A reliable plotter past its prime
Written: May 03 '01
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Pros: Sturdy design, takes different media
Cons: Eats ink cartridges, 300 dpi resolution
The Bottom Line: Showing its age, but still a reliable work horse. Eats ink cartridges like a horse, too
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| kurt_h's Full Review: Hewlett Packard DesignJet 750c Ink-jet Printer |
The HP-750C plotter arrived on the scene in the early 1990's as a replacement for the HP-650C series plotter. The 'C' designation is 'Color' and the HP-750C is a CMYK color plotter with an output density of either 300 dpi or 600 dpi using the HPGL description language. As most people don't have the HPGL language built into their applications the normal output resolution is 300 dpi color. The plotter will do black ink ONLY at 600 dpi for black/white/grayscale. The print heads are pulled over the paper in a one-pass color printing mode. That said the mode does NOT put down the full 300 dpi in one pass, instead it starts putting down the ink on one pass and fills in on a second pass.
The main use that this plotter was put to in my Agency is large format color proofing, usually with fully saturated colors. This plotter sees a much wider range of duties in the industry, ranging from CAD/CAM/CAE drafting to use in print shops and poster shops for digital color enlargements and poster production. These latter are supplemented by the various media that can be fed through the plotter: light bond paper, heavy bond paper, film, photogloss paper, vellum and even tyvek. And these uses will vary their output density from 100 dpi for line drawings to the full 600 dpi for photo enlargements using specialized software.
This plotter can be run off of a parallel port of a computer or workstation. HP also sells multiple IO cards that allow this plotter to exist on: ethernet (10B2, 10BT), appletalk and token ring based networks. The plotter can also be addressed via TCP/IP once the network connection is made and the address is set via a front options menu. This plotter can be driven directly via operating systems using the printer drivers (Windows, Mac, UNIX) or through the use of a dedicated print server that will take jobs and queue them up for the plotter.
The major downsides to this plotter are: low resolution, slow output time and the fact it eats through its tiny ink cartridges like an elephant eating peanuts. The first is addressed through trying to find an HPGL driver attuned to this plotter. Good Luck! I've never seen it in action via this mode to drive it at 600 dpi. The remedy for the slow output is to buy the successor machine HP-1050C, which is twice as fast and does 600 dpi all the time without specialized drivers. But the final bit is the killer. Those tiny ink cartridges just don't last that long, especially during high saturation, full color output. And at $30 or so dollars a pop, that can get to be VERY expensive. Add to that the fact that if you leave the plotter idle for a couple of days the ink jet holes on the cartridge gum up with ink and you have one temperamental plotter. Later generations of plotters would have large ink reservoirs that seem to last forever and automated cleaning routines. While the 750C has some of the latter, it just doesn't do the job.
If you are in a shop that does relatively low output, moderate resolution, full-color work in large format you may want to look at a used HP-750C. They are cheap now, and a refurbished one will last you until you either need a better device or the computer that runs it dies. If you have need for higher volume, higher resolution and less temperamental ink systems, then go for a more modern HP-1050C or some of the larger HP-3000 or 8000 series for plot widths up to 52".
One of my pet peeves with all HP plotters is that it takes a certain knack to feed the media through the device. I once spent 45 minutes trying to get a roll of paper adjusted to one of these. Two days later I did it in under 5 minutes, using the same technique. And I have had the same problem with the later series plotters (1050C and 3000 series). YMMV.
The cost per square foot of fully saturated output is about $1 on medium bond paper, with most of that being ink cost. A 24 hour service contract can be had for $300/year, and if you need constant up time it is a very cheap investment. And if you do go for the HP-750C, then buy ink cartridges. Lots of ink cartridges, especially black.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3000 used
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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Epinions.com ID:
kurt_h
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Location: Sterling, VA
Reviews written: 967
Trusted by: 169 members
About Me:
A reader of SF and fantasy, and an enjoyer of liquid refreshment now and again.
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