The HiTi 730PS Photo Printer

Page 3.

Software

The driving force behind this printer is an application called Photo Desiree 2. This is a relatively easy application to use and once mastered should produce predictable results each time. Launching the application you are presented with a four panel screen. On the left pane you acquire your images for printing. The first icon opens a folder, this is a painfully slow process each preview is built up in the right window. The second is a Twain acquire (scanner) and the third is the printers memory card, this reads a card in much the same way as it would any other folder. Select a set of pictures, by default all the images in a folder will be selected. You can of course just select the pictures you require by clicking on it or select multiple pictures by holding down the Ctrl key. As this is so slow it is better to place all the images you want to print in a temp folder and then select them all. Click on any image to highlight it and then click the white arrow in the centre. This now places the image in the bottom pane. The large window on the right shows any alteration you have made via the Desiree software. Once you are happy with the look of the picture you can then add it to the bottom album pane by clicking on the bottom arrow. The software works very well and there have been several improvements made over the previous version

Desiree 2 interface	Bringing in pictures is slow

The editing options are reasonable, with all the usual options such as Brightness, Contrast, Sharpening, Gamma and colour corrections. There are also special effects such as tints, sepia etc. The controls have been improved over the previous version, they now include numeric values, this will make it easier to apply a repeat value. There is also a variations style window with nine pre set previews, you can't set the amount of variation between each window.

An improved slider on version 2	Variation style with little user choice

There is also a frame overlay feature, these are a series of clip-art style borders, some are more effective than others, nevertheless great fun.

A selection of effects are available	or choose from the many predefined frames

One of the real plus points for the printer is in its ability to print multiple ID, Passport size prints. For the high street social photographer this feature alone is worth the asking price. An average passport portrait photograph will cost £3.00, 60 x £3.00 = £180 - £18.00 (for 6x4 media) this leaves a £162 profit per pack of media. Three packs of paper and the printer is making a profit.

Picture quality is very good but not exceptional, prints lack weight this is due to only printing with CMY colours. The prints have a slight brown cast in the blacks, this is due to the lack of a black ribbon. The printer produced more than acceptable results on all the pictures in this test. The monochrome picture was neutral, with a very slight warm tone. HiTi says the printer produces smooth tones, the equivalent of printing at 4800 dpi, I thought this smoothness made the images soft and they lacked focus. Perhaps the 4800 dpi resolution is too good and starts to have the opposite effect.

HiTi first print - red tint in blacks	Excellent reds though
Venice in larger than life colours	Enlargement shows soft detail
BW with warm blacks	Excellent skin tones (Sophie in middle) .
You can almost smell the garlic	Greens are warm (prior to cooking them)

© Vincent Oliver 2004 www.photo-i.co.uk
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