HP PhotoSmart scanner/printer

[rr...@my-deja.com]

To all you photo scanner-printer fans who have or
are considering the HP Photosmart system. I am a
serious amateur landscape-flower photographer who
has done a considerable amount of scanning and
printing with the HP system. Unfortunately I
recently have had some problems with "finger-
print" type lines on some of my prints. These
lines have shown up particularly when I have
printed scans with dark browns in the background.
After e-mailing several experts, I was told that
it could be the printer and it could be the
scanner. Alas, I decided to do another scan and
had great success. With this latest scan, I used
the built-in software, Microsoft Picture It, and
merely darkened the entire picture to gain the
effect I wanted. The print turned out beautifully
and the finger-print lines were gone.

My conclusions? Certain colors can be difficult
for the HP system to handle, especially if the
color richness or contrast is increased by using
software editing. If the editing is kept to
changing the brightness/darkness, the HP system
typically handles the printing quite well. Also,
I have played with color richness and contrast
with other scans and have had no problems. It
just seems to occur with certain colors.

Please note: I printed this print 4 times, one of
which came after cleaning the cartridges. The
cleaning did not make any difference.

I was ready to but the new HP PhotoSmart S20
scanner but now think I will continue to work
with the old system. Overall I have been
extremely pleased with the system and have had
the finger-print problem with only a few prints.
I highly recommend this system to anyone looking
for a relatively inexpensive way to print quality
enlargements on 8 and a half by 11 paper. Hope
this helps!

Bob Reed

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.

[Clay Schneider]

Bob

If you do a deja power search on 'photosmart' 'scanner' 'banding', you will
see this [newton's ring-type noise or finger-print noise] is [apparently] a
common problem with the first version of the scanner -- not the printer --
affecting [as you have seen] mostly shadow areas. Word is that it has been
corrected in the S20 version of the scanner. There were lots of theories
along the way as to the source of the noise, but I don't remember anything
definitive [of course, I have my own theory... :-) ]

Clay

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