Issue #0507/1 - Having scorned other printer manufacturers for using Red, Green or Blue inks to supplement colours and extend chroma possible with traditional CMYK inks, Hewlett-Packard has now introduced a high-end A3 format 9-ink inkjet printer with the addition of Blue ink.
Hewlett-Packard has joined Epson and Canon in the use of non-CMYK inks in its inkjet photo printers. Just launched is an A3 photo printer, PhotoSmart 8750, targeted primarily at photo-enthusiasts, professionals and graphic arts environments where cost is less of an issue than print quality.
This move follows the introduction of the triple-grey cartridge nearly two years ago, which was aimed at providing greater flexibility of colour by using the light and mid grey inks to achieve the required darkness within coloured areas.
Adding Blue ink allows Hewlett-Packard to achieve a claimed 25% increase in Blue chroma than was achieved in the 8-ink systems launched in the summer of 2003. The three Grey inks are still used to create the required darkness levels.
When Epson and Canon were introducing printers with Red, Green or Blue inks in addition to Cyan, Magenta and Yellow, I asked Hewlett-Packard if we would see the technique used in Hewlett-Packard’s PhotoSmart printers and AiOs.
In response to my question, I was told that it would not happen because ‘Hewlett-Packard is capable of achieving the necessary colour gamut using the traditional colours plus the neutral Grey inks, whereas other manufacturers had gamut problems in the Red, Green or Blue sectors of the colour spectrum’. It was effectively a criticism of other manufacturers’ technical ability for not being able to create a wide enough gamut from traditional CMY inks.
Now we see Hewlett-Packard admitting that (whether or not the company has better gamut capabilities from traditional inks than its competitors) the use of a Blue ink is a valuable addition to the ink set.
Canon uses both Red and Green ink in certain printers to boost the colour spectrum, intensifying colour saturation in the red, green and orange areas of the spectrum, claiming that the result is close to that achieved with positive film (generally accepted as the best medium for colour balance and intensity.
Epson, rather than using Red and Green inks has opted for Red and Blue, claiming that it offers print results similar to Silver Halide, adding “life to sky, sea, sunsets and autumnal scenes”.
Hewlett-Packard is still scathing of its competitors for not using Grey inks, saying that composite greys (created from equal proportions of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow) can result in hue shifts or risk adding a granular quality to the image. Perhaps they are not aware that Epson uses a mid-Grey in its 7-ink Stylus Photo 2100 photo printer or that Lexmark has finally managed to progress beyond the use of Photo-Cyan and Photo-Magenta in its latest generation of 6-ink printer/AiO, utilising a mid-Grey instead of a full Black.
This means that Canon is now the only major inkjet printer manufacturer now not to have adopted Grey inks.
As for the PhotoSmart 8750 itself, print quality is, of course, superb on this A3 format printer that is claimed to provide “Print gallery-quality colour or low metamerism black & white photos” – ‘low metamerism’ (derived from the American term for the banding that comprises the bodies of animals such as worms) being an American term coined in this instance to mean ‘smooth tonal transitions’).
There was some concern shown during CharisCo Printer Labs’ psychometric testing of print quality that the introduction of the Grey inks may have ‘over-cooked’ the darkness levels within printed images, resulting in an overall dullness. However, that is not an insurmountable problem and the use of a Blue to enhance that end of the spectrum is a valuable addition.
If any other ink were to be added (perhaps by using two Greys and a Blue rather than three Greys) the best choice would probably be a Red because of its ability to inject life and intensity into an otherwise pallid subject (and reds can easily veer towards orange or purple with CMYK printing).
However, Grey inks are invaluable for printing of Black and White images – being the only way that the subtle tones desired by Black and White photographers can be achieved. This machine also benefits from access to Hewlett-Packard’s sRGB colour space that pushes the boundary of the colour gamut outwards to provide a wider range of printable colours.
In addition to offering higher print quality from the new ink system, named Vivera, Hewlett-Packard claims an extended light fastness – up to 108 years under glass and 200 years in a photo album.
Unusual for Hewlett-Packard, the PhotoSmart 8750 has a rear paper tray, allowing two media types to be loaded at the same time and a bypass feeder for single sheet use.
Direct printing is available from memory card or PictBridge USB compatibility and printer interfaces include USB 2.0 and built-in Ethernet network adapter.
As far as cost of printing is concerned, anyone buying the PhotoSmart 8750 will be more concerned about the print quality and the ability to print at A3 than in the comparative cost of each individual photo. No one would argue that as the number of inks used increases, so the Cost of Printing increases, so 9-ink printing must be expected to be more expensive even than 8-ink printing.
If however, for any reason, the user wanted to print lower quality images, then this can be achieved by removing the photo cartridges so that the printer uses three-colour mode – in which case the ink cost will be similar to the competitive 15 pence per 10×15 (6×4) image achieved by the No. 57 cartridge.
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