HP Z2100 question

[Rhublein]

Considering buying a 44" HPZ2100 for personal photo and digital art printing. Would I be able to print 36x48 inch graphic files (Tiff, PSD or others) directly to printer without Rip or additional software?

Thanks

 

[japanprint]

Hello, I am considering the same printer but for some professional printing needs including adding images to brochures and business cards. You can see examples of the work that I do on my website, just go to examples. Japanese Business Cards | Chinese Business Cards | Business Card Translation | Chinese Translation | Japanese Translation | Document Translation | Asian Business Cards | Call 212.406.2905

I would like an opinion on this machine.

 

[Bob Phillips]

Hp z2100

Hp z2100

I've been running a Z2100 44" for 2 and a half years now, for art / photo prints and smaller-scale exhibition panels.
Really good for graphics and photo printing, extremely reliable, economical to run, rarely have a head issue. Have only replaced heads once in 2 years, and only then because I thought it was time, not due to any failure.
Fab neutral grey tones on good photo / art paper, but sometimes struggles a bit with subtle deep grey gradations.

2 issues worthy of mention :

HP Vivera inks tend to sit on the surface of satin/glossy photo papers and therefore are very prone to scuffing, especially visible on blacks. No problem if they are mounted under glass, or if you intend to laminate. There is a degree of bronzing on these papers too.

The weak point regarding colour is getting a good deep red.
Vibrant light and crimson reds are fine, but can go a bit dull on deeper tones, especially on matte paper.

The native printer driver and supplied generic profiles are good.
I have an Onyx software RIP, but don't use it as the native printing is fine.

Due to the red and the bronzing issues, I am considering upgrading to an HP Z3200, which includes a chromatic red and a 'gloss enhancer' which acts a bit like a clear varnish to get rid of bronzing.

If I was buying afresh, I would definitely pay a bit more, and go for the Z3200.

Hope this helps

 

[GJOHN]

I have noticed that when you use some self adhesive gloss and matte vinyls on any wide format ink jet printers, you will experience scuffing. But there are some polypropylene substrates that can alleviate this problem.

 

[nirupakah]

as for scuffing: you always should check the compatibility of the media and the printer, hp offers huge variety of media of all kinds which are suitable either for dye-based inks or for pigment inks (some work with both types, sometimes lamination is required/recommended). and yes, there are matte polypropylene media and those are really great, i like them very much, even more than matte photopapers (like hp premium matte photo paper, for example).

back to the original question: hp z2100 is - in my opinion - a great printer, i can agree with that. what has been said about bronzing is ture, though, the same about the issues with getting nice red colour.
i have been using the printer drive for a long time and it does not give bad results - until you have a comparison with some outputs send via well set RIP. the basic solution provided by hp - the driver, the built-in spectro and the hp printing utility - gives you everything you need for printing, calibrating and profiling and you really get fairly good printouts. and you would be able to print the images of the size you asked about, there might, however, be some troubles printing images longer than 1.5 meter (you need to make the right settings in the driver to get it out whole). also, you cannot send to print another file when just printingm so if you need higher productivity, using just the driver would rather bother you. anyway, as i have already said, the driver works fine, it all depends on your needs and you can always get a rip whned there is a need...