HP / Hewlett Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Photo Printer

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

The first B9180 I got worked, but used LOTS of ink to maintain itself and soon started leaking ink. After about 6 weeks of wasting ink, paper, $$$ and time, lots of time on the phone, the reconditioned replacement worked well for just over a year. Great prints when it works. Now it's rejecting print heads. It's asking for the 3rd YM printhead in a couple of weeks and I'm stuck in the same frustrating cycle of wasting time and ink calibrating the B9180, waiting to talk with tech support and it still doesn't work. I haven't been able to make a print for weeks, and that's just not acceptable.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

This is one beast of a printer and temperamental, but let me tell you, it prints like a dream. This is the only printing system that even comes close to darkroom work! The full bleed on 13x19, to working on 300lb watercolor paper and if your careful, I have even printed really cool images on non-inkjet paper. I love this this. An excellent piece of equipment.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

When this printer works, it is remarkable and produces near-darkroom quality.
I use it primarily for printing in black and white, and on high-quality rag paper. The images are comparable to heavy-weight fiber-based prints, and reveal great tonality and clarity.

HOWEVER, in 6 months time, I have gone through 4 replacements and am setting up my 5th printer. In each printer, there were mechanical faults ranging from improper paper transport to chassis problems.

HP tech support has been supportive and helpful, but I have yet to receive a reliable machine, and therefore, get the most out of the promise of this machine. Unfortunately, I regret having purchased this product, and urge all those who commit to buying this unit to invest in the extended warrantee so as to cover all your unforeseen expenses.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

I owned HP B9180 for a year before I got tired of power cycling and ink usage! When I first got it, printer produced better quality prints till I updated the firmware!! After that no matter what I did my prints did not match my monitor even with custom profiles, it was close but my prints always had yellow in it. I did not like the gloss differential it created on semi-matte and glossy finish. The other thing I did not like was power cycling when printer displayed the error massage which I never figured why it was happening!! and each time it happened I had to disconnect the printer from power wait 30 second then connect the power cord back to the printer. You might think that is not a big deal!! each time you disconnect power from printer it looses the color calibration so you have to that again and that means more ink gets wasted plus one sheet of glossy paper!!
According to HP you have to leave the printer on all the time for the printer to maintain its health so everyday printer shoots some ink through its print heads and that expensive ink just gets wasted, since printer does not have user replaceable waste tank sooner or later you get your sponge pads saturated with ink and that will cause a premature print head failure. Default setting for printer maintenance software coming on too early and too frequent to tell you buy more ink while ink cartridges still had lot of ink left in them!
On the positive note it prints nice B&W but how often you print B&W??
B9180 does not like Ilford paper and if you print on the Ilford you need to let it dry at least 24 hrs or more before storing it. Print sharpness and saturation of B9180 is not as good as Epson comparable printers.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

I print client photography as well as my landscape work. Most frequently printed sizes are 8x10, 11x17, 13x19. I print from Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom 2. Ok, you can read the other reviews about the printer hardware. The print quality is mostly good, though I've had some pizza cutter lines in dark areas of photos (from the little toothed wheels in the printer). But most of what you need to know is about the Windows drivers....hellish.

Couple of the pain points: Their custom plugin does not work with CS3, only CS2. Their paper/profile manager can't properly remember ICC paper profiles. Every time I try to print on several paper types such as a Moab matte, others, the color is badly skewed (pink faces on people, bad blacks, etc.). Simply switch to other paper type and ICC profile and cured. If I uninstall the bad ICC profile fresh, then tell their utility to reload it, it will often work...for a week or two, then repeats. Problem only occurs with 3rd party profiles. HP's always work. Problem occurs from multiple manufacturers such as Moab, Calumet, and Harmon, so I know it's not just one company putting out bad ICC files.

Pain point 2: If you abort a job (paper's out, or you try to cancel a job after preview) the printer driver sends Windows into a conniption fit, spastically flashing the system tray and maxing out the CPU so you can't use the computer. Only cure is to kill the Print Spooler service, delete the print job from the spool folder, and/or reboot. Never had any other print driver go into a tail spin like this.

Also, despite what anyone says, this thing can be dog gone slow. Once it prints, it's about what you'd expect. I use the network interface on a 100-baseT LAN (100 mbs). It takes several minutes (often 5-8) just for each print job to spool until the printer even wakes up. It's literally a walk away and come back later type of thing.

So, good value for the money, and excellent compared to Epson's competitors since you don't have to change blacks between matte and gloss. I don't regret. But definitely NOT a smooth ride. It's a pain to fight with and use, especially the color profile problem more than anything...absolutely infuriating.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

This printer really shines with larger print size like 8 by 10 or larger.

Setup is long but automatic. The printer works well on a network with the ethernet cable.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

Bought the B9180 after reading several reviews touting its printing quality, build quality and the like. After printing almost 100 5x7 cards, 100 4x6's and a few larger prints, here's what I think about it.

Print quality = fabulous, No doubt about it, really good printing WHEN matched with the right papers. If this is your only metric, 5 stars.

Print speed = fairly fast, cards print out in about a minute to a minute and a half. 4.5 stars.

Paper Handling = woah hoss, this printer has done thrown a shoe. Non-printing side has some slight markings on several of the cards, thats not good. 3-5% of the cards kicked out for "incorrect size", two cards double feed, ouch, not to mention the 4 cards that have crooked lines due to misfeed. Moral of this story is make sure that the card stock is really square inside the feeder if you use it. On the plus side, the 4x6 stock all feed with no "oops" so maybe its just the operator. 2.5 Stars.

Print head closed calibration - failed the first time, passed the second time. Print head alignment has yet to come of "sub-optimal" and one print head has yet to clear from yellow to green. DESPITE this, GREAT PRINTS. So, 5 stars for a printer that KNOWS its messed up a little, and can correct for it.

Ink Useage -- wow, that starter pack went fast, with 2 closed-loop calibrations, ALOT of head cleaning, but still got almost 100 prints out of it before it complains.

Ink COST: so, now to get some Ink -- humm, need 6 of 8 right now, at (MSRP) of $33.00, thats .. well thats alot. You can bet I'm not gonna be alinging the print heads too much more.

For my printing needs, it looks like about $0.42 per print (5x7's mostly) == reasonable.

Overall: Satisfied. Prints ARE NICE. Looking forward to running some 13x19 stock for larger printing, but not until I get some INK :)

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

I’ve had my HP B9180 for about 6 weeks. Having read a lot of reviews, I was kind of nervous about buying it—especially since I’m running Vista. But the printer has been great.First, two minor negatives and the dreaded Vista printing 13x19 problem (the rest is positive):Negative 1: When I was setting the printer up, the instructions talked about a pre-moistened swab used to clean the print heads before installation. None of the 4 print heads came with the swabs. I installed them without cleaning and the printer has been fine.Negative 2: The first I made using 8 1/2 x 11 paper from the main paper tray, there were the dreaded marks on the paper that some people wrote about. I don’t think any of my subsequent prints have had the marks. I have had no problems with paper using the single-sheet, manual feed.Vista problem (resolved):I had read about problems printing anything larger than 8 1/2 x 11 from Vista. I was really nervous about this but figured that at the very worst I had an XP system I could turn into a printer server. I did indeed have the Vista driver problem. It went away after I installed the printer’s firmware update that I downloaded from the HP web site. So the printer is now happy with Vista.The rest is great. I had read that the 9180’s ink utilization was pretty good. But I decided to keep track of the ink utilization to confirm this. It’s still too early for me to have a good handle on it, but these are my preliminary impressions. Although I haven’t printed a ton of pagers, so far, the ink consumption seems pretty good based on the printer utility’s ink estimate.I had read that some people had problems printing on non-HP papers. I’ve printed 22 13x19 prints on a variety of papers. Most, but not all, were on HP Hahnemuhle papers or canvas purchased from HP. I also bought some matte paper from [...] for proofing. Except for the light cardboard that I accidentally used the first time, the prints on the [...] paper has been fine. These pages are pretty stiff, so I use the manual load, single-sheet, straight-through paper path.I have also printed 9 pictures on some 8 1/2 x 11 glossy Kodak photo paper I had around and loaded into the main tray. I don’t have a good ICC profile for that paper yet. Except for some color matching issues and the first page that had some marks from the pin wheels in the paper feed mechanism, it seems like it will ok for proofing.Yesterday, I was researching larger sheets of paper (13x38) or rolls (13x very long) so I can print some panoramas. People were writing that there were no issues using non-HP paper with the 9180. So it seems like the "printing on non-HP paper" may be overblown. I’ll be trying that soon.I give the printer a 4 star rather than 5 star rating because of the minor problems (having to upgrade the firmware for Vista and not knowing in advance that that would fix the issue) and documentation mismatch about cleaning the print heads before installation.I hope and expect that this printer will serve me well for a long time to come.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

I use this printer almost everyday. it produces the quality I want when I am printing samples or fine art. The ink consumption is low, and the fact that all of the colors don't have to sit on the print head is a tremendous factor to avoid wear on the print head. The only con I have is that I have to take out the tray if I have to change stock to a different size, and the fact that I have to load the paper upside down, I am not used to that.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

I purchased this printer to be my primary photo printer as an output device from Photoshop and Lightroom. I recently made the jump from film to full digital and needed a high quality printer that could do larger formats. I looked at Epson and Canon but I simply could not bring myself to purchase any printer that didnt have an H and a P on the front. Over the years I have had nothing but good luck with HP equipment and this printer is no exception. The color matching was very good right out of the box and was simply amazing once it was calibrated with my monitor using third party software and equipment. I couldn't be happier with the quality of the photos. The printer has been flawless so far with no problems and the drivers work excellent with photoshop and lightroom. The ethernet network connectivity made sharing the printer with multiple computers a snap. I would have easily given the printer 5 stars if it were just a tad faster. I read several ads that said it was capable of 10 second 4x6 prints. I have yet to see a 4x6 print come out of this thing faster than a minute. The 10 second print statement must be for 72dpi web-quality draft prints which is not what this printer was intended to do. With the high cost of media and inks, why would you ever do draft compositions on a printer of this style. I use my HP color laser for printing those images.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

HP has really done it again with this printer.

I sell the prints I have been making with this printer. Has almost paid for itself after only 2 weeks of use. No significant ink use after 20+ 8.5 X 11, and a dozen 13 X 19. Prints what my screen shows me.

Now if only they would release a 17-18" wide version.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

I haven't had any problems with it as of yet. It prints beautiful picture. Even my husband, who thought this printer was too much money and "couldn't be that good", complimented the pictures! The set up was a little long but it wasn't hard. The computer calibrates without you there so I just set it up and went to bed. I have yet to print a bad picture and I haven't really found anything that I don't like about it, aside from the size. It is really big. I knew this buying it but was still shocked by its size when I got it. A lot of open space is needed to utilize it completely.

If you're a professional or need a professional end result this printer will not disappoint you.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

This printer works well with Windows Vista; At least it does for me. I also have a competitors machine and I'm looking for someone I really dislike so I can give it to them. I use this printer for all types of printing including portraits. So far I've been able to get out of the printer pretty much what I see on my screen and in very fine detail. What more do you want?

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

Had the printer a couple weekes now and really like it. Output is top-drawer for this price range. It is relatively quiet and seems to print fairly quickly. It's not super-fast, but for a high-quality large format printer, it does a good job.

If you are a graphic designer like me you'll need to purchase the EFI Designer Edition RIP from HP ($399.00) to get color-accurate output. The EFI software works as advertised, but is a pain to install and configure proplerly. It's also buggy. Make sure you visit EFI's site to download the latest patches as I found that the EFI automatic updated doesn't install the latest version.

All in all I'm happy with the set-up so far. The printer performs fantastically, and the EFI software...well...it works, for now.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

While I send out many of my photos to be printed, for the ones are care about the most, and are personal to me, I want complete control.

This printer is easy to use and delivers exceptional images on a large variety of papers, and has allowed me the flexibility I needed for my photography. I use it while utilizing Adobe RGB color space, and the color match has been as close as I have seen with any photo printer sold for personal use.

From a technical standpoint, I appreciate that I was able to connect it directly through our network, making it very easy to install the printer. The printer's only fault which I have found, is in the paper feeding of large paper sheets, which depends in part on the user's ability to ensure the paper when first fed is tight and straight to the guide lip. Every once in a while, the paper is printed a tiny bit out of kilter. I wish that the guide lip was longer and that HP might have considered a rear guide attachment to the printer to aid in this. I consider this a very minor flaw.

I highly recommend this printer for any professional or serious amateur.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

I use it to make fine art color and b&w prints.
It doesn't clogg and when it does it only cleans the clogged nozzles, ie doesn't waste ink. The larger ink cartridges that don't travel on the print head, also are actually bags and therefore don't leave any ink on the sponge that you would end up throwing away. It's quiet but kinda ugly.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

I've been using HP printers since the first Deskjet 500. This is the first one that annoyed me this much.I had to return the first one due to banding, and due to printheads that suddenly became "bad" 48 hours after setup.[...] The second printer demonstrated a very annoying print anomaly wherein a single pixel line across the print would not print. After a number of re-alignments, and printhead servicings, I called HP Support. I spoke to a person who meant well, but seemed to know very little about the printer. After a couple of TAP tests he decided to send me a new printhead. I knew good an well that the problem could not be printhead related, but the head was bad, so why not? He also said that he was going to send me a pack of HP Advanced paper to do the calibration tests.HP sent these items to Spokane Washington. I am in South Carolina. So we wait. When the items finally get re-directed to me, I find that HP sent me 4x6 paper, which you cannot use for the necessary calibration. Once I got the correct paper installed and calibrated the PHs, I found the anomaly still there. Back on the phone with tech support.. 2.5 hours later they decided that the problem was with Photoshop CS2's communication with the print plugin. Which they said that they do not support - for some reason. We were able to demonstrate that CS2 printed perfectly, and that only the HP plugin caused the problem. HP had no support to offer. The very convenient plugin is now useless. So while it takes considerable effort and multiple screens to click through to make a single print, the print quality is very good. This is particularly true with B&W prints on MOAB Matte or Epson Velvet papers.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

I have had my B9180 for 10 months.
It produces excellent output in color and bw. The output is detailed and subtle. I print on Hahnemuehle Photo Rag and Fine Art Pearl, as well as HP Advanced Photo Paper.
I never had a problem with clogged printheads.

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

I have had this printer for over a year, for the money I know of no other printer that can come close to the output, the quality " one reviewer stated flimsy construction" this printer is built like a tank. Very good on ink, although I would like to see larger ink cartridges available as the larger ink sets are cheaper per ml. After owning Epson printers in the past, the fact that this printer can set unused for months at time and print with out any clogged heads or nozzles is very refreshing. Speaking about heads if one fails they are inexpensive to purchase and user replaceable. Also being able to print on gloss or matte without changing or wasting any ink is a huge plus.

Expertise: 30 years in photography

Problems: None

Comments about HP / Hewlett-Packard Photosmart Pro B9180 Inkjet Printer:

I am on my third one!! The first wouldn't go through calibration, OK I guess I got a lemon. I gave them the chance to ship me one. The second was a recon thrown in a box and crushed by the time I got it from HP support. The third was another new one. It worked beautifully for a few months. Then it lost the ability to use the specialty media tray wether it be for paper or canvas. Then it stopped printing altogether, and gave me false paper jam errors.

I don't know what to say, do I have gremlins? I have other Hp printers and have never had problems with them but this one is JUNK!! Poor engineering. THis printer is supposed to have all sorts of things others don't one being closed loop calibration. Guess what though, if it won't print those bells and whistles are meaningless!

I have about 9 years of photography experience and two years of semi pro.