First prints

I first saw the HP Photosmart 8750 printer in February and bought back some sample prints. The colours in the prints looked slightly larger than life. I was eager to test this printer with my own files and see just what this printer was capable of producing. Armed with a handful of image files I set about printing the usual photo-i test file. The prints below were scanned in on the Canon 9950F scanner using SilverFast Ai. A custom profile was created in SilverFast HDR Studio and applied to the file, the imported scan was converted to sRGB in Photoshop CS2, no other adjustments have been made to the scans.

Original file	First print - Best setting	Maximum dpi setting

Looking at the first print, Sophie has a distinctive cool skin colour with a shift towards magenta/red. This first print used the Best setting (600x600 dpi). The print took 5min- 04:37 seconds to print, not an impressive time. The next print was printed using the Maximum dpi (1200x1200) setting. This print has exaggerated the magenta cast on the skin. The second print took 7min - 34:56 seconds, far too long. Both prints displayed vibrant colours on the reels, a bit too vibrant for my liking. The monochrome image displays excellent neutral tones.

HP have introduced a new Blue Vivera ink in the 101 photo cartridge, this replaces a black which was used for text only on previous photo cartridges.

"In designing the new printing system in the HP Photosmart 8750 Professional Photo Printer, the goal of HP’s color scientists, chemists, and engineers was to use nine inks in the most effective way to expand the printer’s gamut of colors. The printer’s color gamut is the set of all colors it can reproduce, and it is often represented in a three-dimensional space where the axes are hue (color value), saturation (the purity of the color), and luminescence (the brightness or darkness of the color). HP’s goal is to make the printer’s color gamut more closely match the sRGB color space, which is the color model used by most consumer digital cameras and monitors to record and display images. In reds and greens, the HP eight-ink color gamut already surpasses traditional silver-halide photo prints. But the sRGB color space extends further into the blues than eight-ink printing can reproduce. The obvious opportunity for improving the color gamut was to develop a new, specially formulated blue ink. With nine-ink printing and the HP 101 Blue Photo Inkjet Print Cartridge, HP has met the goal to extend the color gamut to more closely match the sRGB color space. The bottom line: with HP's nine-ink technology you can print more of the vivid colors you see in the world and capture with your digital camera."

"Nine-ink printing with the HP 101 Blue Photo Inkjet print cartridge provides up to 25% more blue chroma than eight-ink printing3. The improvement is obvious in any photo print with intense blues. Outdoor photography enthusiasts will be impressed by the vivid blues in their landscapes, seascapes, and sports photos. Blues will be better on any paper, but the best results will be obtained on HP Premium and Premium Plus photo papers."

Well I can vouch for the above HP statements, it does increase the gamut, but has anyone given the HP technicians a stopping point?

Eye detail in Best setting	Eye detail in Max dpi setting
Epson R800 detail	Epson R1800 detail
Canon Pixma i8500 detail	HP 8450 detail

Looking at the detail shots, the HP 8750 has excellent image sharpness and on the Max dpi print there is virtually no sign of the print dot. The magenta cast is perhaps highlighted more when you compare the prints next to the other samples.

Colours like you have never seen before
Good detail in the dark areas	Reds are very strong
Excellent Yellow	A good blue

The reels show just how vibrant the new Vivera colours are. For scenic photographs this printer is going to produce satisfying colours for 85% of all users. If you are into portraiture then the 8750 may be too colourful for your taste.

Please note that the pictures published here are actual scans of the original prints, I have endeavoured to reproduce the colours as accurately as possible, but small deviations may occur.

Monochrome printing next