HP Deskjet 1280

...I bought some good quality HP A4 photo paper to start with and the colour accuracy - to what it was on my computer screen - was amazing. It was exactly right. Some printers you can spend ages getting the print to look as it does on screen. So far, very impressed.

A3 next. I looked around for A3 paper and was a bit disappointed with the choice. Canon and Epson have A3 paper readily available, but I couldn't find any HP A3 paper in ...
...the images produced from the HP are just as sharp, if not sharper in some cases. This printer has 4800x1200 dpi, my Canon has 9600x2400 dpi. Certainly black lines in photos were much clearer on my HP than my Canon.
One slightly disappointing this is i can't seem to get a borderless A3 print. Can't find it in the print settings - i think its because its not a 'photo' printer. Some printers on the market are designed as 'photo' printers and ... more

I bought this printer cos i found it for £99! Bargain! It was a one off.
I must say I was very impressed with its quality and ease of use. It is big, but it prints A3!

I bought some good quality HP A4 photo paper to start with and the colour accuracy - to what it was on my computer screen - was amazing. It was exactly right. Some printers you can spend ages getting the print to look as it does on screen. So far, very impressed.

A3 next. I looked around for A3 paper and was a bit disappointed with the choice. Canon and Epson have A3 paper readily available, but I couldn't find any HP A3 paper in shops. I don't like using third party paper unless i know its good. After looking on the internet i managed to get some. This wasn't the best quality paper i could buy but i was only using it as a test. The difference in paper quality had an effect with the print. Although the colours were accurate, there wasn't as much depth to the image. So next time i'll buy the better paper.
Despite this printer having, on paper, half the resolution as my other printer the images produced from the HP are just as sharp, if not sharper in some cases. This printer has 4800x1200 dpi, my Canon has 9600x2400 dpi. Certainly black lines in photos were much clearer on my HP than my Canon.
One slightly disappointing this is i can't seem to get a borderless A3 print. Can't find it in the print settings - i think its because its not a 'photo' printer. Some printers on the market are designed as 'photo' printers and so give you all the options. This one gives a lot of envelope sizes instead!

The printer is slow but i'm not working to deadlines so it doesn't bother me. I have a Canon printer which prints amazingly fast for anything needed in a hurry.
I'm more interested in quality. Both photo and text quality are very good. As i've said earlier the colours are accurate printing from both my Mac and PC, prints are very sharp, and with the right paper they have good depth. My fiance has a small HP photo printer - a photosmart 325. This also prints very good photos. The only problem is that the prints are sensitive to light - they fade pink - and are not water resistant. This is one weakness with the HP printers i've experienced. If you store them in an album, or out of direct sunlight, you won't get a problem. The prints from this printer seem a bit more durable than those from the small HP, but Canon and Epson printers still have the edge.

The cartridges do last a long time, and because the printer has been around a fair while, the ink costs are cheaper. It takes on black cartridge and one colour cartridge (with cyan, majenta and yellow). The majority of its A3 competition have separate cartridges meaning that you only replace the colour that needs replacing - not the whole cartridge as in this case. They also house more colours. This one, as i've already said, has cyan, majenta and yellow (in one cartridge). As well as these three other printers have blue, light cyan, light majenta, green and red (in separate cartridges). These give those printers a broader colour range. For your average person having all these will be just too costly and a bit of a pain to get hold of. But for your real enthusiast its all worth it! The problem for professionals is that cyan and majenta are shades of blue and red. Sometimes they need true blue and true red for accuracy.
Also, more recently, companies such as Epson have released printers which use pigment ink - most inkjets use dye inks. The beauty of pigment ink is its longevity and durability. Unlike dye inks, pigments ink is not as sensitive to exposure to light or to water spilages. Like its name suggests dye inks will run if fluid is spilt onto them. If this sounds more like the printer you're looking for then this HP is probable not the one for you.
But if you have a printer with say 8 cartridges and they range from £7-14 each that's quite an expense. I certainly wouldn't want to spend that much for what i use it for. My cartridges cost approx £15 for black and £10 for colour. Also most of the competition costs about 2-3 times the price of this machine. Most are around £400-550.

I like this printer. It's well built, though the paper feed doesn't seem as sturdy as my Canon, and reliable. If its a good price, this printer is well worth it. 

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