HP Photosmart Pro B9180

Have anyone tested this one yet?
Looks promising and I'm considering buying one and looking for opinions.

What are you looking for in a printer? This is a complex question. Some more info would help narrow down the possible set of answers here ...

I am looking for up to a 13x19 printer that I can use to print photos to sell.
Mainly glossy prints.

Cool ...

Some more questions if you don't mind.

Color or B&W?
Do you care about matte prints at all, or is it really mostly glossy?
Are you concerned about recurring ink costs?
What about print longevity?

1. Only color.
2. Mostly glossy , personal preference
3. Ink cost is something I need to keep into consideration yes
4. Longevity was one of the reasons I was looking at the HP as it is rated as one of the best

For mostly glossy prints up to 13x19, I would consider the HP B9180 a good choice, but also the Epson R1800 and new 1400. The latter two in particular are optimized for glossy.

I have the B9180 as a test printer, and it is a well made printer. There have been reported issues with the paper feeder, but you will know if that is an issue as the printer will stop working immediately and you will hear a loud click. HP has been quick to replace these in these situations. The paper handling on the B9180 is much much better than any Epson printer, which is a huge plus. The downside is the inks cost about $1.35 per ml, as opposed to $.95/ml on the Epson 2400.

Hi Andy, in what way is the paper handling better on the B9180?

For starters, Epson printers have generally had a low rating with regards to paper handling. So the bar isn't that high to begin with.

The B9180 is the only printer that I know of that can feed cut sheets of canvas without any hassle whatsoever. The manual tray is very well designed, as it is a straight paper path. Well done. If Epson put some more effort into their paper handling, they would have more happy customers. The Epson 3800 paper handling is sub par, in my opinion. Seems to be a wider version of the R2400, which isn't very good.

B9180 Pros:

Less expensive than Epson counterpart, the R2400
Ethernet built in
Print heads user replaceable
Excellent paper handling
Export plugin for Photoshop

B9810 Cons:

Most expensive 13" printer, based on cost/ml
Strange greyscale output in the middle of the step wedge, making profiling difficult. Most patches from 30% to about 70% are nearly identical.

Sounds fair.

But I guess the media handling probably won't be an issue for the OP because Andreas wants to print mostly glossy.

Another choice may be the Epson 4800. Mine has run flawlessly for over a year. Ink costs using the 220ml cartridges run $.40 per ml - less than half of the 2400 costs. Yes the printer is more costly at around $2000 purchase price, but you get about $500 worth of ink in that $2000. Also, as a Stylus Pro series printer, the 4800 is factory "linearized" (made to print exactly to Epson specs with any manufacturing deviations taken out)

Paper handling with either sheets or rolls hasn't been an issue. I've run practically nothing but glossy/luster/semi-gloss papers. Perhaps there may be problems with canvas papers, but Andreas said he wanted a printer for glossy output.

_________________________

Jim Gunning