did admirably live up to the smudge-resistant claim as I was able to vigorously rub my thumb over dark areas of the photo without creating smudges.

ѾѾѾ Average not-good not-bad 3-fuzzies feature ratings:

ѾѾѾ The one aspect of the printer that I consider to be a mechanical design flaw is in the way the output tray and paper extender lock into place when raised up to a 45-degree angle. The output tray and paper extender are housed in one unit that sits above and covers the main paper input tray below it. To access the main paper input tray, you pivot the output tray up and it clicks into place at a raised 45-degree angle, allowing you access to place paper onto the main paper input tray. But the output tray is held at this 45-degree angle with such a loose grip that a slight bump of the printer can cause the output tray to slam back down hard to its horizontal position. This happened twice on my printer and, both times, the output tray swung back downward with such force that I had to check that the plastic hinge on the output tray did not break or crack. Luckily, the tray remained intact, but I learned the lesson not to leave the output tray propped up at its 45-degree angle for too long and to carefully lower it back down with my hand underneath it whenever I load new paper into the main paper input tray.

ѾѾ Bad 2-fuzzies feature ratings:

ѾѾ Towards the end of the B8550 printer set-up, you install the CD software which contains the printer driver along with various other software, some of which I considered useful and some of which I considered useless clutter that eats up disk space and system memory. The CD install gives you the option for either a "recommended" express installation or a more manual select-what-you-want custom installation. I selected the express installation, which turned out to be a bad, but manually correctable, decision. When I completed the CD installation, I was able to print my first photos in less than 30 minutes from the time that I initially took the printer out of the box.

But I was surprised by both the hundreds of megabytes of disk space used and the number of extra HP-specific processes now running on my Windows XP Task Manager (listed with their KB of memory usage):

ACDaemon.exe : 2180KB

ACService.exe : 2076KB

hpqbam08.exe : 3920KB

hpqgpc01.exe : 6692KB

hpqste08.exe : 8508KB

hpswp_clipbook.exe : 3624KB

hpwuSchd2.exe : 2200KB

hpqtra08.exe : 11744KB

By comparison, my Epson Status Monitor only consisted of one process running that used just a fraction of the memory that all those HP processes required:

E_S4I2K1.EXE 2712KB

So I started to consider what HP applications I wanted to keep and what I wanted to remove. My computer has 2 GB of memory and over 600 GB of disk space, but I do not want to clog this up with unused applications.

The "hpqtra08.exe" process is the HP Digital Imaging Monitor; I kept that.

The ACDaemon.exe/ACService.exe processes are involved in checking for updates for the ArcSoft Print Creations software. I have sometimes used previous ArcSoft software to mainly create greeting cards (especially during the end-of-year holidays), so I wanted to retain the ArcSoft software that was loaded during the CD installation. The B8550 printer also includes a "Creative Projects Guide" booklet that describe how you can use the included ArcSoft Print Creations software to create photo album pages, calendars, placemats, greeting cards, and frames. But the ACDaemon.exe/ACService.exe processes do not need to be always kept running and consuming memory since you can manually start it up. I shut those down so that they did not always remain running.

Likewise, the "hpwuSchd2.exe" process that kept running is the HP Software Update process that performs scheduled checks for new and updated HP software. But it does not need to be kept always running since I can just manually start it up from the Start menu on a periodic basis. So I used the Windows Registry Editor to delete its "HP Software Update" entry from: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE:SOFTWARE:Microsoft:Windows:CurrentVersion:Run

The included "HP Smart Web Printing" software lets you selectively gather and edit Web page content from your browser to output to the printer. The application is supposed to work by embedding itself inside your browser, and then you can click the "HP Smart Select" button that it adds to your browser''s toolbar, and you use your mouse to highlight Web page content that you wanted to collect into a "Clip Book", and from your browser''s "Clip Book", you can then print just the portions of various Web pages that you are interested in, instead of printing entire Web pages. A great concept... but I could not get this to work. My Firefox (version 3) browser refused to accept this software as a add-on plug-in, and it also did not work with my Internet Explorer 7 browser for some reason. In addition, at one point, I saw a Windows system error message announcing that the "hpswp_clipbook.exe" process had crashed. So I had enough of this and went into the Control Panel''s "Add or Remove Programs" and uninstalled the "HP Smart Web Printing".

"Shop for HP Supplies" is another program that the CD installs onto your computer and also places a shortcut for it on your desktop. But after trying it out, I found that it is only useful if you want to buy your ink cartridges and printer supplies at MSRP list price and do not ever shop around for the best price. When you click on its desktop icon, it accesses a Web page called "SureSupply Order supplies". But the ink cartridges were all offered at the (inflated) MSRP list price, and the only vendor options were either to purchase directly from HP, or from CDW or Staples online stores (Amazon was not an option listed on the Web page!) So I also uninstalled this program.

The printer''s CD also installs the "HP Customer Participation Program 11.0". This is just like the Microsoft Customer Participation Program, where this program will send back statistics of how you use HP products so HP can improve on its products based on the gathered statistics. It is an opt-in program. But I wanted to remove this program and, in doing so, freed up over 60 megabytes of disk space.

After I completed the printer CD installation, for some odd reason, my Internet Explorer 7 browser could no longer play embedded Flash content on Web pages, even though embedded Flash applications still worked on my Firefox browser. When accessing various Web pages that used Flash applications (including Amazon''s "Listen to Music Samples" Flash application), the Web page would display the Adobe Flash download link and the Web page''s embedded Flash application would not work. I presume that this was probably caused by the "HP Smart Web Printing" application embedding itself into my IE browser (and interfering with the browser''s Flash plugin) because my IE browser could display Flash content just prior to the installation of the printer CD. The problem persisted even after I uninstalled the "HP Smart Web Printing" application. I actually had to go to the Control Panel''s "Add or Remove Programs", uninstall both the "Adobe Flash Player ActiveX" and "Adobe Flash Player Plugin", and then re-install it from Adobe''s Web site in order to get my IE-7 Flash functionality working again.

So even though I would rate the actual printer hardware 5 stars, my CD installation experience gets a rating of 2 stars. The CD was installed on a Windows XP (Service Pack 3) system. Your mileage may vary with Vista, Mac, or your own flavor of Windows. A product review on printer hardware should not have to use so much verbiage to discuss its included software, but in this case, the amount of extraneous software that HP''s installation CD dumped onto my PC was excessive. And in the case of their "HP Smart Web Printing" software, that install also did not work and it did something to my IE browser to cause it to no longer play/display Flash content.

௫ Fuzzy Wuzzy''s Conclusion:

For the casual/amateur photographer who wants a very affordably-priced large format photo printer, this is a great printer! This printer is not perfect, and in particular, the color accuracy is better on my Canon Pro9000, but the Canon printer also costs a fair bit more. HP obviously had to make some compromises to keep the price low, but the beautiful print quality is superb. I printed out 13x19 photographs that included a close-up macro photo of a butterfly standing on top of a purple coneflower, a wide-angle shot of a picturesque canyon filled with surreal rock formations and lots of earthtone hues along the canyon walls, photos of serene mountain lakes with blue skies and swirling cirrus clouds overhead, etc, and they were all printed out in glorious color, rich in detail, with sharp line boundaries in areas of the photos where there was high contrast and lots of color/shape transitions. For constant 13x19 printing, this printer does drink up its ink pretty quickly. When printing 13x19''s that are heavily saturated with one or two main colors, I sometimes used up an ink cartridge after printing just 5 13x19''s.

Buy HP Photosmart B8550 Inkjet Photo Printer Now

I use this printer with Vista 64. I''m a web designer and have strong graphic artist skills (have been using Photoshop for over 15 years). I have several printers in the house but I wanted a printer that I felt that could generate decent prints and have a lower cost of ownership than my Epson printers.

The HP B8550 got my attention because of the good reviews and the ink system. 5 inks with one a photo black and regular black and the option of bigger ink tanks for a good cost was what I was looking for. It''s almost impossible to get consistent cost per page numbers across different brands as that depends a great deal on what kind of cost you can find on the ink. If you can get great deals on ink for printer A and not for Printer B that alone can change your cost of ownership.

As a general rule Epson has the best photo printers and I have confirm this many times. Canon is usually second place and HP tends to be third in photos but first in text quality. After using the B8550 I can clearly say things are changing.

Good: This HP 5 ink printer (only 4 inks for Photos) took on my Epson 6 ink printers and matched it (And maybe even surpass in some cases). The photos looked great and the printer was fairly fast. Print quality is the final measurement of any printer and this printer did as expected (I had high expectations).

Bad: Oh, HP, when will you get your act together with your drivers? The Window drivers have no ICM profiles. The Mac versions do so this is just not acceptable and I was counting on them. In Photoshop the printer would forget settings and revert to older values (who does the QA for this stuff at HP?). Since I had no ICM profiles I could not let Photoshop control color reproduction and had to use the printer color logic. The saving grace is that since we have fewer inks fine tuning the default color profile was not hard. After like 20 small prints I had found a color combination that matched my monitor colors with great accuracy.

If HP ever gets updated Windows drivers with ICM profiles and that they remember changes better in Photoshop this would be a 5 star printer. The hardware and print quality is all there, all they need is to show better love on their drivers.

Get the XL inks, worth the extra money. The HP paper is very expensive. Consider paper from other brands and test. The difference in print quality is not much (if any) and the price difference can be significant.

Read Best Reviews of HP Photosmart B8550 Inkjet Photo Printer Here

I thought I got a deal on this printer at $, delivered, a few weeks ago. Now it''s available for slightly less. Friends, this is a deal. Look at the prices for the top-end photo printers from HP, Epson, or Canon and you''ll see that this model is a bargain.

I will not attempt to duplicate the many excellent reviews already posted. I will just post a few comments:

1. This printer replaces my Deskjet 9650, which also printed up to 13x19. Three gripes:

--The Deskjet had a rear-feed slot for straight-through printing of heavy papers or cardstock. The B8550 lacks this feature. It''s not something I used often in the Deskjet, but it''s something you miss when it''s not there.

--You could specify a custom page length up to 50" on the Deskjet. On the B8550, it''s 44". Question to HP: Why? C''mon, HP, panoramas are pretty popular these days. Why the reduced page length in the printer driver?

--No "Banner" selection in the printer driver. If this setting were available, several programs (like Qimage, which I find invaluable) would allow printing panoramas well in excess of the maximum page length in the printer driver.

I just got interested in panoramas a month or two ago, which is why I mention the gripes above. In reality, I can probably live with a 13x44 maximum page size. But I''m always puzzled by printer-driver limitations like this.

On the upside:

1. Haven''t printed 13x19 yet (just received the paper), but prints on 8½x11 paper have knocked my socks off...and have elicited comments from others like, "Did you have this professionally printed?" A noticeable step up from the Deskjet 9650, for which I paid $ (on special) in 2004.

2. HP has done a great job of optimizing their printers for the paper they supply. Don''t curse them for this, as I used to do. Just go to your local Wal-Mart and buy the HP Advanced or Premium paper for about $0.50/sheet in 50-packs and use it. You can see the difference.

3. This printer is NOT an ink hog. Unlike most other HP printers, the printheads are NOT built into the ink cartridges. Instead, ink from the cartridges is pumped to the printheads...meaning that a good amount of the ink in the starter cartridges supplied with the printer will be used up by the time ink is pumped to the printheads--meaning that you will get "low ink" warnings very soon in your experience with this printer. Take my advice: order a full set of the 564XL cartridges the same day you order the printer.

4. The ink is not especially expensive. OEM cartridges are available on Amazon for FAR below retail...and even less than the $12.95 Walgreens charges to refill cartridges.

5. To those who complain about no cable being included, I must ask: Is this the first USB printer you have ever bought? Even if it is, every Staples & Wal-Mart on the planet carries the appropriate cable.

6. As clearly stated, this printer will print on 13x19 paper. If you open the box and discover that it''s much bigger than you expected, you are dangerously unobservant. Read the specs, here and on the excellent HP site.

7. Stay around during the software installation for this printer. You actually have to push a button & do a couple of things to complete the installation (test print, etc.)

8. I have no idea why a few reviewers report installation problems and/or poor print quality. I was getting great prints 30 minutes after setup & installation.

9. A basic test: Using the built-in card slots, print a photo directly from the printer. Print quality okay? If so, open the same photo on your computer and send it to the printer. Print quality NOT okay? Don''t blame the printer, please. Color management is screwed up somewhere in your software. GI,GO.

10. I was going to end by echoing other reviewers: if you only occasionally print larger than 4x6 and 8x10, you don''t need this 13x19 printer...but at less than $150, why not? Go for it.

Update, April 2010:

1. Still very happy with this printer and the quality prints it produces.

2. For photo printing, I have essentially switched over to the HP Advanced Photo Paper recommended for this printer. Packs of 8½x11 and 13x19 are readily available from Amazon at a good price. Note: the HP Advanced glossy paper is very much so. The "satin-matt" would be more appropriate for some subjects or display settings.

3. 13x19 prints have exceeded my expectations. One caveat: I do all of my photo printing from Qimage, a printing utility with some very sophisticated interpolation algorithms. When you''re printing large, it can make a noticeable difference.

4. Other papers: I have started making photo note cards using matte cardstock (coated for inkjet printing) from . I did not know that it was possible to get that level of quality on matte stock. The special size and thickness feeds reliably through the B8550.

5. It''s a bit quirky to set up a special paper size AND the printer settings which you wish to use for that special paper. The first thing you have to do is name the special paper you''re setting up. As soon as you enter a name, the "Save" button lights up. The natural thing to do is click on it. DON''T. Don''t save ANYTHING until you have entered ALL of the printer settings you wish to use with this special paper size. If you do, the EXISTING printer settings--which probably aren''t what you want--will be saved and used with the special paper size you just set up. It took me 20 minutes and much cursing to figure this out.

6. Considering the price of 4x6 and 5x7 prints at photofinishers these days, I thought I''d never use the paper tray dedicated to these sizes. I was wrong. It''s very handy for test prints (and test strips, if your photo-printing software has that feature).

7. You will get an "out of paper" message if the stack of paper you''ve loaded is not absolutely all the way forward in the tray. I think that sometimes just the vibration of the printer is enough to shift the paper back just a bit. No biggie.

8. I repeat that this printer is not an ink hog. The XL cartridges are available at reasonable prices. Note that if you''re near a Staples store, you can recycle these or any other cartridges for $3 in Rewards after signing up for the program.

9. I considered buying a "true" professional photo printer from HP or Epson until I found out that a full inkset could run $240. This printer gives me knockout 13x19 prints, and that''s more than good enough for me.

Want HP Photosmart B8550 Inkjet Photo Printer Discount?

To be honest, this should be a 4.5 star review in light of some software issues, but the printer does such a fantastic job that I thought I should round the stars UP rather than down. I''m truly thrilled with this printer, and that''s that. If only HP could streamline their software, this would be a full 5 star review.

I''ve printed at least 2 dozen prints -4x6, 5x7, 8.5x11, HP paper, Epson paper, Staples paper, etc. -and I have great difficulty determining that ANY of these did not come from a professional photo lab. In fact, I''d told a friend that I''d received this great printer, and when I presented him with a gorgeous 5x7 of a group of us, he asked me where I went to have my photo developed! The output is THAT good. The only output complaint I have is that every once in a while one gets some very shallow linear scratches to the glossy finish, but they are so incredibly small, you have to hold up the photos to a light at a specific angle. This is being very picky, and it''s truly a NON-ISSUE for me.

Some have claimed to have had problems with ink drying time, but I have not: prints are dry within 15-30 seconds, though I do let them sit for a minute or two just in case. I tried smearing the "wet" ink on one after 10 seconds, and there was no smearing, so, if one uses HP Advanced Photo paper, or any of the premium glossy papers I''ve tried, I do not forsee any such problems.

My biggest problems in terms of print output are of the software variety. I have not been able to determine whether this is an HP or a Corel issue (on the computer I have connected this printer to, I use either Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 or Jasc PSP 9, which is the basis for the Corel software, since Corel bought out Jasc and built their PSP series on this Jasc platform), but there are some differences in inch standards between these software packages and the HP printer software: I can edit pictures to print to a standard paper size (let''s say 5x7 here) and crop photos to either those exact dimensions or at least to preserve that particular aspect ratio, but when I then send the photo to this printer via the HP software, the preview shows gaps along the "borderless" photo preview on both of either the 5" or 7" sides. This is true of 4x6" photos as well. I have not been able to figure out which software is to blame for having dubious "inches," but I''ve created a work-around that I''ve found totally satisfying...

I do edit ALL photos I take with photo editing software before printing, so what I do to work around this problem is create the output crop to be a 5.1"x7.1" (aspect ratio preserved) photo. Then, I save the file to a SD/SDHC card, stick it into the printer directly, and then the photo is centered on the printer''s preview screen, and it prints perfectly along ALL borders. I know that this is not perhaps the solution a professional photographer would like, but for a amateur photographer like me who does some not-so-amateur digital photo processing, the output is astounding, and this workaround is not a significant problem.

I would be remiss, though, if I did not refer you to the truly exhaustive technical review on the sub-par HP software that the reviewer named "Bond... James Bond ''007.5''" wrote. It points out some software glitches and the resource-hog multi-process problems that do exist with the bundled HP software. As far as I''ve seen, all he writes is accurate. The issues are slightly different with the Vista 64-bit OS I''m using, but the differences are not significant enough to enumerate.

One bug that I have also found is in HP''s attempt to load its "HP Smart Web Printing 4.0" into all browsers. It is not compatible with Firefox 3.0.4, and it''s fairly easy to disable there; however, reading the problems "Bond" experienced trying to uninstall it from IE, I''m not looking forward to that operation.

The printer software interface is not all that user-friendly either. I''m used to Epson''s multi-tabbed affairs that have literally pages of options. HP seems at first to have the same approach, but, actually, some, but not all (!!!) of the tabs are mutually-exclusive: whichever tab you print from will be the set of options chosen. So, if you think you''ve set one option on one tab and move to another and print from it, that other tab''s setting may have just been negated. This will take some getting used to, and I can''t pretend I quite comprehend this interface yet, but I''ve simply been bypassing it by saving my edited photos to SDHC cards and printing them directly from the printer with WONDERFUL results.

These praises and complaints I''ve noted in my experience with this printer and its software are typical of what I''ve experienced with HP in the past (I am writing this on an HP Pavilion Media Center m8430f, so I know what I''m talking about) is that HP hardware tech is formidable and wonderful stuff -but their software? Not so much. Very much resource-hogging, non-necessary stuff that drags down your system and creates quite a few glitches.

There are so many other features I could comment on, but this review is waxing long. Suffice it to say that I''m absolutely thrilled with this printer, and I''d recommend it in an instant; however, I''d do so with the caveat that it''s probably best used as a stand-alone, not hooked up to any computer (to avoid the software issues), simply used to print photos one has edited on a non-connected computer and saved to SDHC media to print directly from the printer without software interaction. If that''s how one chooses to use this printer, I think they''ll have a 5-star experience!

Let me start the review by stating that this is a PHOTO PRINTER. I emphasize this because a great photo printer is not necessarily a great everyday document printer. If you don''t print a lot of photos or color fliers, but print mostly documents, then this is not the right printer for you. Printing simple documents is noisy, slow, and expensive on a printer like this.

However, if you want a lab quality print up to 13" x 19" then the HP B8550 is a masterpiece. The print quality is so remarkable that you literally could fire your photo lab and print all of your photos at home. This printer will quickly pay for itself and save you a lot of money on photo processing.

The physical set up of the printer is easy and intuitive. The print cartridge carrier slipped right in place and the print cartridges are color and shape coded to simplify installation. For some odd reason, HP doesn''t include a USB printer cable. This doesn''t make any sense to me at all because you have to have one to use the printer and they don''t cost that much money. Luckily, I had a spare cable or else I wouldn''t have been able to use the printer until making another trip to the store! So be sure to get a USB printer cable.

I use the printer with an Apple iMac G4 so my review of the software is Mac OSX specific. I haven''t tried the Windows software.

The Mac OSX software installed with ease and the printer was discovered and ready to print immediately. The software is smart enough to alert the user if an inappropriate paper size is selected a feature that is greatly appreciated! However, one must still remember to choose the correct paper size and appropriate print tray before printing. Given the cost of paper and ink for a specialty printer like this I can''t overemphasize the importance of this. The software won''t catch every user error. Check twice and print once!

Enjoy!

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Ilford GALERIE Prestige Smooth Fine Art (2001799)

• 100% rag, Acid Free, Textured Matt Paper
• Excellent for Producing High Quality Fine Art Photographs
• Fade Resistant
• Compatible with both Pigments and Dye Inks
• Perfect for Fine Art Reproductions

I have used this paper for a very long time. I was surprised to find that the quantity per box had gone down by 10 sheets for the same price, but it is such a beautiful paper for fine art printing that I could not continue to purchase it. It always give me the results I''m hoping for.

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Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper (S041637) Save 40% off

• 13 x 19 velvet fine art paper.
• Museum quality, acid-free base to preserve fine art and photos.
• 100% cotton rag for archivability.
• Bright white surface for excellent color reproduction.
• Enhanced 1440 dpi printing for high-quality output.

This is a great fine art paper, and I have been using it for years as a professional photographer. My complaint is with the way Amazon still packs it for shipping. I have just received another pack of paper with damage to the corner. Package of paper put in bottom of a box that was too big, with just some packing paper put on top. Now requires trimming in order to use, as I cannot take the time to return and replace. If they would just pad the corners properly, all would be well.

Please request Amazon to take better care in packing photo paper. Perhaps if enough people express concern, the message will get through...

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I do my own fine art prints and this paper works fantastic. I use the Epson 2200 and epson has custom settings built in already for this paper for maximum printing. Highly reccommended!!!

Read Best Reviews of Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper (S041637) Here

I bought this paper to make fine art reproductions using an Epson 4490 printer and it is just wonderful (both are actually). It is amazing how the quality of the paper imparts such a different look on the image. The resulting reproduction looked so much like the original watercolor that I worked from that I was amazed. I highly recommend this paper.

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I have been taking photos since I was and only recently began to take this once in a blue moon hobby to heart. I went out and bought a new digital camera, learned how to use that, and then invested in an Epson Stylus Photo R1800 printer. Although never trained, people say I have a good eye which I believe is true, or else I wouldn''t bother. I had been printing my photos on the Epson Luster photo paper and was very happy with the results, but wanted something softer and more artsy for the photos I chose to convert to watercolors. I read the previous review on this type of paper and decided to give it a try. I am overwhelmed with the results. If you want good quality artistic photos, USE THIS PAPER. When they first print out they are somewhat disappointing, but low and behold, as the paper and ink mesh all I can say is OMIGOD! Tremendous. Buy it try it. You''ll love it and you''ll end up signing up for the next art fair!

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I use this paper for my fine art prints from my original paintings, printed with Epson 9800. I know it''s slightly more expensive then other paper out there, but the cost is worth it for the final quality result, I know because my customers tell me they love the quality and that what they receive DON''T look like cheap prints. Just make sure you use the matte black cartridge with the velvet paper, using the standard photo black will print the blacks in less contrast, just not the same. LOVE the textured watercolor look of this paper!

~Susanna Shap

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Clearprint Design Vellum no. 1000HP 11 in. x 17 in. pack of 50 Save 36% off

Well, I recieve exactly what I wanted. Quality is fine. Shipping was realy fast.

It is hard to review simple sheets, so I can only say that you wont loose your money if you buy this item

My son is using this for his drafting class, and it is just right for small orthographic projections. This product is getting harder to locate for a good price.

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This is a great quality of paper for drafting and design. I highly recommend it. Just a bit pricey though, but all art supplies are a rip-off. Thank God I left architecture to pursue a career that would not rape my bank account for the cost of supplies.

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HP 74A Compatible Laser Toner Cartridge for HP 4L, 4ML, 4P, 4MP, CANON LBP-PX printers 92274A

• Compatible With: HP LaserJet 4L, 4ML, 4MP, 4P
• 3350 Page Yield

This produces print as well as the OEM toner cartridge. You cannot tell the difference.

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The replacement toner cartridge works OK, once I figured out how to install it. There were no instructions with it and I did not know how much of the strip to pull out of the cartridge. Evidently, you are supposed to pull the strip until it all comes out, even though it looks like you''re pulling out the insides of the cartridge.

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i have bought this product and received install it and when did test print the print was so light compare to my old toner. Contacted Greattoner seller and they send me another one and that one had same issue. since they cannot send me good one i did prefer not to get from them another shipment. Every times i had to wait 3-4 days toner to arrive. this was completely wastage of my time. also to get refund i have to wait for 5 business day at least and even they did not give me full refund purchase price $22.74 refund giving me $17.74 .... WHAT A RIPOFF .. I would never buy from them and would not suggest anyone to buy from them

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This cartridge does NOT work in the 4MP printer at all I cannot print one single sheet of paper with it, because it''s causing every sheet of paper I feed into it to jam. Never had this problem before this oversized cartridge and it''s obvious that it''s larger than anything I''ve ever used.

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HP P1505 Laserjet Printer

• 2 MB of Memory and A 266 MHz Processor Perform Complex Tasks Quickly
• 150 Sheet Output Bin/ 250 Sheet Adjustable Main Tray with Cover
• Easy to Use Control Panel
• One Door Access to the Easy to Install HP LaserJet All In One Print Cartridge
• 12.90 Lbs (WxLxH) 9.60" x 14.90" x 8.90"

Every year we rotate out about 250 printers of a total around 700 printers. That means we are on a three year rotation schedule. The batch going out this year is some pitiful Brother printers that are only one and one-half to two years old. The ones we are keeping past their rotation time are some HP1012 and 1022 printers that have performed flawlessly. Their replacements are these 1505s.

These printers are simply well-suited to their jobs. They are shared at every installation where we use them. They have been fault free so far and most likely will be if they mirror our experience over the last 20 years with HP printers. They are not network printers or meant for heavy production use. For that you have to expect to spend a few more dollars.

Based on our experience here with these printers I bought one for home and it is performing flawlessly.

I would recommend this printer to anyone who needs an everyday, reliable, easy on the combustibles printer.

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I have bought several 1505''s and 1505N''s and overall had a great experience with them. They are the replacement entry-level Laser monochrome printer for the 1022/1022N. I like them better because they print faster than 1022 (in my experience) and have a power button on the front.

I did receive a bad 1505 but I emailed Amazon and they overnighted me a new printer and emailed me a pre-paid RMA label. Couldn''t have been easier Amazon rocks!

Great little printer! (If you need something a little heftier with HP, I would look at the LJ1320 and so on...)

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HP claims this printer is compatible with Mac OSX. Don''t believe it. There are major problems printing from Word on a Mac, a problem of which HP is fully aware but claims that downloading the latest version of the driver from their website will fix it. In my recent and very frustrating experience (3 calls so far to HP Tech Support), it does not. My Laserjet is still not performing consistently (sometimes it prints, sometimes it doesn''t, and sometimes it print horizontal lines instead of text), &, having exhausted all the "fixes" HP is able to provide, I''m about to ship it back to Amazon.

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Thought I would update this thread-the printer and its new drivers still do not work with Mac (10.5.8) as of 8/24/2009. Apparently any impending hp driver fix has dropped off of their "to do" list. Mac users shouldn''t buy this printer.

The printer worked fine and was a cinch to install. Time will tell how well it holds up to light home use. My previous Samsung printer was also good until it c&^%$#-out.

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Wausau Royal Linen Fine Business Stationery (75158)

• Acid and lingin free for great quality that doesn''t deteriorate
• Inkjet, laser, copier and offset guaranteed
• Papers with a professional look
• paper made with 30 percent recycled post-consumer fiber
• 100 Sheets

These are the two brands I see the most displayed in stores, so that''s why I made the comparison in the headline. They''re also the two top displayed brands on here, so I guess they have the market all tied-up. As far as quality is concerned, I''ll be sticking to the Southworth brand as the quality is very noticeable within a couple seconds of glancing at both carefully. The price on the Southworth brand is definitely worth the quality you''ll receive in return. I''m using it for advertising purposes, so the impression laid on the subconscious when a client first handles the marketing material is worth the extra cost. I used Wausau when money was tight and I didn''t really have a choice. It served its purpose and did it well. Now that I have a little extra, I''m going back to Southworth.

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The paper is ivory which is probably the second most used color for resumes. I like the texture of the paper. Even though it is a lighter weight, the subtle texture suggests something more elegant. What I hate is the watermark. Instead of a crest, they place a recycling symbol with the word "royal" on the paper. It is visible and not always at the bottom or top of the paper. Additionally, the watermark is not small. Lest you think this is the only type of Wausau Royal Stationery with a watermark, I can tell you it is not. I have another type of Wausau Royal and it also has a gigantic, tacky watermark of a slightly different appearance. If you want something professional, don''t select this paper.

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I originally ordered this product [Resume Paper] for a class, but now I''m ordering an extra pack for myself! It is a lot better than I expected, the paper is perfect and so is the price. In the end, I will definitely buy from this seller again; the shipping was EXCELLENT and the service was even better. Thank you so much!

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Quality stationery and it works well in my printer. It looks professional and I would buy this product again. It''s worth the money.

This paper is similar to the envelopes I purchased for correspondence and flyers to use in my campaign for Supervisor. It is also used for thank you letters to people who donate to my campaign.

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Avery Personal Creations Textured Postcards (3380) Save 12% off

• Ink Jet Textured Heavyweight Postcards
• Ideal for birthday and holiday cards, invitations and announcements
• The high-quality, heavyweight stock and special two-sided coating maximize ink jet printer colors
• Microperforation and premium scoring allow for easy folding and clean, neat edges
• Cards are easy to format with any desktop publishing software

I bought three packs of these to work as gift recipe cards for the holidays and using MS Publisher. In Publisher 2007 it is a little tricky finding the place to put in the avery card code (3380), but once you do it, these are a sheer delight to use. The texture is finer and nicer than the plain glossy cards and just feels more formal--perfect for wedding "save the date" and "RSVP" cards! In publisher, I did find my printer did not want to do two sided printing from the same document; easily fixed by creating two files, one for each side, and then flipping the cards for each document. Just a quirk of 2 sided printing.

This cards are EXACTLY standard USPS postcard size; no extra postage to send one. Once you print your cards out on one or both sides, it''s very easy to separate them, even stacked four or five sheets at a time!

These came out so well, I cannot wait to mail them out as my creative holiday gift to my friends and family! Great quality!

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I used these to make my "enclosure" cards for my wedding invitations. The matte finish makes them appear a little more professional, and the Microsoft Office add-in was easy to use to make sure I got the size right. They also included a "sample" page so you could do a test print without messing up any of your actual cards. Very easy to print duplex style, as well. These would be a great way to do RSVP "postcards" if you''d like to print the typical RSVP info on one side, then print your return information on the other, throw on a (cheaper) postcard stamp and off they go into the invitation!!

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I would have rated this high except for one major issue. It is not what it says it is. The item is advertised as POSTCARDS and heavyweight. That is what I expected. However, the paper is thin and bends easily, unlike "postcard" material. I found it flimsy for mailing. The material is more like those magazine insert mailing forms; thin, bendable, easily rips, etc. It has a nice texture, might be good for artwork, receipe cards, cut well, prints nice, and states that it meets US Postal Regs. However, not at all what I wanted.

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These are great! I make Word documents for postcards and simply print them. I have not had one problem with printing or separating the cards. I was worried the edges would look bad when split apart but they are clean cut and very easy to split into 4. I will buy more in the future. Shipping did take a long time.

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I have worked with the Avery Personal Creations Textured Postcards, (3380), and the quality is very high. I also like Avery 4 x 6 postcards, (8386). Both of these Avery products are very good quality, and very campatible with my program for doing projects such as invitations, etc.

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