Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
For the preceding decennium , Epson printers have sat at the pinnacle of the professional exposure market , their earmark being top - notch mark quality , solid carrying into action , and archival print life . In the preceding year , however , Epson ’s two primary competition — Canon and Hewlett - Packard — have issue competitive printer in an attempt to challenge Epson ’s leadership . One of those pressman , HP ’s Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer , has , in our judgement , surpassed any oblation Epson has embark to escort . It rolls high - calibre , long - lasting print and a smartly plan feature lay into one of the most innovative and easy - to - economic consumption printers to come our way in a farsighted time .
Out of the box, into the room
The Designjet Z3100 is a encompassing - format printer , come in 24 - column inch and 44 - inch reading , and , as such , it ’s a large unit . But from the moment you start the Z3100 ’s crate , it ’s obvious that HP ’s locomotive engineer were thinking about usability . The printing machine is backpack upside down in the corner : you first build the stand , which is at the top of the corner , then affix it to the underside of the pressman , and roll the printer out of the box and onto the floor . The summons take aim about 30 minutes .
The rest of the apparatus is similarly simple . The cartridges snap easily into lieu . You connect the pressman to your Ethernet connection or to your Mac via USB , and then establish the driver software , which is as well thought out as rest of the package . The driver is integrate with a utility that manages all aspect of the pressman , from adding usance paper type to check supply levels and more . As was the type with HP ’s Photosmart Pro B9180 ( ) , the Z3100 print driver lets you automatically summate custom paper type — the Z3100 can go for axial motion and shorten - sheet media up to 1.5 millimeter deep .
The printer uses 11 pigment - base inks : magenta , light magenta , light cyan , yellow , red , blue , green , picture black , matte black , gray , and light gray . An additional cartridge contains a gloss enhancer , which is used for impress on sheeny or semi - glossy photo written document . The enhancer serve reduce the unsightly comment differential outcome , where areas of an image with no ink applied have a different reflectivity than area with ink ( this is often referred to asbronzing ) .
The Z3100’s print dialog box has a status box that lets you know when the printer has updated ICC profiles. Clicking on the link will launch the HP Printer Utility, update your Mac with the new profiles, and return you to the print dialog, with the new paper types immediately available.
Like most paint - base printers , the Designjet Z3100 use photo black ink when printing on calendered papers , and matt Negro when print on quiet - finish and fine nontextual matter report ; the printer mechanically uses the black ink appropriate for the paper chosen . The Z3100 , however , goes one better than most of its competitors when printing black - and - white pic on matt - finishing newspaper : it expend both black ink and both gray inks , giving you , in essence , a quad - tone print with an expand tonal range . On a newspaper like Hahnemühle ’s Photo Rag , for example , I got some of the dependable black - and - white photographic print I ’ve ever produce with an inkjet printer .
The calibration advantage
Among the innovation in the Z3100 is the imbed i1 spectrophotometer from 10 - Rite . The gadget lets you promptly add new paper type and ICC profiles to your print system with minimum hassle .
Most professional photographers desire to use their own custom ICC profiles with a printer of this caliber . This often means either grease one’s palms sophisticated profiling systems ( and determine how to use them ) or contracting with a service that will make custom profiles for you . With the Z3100 , HP has made it discharge - dead simple to produce your own profiles on the fly , by embedding anX - Rite i1spectrophotometer ( which measure light-colored intensity ) into the pressman . All you have to do to make an ICC profile is discharge up the HP Printer Utility and choose Create and Install ICC Profile , and the pressman will take the presently laden paper , print a standardization chart , skim it using the i1 , and build the visibility for you . you could even print the chart , let it dry overnight ( which many expert recommend when building a profile ) , and run down it in the next day .
The Z3100 ’s print dialog box has a status boxful that lets you be intimate when the printer has updated ICC profiles . snap on the data link will set in motion the HP Printer Utility , upgrade your Mac with the new visibility , and yield you to the print dialogue , with the novel paper type immediately useable .
Even better , the next time any Mac on your internet mark to the Z3100 , an update notification is presented in the mark driver , and a quick mouse click of a button will impart the new profiles and any new paper type . you’re able to also see how long it ’s been since a certain paper has been profile , and get an alert when it ’s clip to build a new visibility , if you care to on a regular basis revise your paper profile .
Quality and performance
With its 11 ink , the Z3100 has a nice wide people of color gamut capable of generating excellent prints on all media type , and the point and colouring material accuracy of the Z3100 ’s prints are as good as those from any of Epson ’s or Canon ’s most recent pro printer . And , with the two gray inks , dark - and - white prints come out super inert on all paper types . When we put Z3100 prints in front of a jury alongside print from Canon ’s imagePROGRAF iPF6100 ( ) and Epson ’s Stylus Pro 3800 ( ) , viewers could not reliably discern which printer produce which image , a will to the footstep that HP ( and Canon ) have made with their late round of drinks of printer .
While carrying out is often secondary to quality and efficiency when choosing a wide - data formatting pressman , the Z3100 has quite respectable mark speeds . At the received photographic print quality background , the Z3100 bring out a 16 - by-20 - column inch mark in 5 minutes and 20 seconds ; a 24 - inch straightforward ikon in 7 minutes and 57 seconds ; and a borderless 24 - by-36 - column inch photographic print in 11 transactions and 27 seconds . Ink management was quite dependable as well ; we print more than 200 double , most large than 16 by 20 column inch , before we had to supercede any ink at all . ( The 130 - millilitre replacement ink cartridges are or so 57 cent per ml , which is very good for a wide - data formatting printing machine . )
Macworld’s buying advice
It ’s rare that a ware — even a very good one — balances function , initiation , and public presentation , but that ’s what Hewlett - Packard has done with the Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer . The easiness of use , fantabulous print timbre , and smart purpose touches have been meld into one of the best professional printers I have ever seen .
[ Rick LePage is Macworld ’s editor at large . ]
