The HiTi 640PS Photo Printer

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Want to buy a new printer?

The market is flooded with inkjet printers, there is a printer to suit every pocket and today's printers all seem to be producing superb results, so how do you decide which is the right one for you. HiTi, is not a name that sits on the tip of your tongue when talking about printers. Hi-Touch Technologies is a Taiwanese manufacturer offering an impressive range of six Dye-Sublimation printers, 630PL, 630PS, PhotoShuttle, 640PS, TransPhotable and the 640DL. HiTi’s Dye Diffusion technology produces 6x4 inch borderless prints in 45 to 130 seconds depending on model.

Inkjet printers squirt ink onto paper to produce the picture, the finer the dot, the finer the detail. HiTi Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer technology uses continuous tone dye ribbons, each ribbon offers 256 levels of Yellow, Magenta or Cyan. This effectively produces 16.7 million colour combinations, giving grain and dot free photographs. This would seem to be a clear advantage over inkjet printers, but how does the HiTi stand up when compared to an inkjet printer. Photo-i has had the 640PS for a couple of weeks and we have compared the results. The 640PS has a resolution of 403 x 403 dpi, although this resolution sounds low when compared to HP, Canon and Epson who are producing printers with 2880 or 4800 dpi. To match the Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer technology, an inkjet printer would need to have a resolution of 6400 dpi.

Setting up

Setting up is a straightforward operation. Insert the installation CD and a full screen of options is presented to you. Click on the Install HiTi Photoprinter and a wizard takes care of the rest. Fortunately the installation does not assign the HiTi printer as the default printer, it is available via the usual Print > Printer Selection drop down list. The installation also installs a rather nifty printing application called Photo Desiree, I used this for most of the test prints. Adobe Acrobat version 5.05 is also included for the 111 page PDF User Manual. (If you haven't downloaded version 6 of Acrobat then you should do so, it's very good)

Installation splash screen

The 640PS comes complete with a USB cable (one of the few printers I have reviewed that does), power cord, a sample paper pack of 8 6x4 sheets, 2 sheets of sticker and ribbon, this will get you productive within minutes. I got good quality prints after just two sheets but needed to tweak the images, more about this later. A replacement Photo Paper packs contain 50 sheets and ribbon cartridge, the Photo Paper kit costs £16.99 which works out at 34p per print, a cheaper way of printing 6x4 prints than inkjet. Only 25 sheets can be loaded in the holder at a time, HiTi thoughtfully put 25 sheets in each pack, this avoids soiling the unused sheets.

Photo Paper Kit includes 2 packs of 25 sheets and ribbon	USB and Controller connections

Loading the printer

Fitting the ribbon cartridge is a quick and easy job. The front of the printer has to be opened, this is achieved by pressing the large button on the top of the printer. The ribbon cartridge is then sloted in and pushed home, close the cover and the printer is ready.

The ribbon cartridge	If you can load film then this is easier

Next load the paper into the cassette, the paper should be handled with care, avoid touching the paper surface. Fortunately paper has break off tabs, this provides a good holding point. Once the cassette has been loaded it is then closed and pushed into the front slot of the printer.

Handle paper with care	Printer is ready to print.