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HP Design Jet 100 plus and HP Design Jet 130


Felix Mara

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Felix,

I'm surprised no one has gotten back to you on this one. I guess that makes me an early adopter - hmmm. My faithful old Epson 1520 was on its last legs (anyone need some parts?) so I just replaced it with the HP 110 plus nr this week.

I'm also on a mac running the same system and version of VW, so this should apply pretty well to your situation.

I found the HP naming system confusing. In essence, they are all of the 100 series. The 100 is the stripped down model, the 120 is the (6) color "photo" version, and the 110 is supposedly designed for CAD professionals.

I say "supposedly" because the 110 is non-postscript. HP told me that this would be a non-issue for CAD drawigs and would only effect Pantone matching and other sophisticated image correction technologies. I found this NOT to be the case. Drawings print flawlessly from VW, but if you output to a PDF from VW and then try and print the PDF's, the embedded images distort into an illegible mess. This is true of PDF's in general (so far I've only sampled from a few applications). So, the driver isn't perfect ... but I've given you all of the bad news first ... let me offer some of the good news.

Embedded in the driver is an option to print AS IMAGE. This takes about three times longer than a conventional plot but it does print images correctly. The driver was easy to install and aside from the image distortion listed above, it fits in seamlessly with the Mac OS. This is a lot more than I can say for some of the RIP software I've used in the past. To further fill out the driver options, Microspot offers a "POSTSCRIPT" RIP which is very easy to use. I downloaded the demo and it works well. It gives you a few more options and is relatively reasonably priced at $143. Here's a link if you want to look into it.

Microspot Driver (X-rip)

The paper feed tray and the roll combination are the reason I chose this machine and I am impressed with the result. The tray works well, The roll and tray can be used alternately without removing the roll. Large sheets can be manually loaded in the front or back while the other two media are in place ... so you have (4) different media paths in all. The color is fairly good. I find that saturation is consistantly on the lighter side, but thete is a driver filter that corrects for this to some degree.

So, for $1300 there's nothing else in its class. Yes, I would give it a vote of approval.

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Our office is currently having some issues with our 455ca and in the market for another direction and I've been recommended a 120nr by another VW/OSX.3 user. He uses his daily for everything from half-sizes to 24x36 and is overly impressed with not only the quality, but speed as well. If you don't have an issue with the sizes of your sheets being relegated to 24" maximum - jump aboard...we can all sink together.

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I have a Designjet 120, which I believe is the baby brother to the 130. And while I don't have any problems, I do have some issues. The biggest one seems to be that documents with invisible or greyed layers won't print. Once you make all the layers visible it prints just fine.

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We recently replaced our HP1700c with the HP 130 and are very pleased with the printer. We basically print our plans at 12x18, but also print quite a little @ 24x36. We have the printer on our network and use it from several computers (all windows os). We also have several different cadd programs and they all seem to work well with the HP130.

VW Architect 11.5 on Windows2000 with 1gb Ram.

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Despite full reinstallation of OS X & drivers, we have one Mac that does not print via Ethernet to the 130NR. Incidentally (related to getting an el cheapo colour laser), we put an ancient G4 PowerBook to act as an USB shared printing server and that works... No difference in speed, either.

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Don't forget about the incredible OpenSource GIMP drivers. They work flawlessly and are often better than the native HP versions. The code can also be tweeked as required. I use a variety of virtual drivers even though I don't have any of the actual plotters. You can use GIMP to print to PC only and most legacy plotters. GIMP drivers are an OSX install option. They are also available at www.sourceforge.net

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Felix

I guess you are keeping an eye on the adjoining thread as well.

The "nr" in the printer model number is supposed to denote wireless capability, but in my case at least this has turned out to be untrue, so be wary of those promises.

It also doesn't print A2 size prints across the sheet - a flaw in the HP driver I believe.

If you buy, make sure you get a new full size black cartridge thrown in to the deal (mine shipped with a small demo tank that ran out after only a few prints) and check that it prints proper crisp lines from the start - mine had a faulty black printhead which had to be replaced.

It's quite noisy too, so I keep it switched off unless I'm printing.

Apart from all that .......... it does print OK and reasonably quickly, it has separate colour tanks and printheads which are easy to replace, it takes A1 & A3 sheets as well as an A1 roll, so after the teething problems, I am now getting satisfactory results.

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I am consider the HP 110 to replace my HP 450C. I am running Win XP. Anybody have any experience with PC based operating systems. PDF file support? Does anyone supply software to add Postscript abilities for PC?

[ 03-30-2006, 12:44 PM: Message edited by: tvetter ]

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