Resolved Best color laser printer for photos (was: HP Color LaserJet M856x (review))

[diegopampin]

Wow sorry to hear. So 4 things I can think of that may account for the bad quality...

1) Set the print driver to print in 'enhanced' mode. You have to use the NON AirPrint driver to see that enhanced mode, ie, in the full HP driver. At least that is a mode on my printer, I would think there should be something similar on yours.

2) For best results, you really need the glossy paper stock. I posted some options I found a while ago. My guess is 8x11 glossy HP might be the best thing to try as a starting point before you invest too much. When you put in the better paper, make sure to select the paper type from the driver prior to printing.

3) The toner may be very different on your printer versus the 856, so that may be one of the issues of vibrancy.

4) The lack of 1200dpi may make the 454 print very differently. Or that and a combination with different toner, per 3), above.

It's not clear to me how the imageRET plays differently with regard to different resolutions. HP has a bunch of printers with 3600ImageRET but at 600dpi and 1200dpi, yet the imageRET4800 printers also have 1200dpi. It's not clear what the resolution means with regard to those technologies, but for the high quality prints I am getting, perhaps it requires 1200dpi in addition to imageRET 3600/4800, or perhaps it requires all 3 items, 1200dpi, the improved toner cartridges of the 856 and imageRET4800?


As for the Xerox printers, they look very interesting, look forward to any insights there. When I looked over their offerings the spec sheets didn't have the "4800 color" note in the DPI section, and it's very not clear what that means.

Al that said, it would be a super helpful find an affordable and decent photo color laser option that doesnt cost a small fortune like my 856.

Thanks for sharing your findings and hope you figure out a better option (and can return your printer if you can't get it to print better).

1. I will try to look for the enhanced option then, I don’t know what kind of driver I have installed.

2. I use coated paper, that is not the problem, is more about colored light text not being as sharp as it should (600dpi I think).

3. The toner should be very similar I think.

4. Yeah, very sure about that. Sadly when I bought it 3 years ago I assume all printers were 600dpi but now I know.


Yeah I think I will go for one of the Xerox offerings, Ive also been taking a look at the Xerox C7000 model that has A3 printing (thats a very good point) and is 1200x2400dpi which I think is a great resolution (in my country it’s like 1.000$). It seems the perfect printer if the 4800 color printing it says on the C315 is not similiar to ImageRet.

im also thinking about inkjet, I didn’t want an inkjet, but it has some benefits. I’ve seen good papers for inkjet and a printer like the Epson P700 gives amazing results in photo, has A3 printing and thick cardboard support, so it’s an option.

I mean I don’t know why is so little info on all of this, we have to buy things with our eyes closed.

 

[diegopampin]

I´ve just checked now and I have just the HP Smart App installed.

In the dialog I can select Draft, Normal and Maximum quality.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

You need to check the driver version. I’ll show mine when I get to my computer later. But I think you may be using just the airprint version. The AirPrint drive only shows 3 modes for me, the no version shows 4.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

So if you look at SystemSettings>Printers&Scanners>click your printer, you will get the printer panels showing the driver version below.


So this is what the native HP driver reports as the version (10.4):

These are the quality and paper options on the HP version:

And this is the AirPrint version (3.0):

These are the quality and paper options on the AirPrint version:

You can see that the AirPrint version does not have the enhanced out put and no edge to edge printing and is missing some paper types. So I would make sure you actually have the HP printer driver installed as a starting point.

 

[diegopampin]

I still don’t have it, I have now only normal and eco mode, and the normal mode prints the same.

I have decided that im going to buy a Xerox now so let's see how their printers are. I hope the 1200x2400dpi resolution is good enough and quality improves over 600x600dpi. I've ditched the inkjet model just only because I know that after some time the printer head and the tubes where the ink travels are going to be clogged and printer quality is going to go down (also pricing of the prints, the ink is so so expensive). I will keep you updated.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

I still don’t have it, I have now only normal and eco mode, and the normal mode prints the same.

I have decided that im going to buy a Xerox now so let's see how their printers are. I hope the 1200x2400dpi resolution is good enough and quality improves over 600x600dpi. I've ditched the inkjet model just only because I know that after some time the printer head and the tubes where the ink travels are going to be clogged and printer quality is going to go down (also pricing of the prints, the ink is so so expensive). I will keep you updated.

I think this is an important topic as there is NOTHING and NO ONE out there trying to solve for NOT using inkjet. So every bit of info we can gather I think does the public a lot of good. Looking forward to what you find out, because I came very close to getting one of the Xerox's with 1200x2400 myself. It being the road not taken.

Thanks so much.

 

[MacPoulet]

I think this is an important topic as there is NOTHING and NO ONE out there trying to solve for NOT using inkjet. So every bit of info we can gather I think does the public a lot of good. Looking forward to what you find out, because I came very close to getting one of the Xerox's with 1200x2400 myself. It being the road not taken.

Thanks so much.

Yeah, it would really suck if colour laser went the way of solid ink printers (still salty about that).

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

The nightmare is real: HP makes printing a monthly subscription

HP launches the All-In Plan, charging up to $36 per month for a limited number of printed pages, plus potential overage and cancellation fees.

www.pcworld.com

 

[lofat]

You're not making me desire an HP product XD

The only printers within my $3k budget include the slower brother to your HP, with worse paper handling and dreadful reviews, ha! (HP M751n/M751dn -- I have ethernet so wifi not necessary).

I wish Kyrocera made a printer-only version with their 1200x4800 engine. I've seen the multifunction version and the quality impressed me. But the cost is prolly $6k.

My current 1200 dpi laser / copier is an HP 3390 from 2006. It was $600 (maybe had a $150 rebate iirc). HP has doubled the toner cost to ~$240.

My current meh inkjet is a Canon TS9020 from 2018 at $50. But it drinks ink. (I used to own a wide-bodied Epson Photo EX in the olde days.)

Consumables cost on the Canon at my lowish print rate for 10y is $1240 (based on my 6y so far).
Consumables cost on the HP going forward at my rate for 10y is $460 (based on 18y).

I found a TCO plot using the version of the HP prior to yours (M855dn)... when they only had the large cartridge and included that with the printer! Too bad that's not the case now. They kept the price the same and put in a much smaller toner cartridge.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

You're not making me desire an HP product XD

The only printers within my $3k budget include the slower brother to your HP, with worse paper handling and dreadful reviews, ha! (HP M751n/M751dn -- I have ethernet so wifi not necessary).

I wish Kyrocera made a printer-only version with their 1200x4800 engine. I've seen the multifunction version and the quality impressed me. But the cost is prolly $6k.

My current 1200 dpi laser / copier is an HP 3390 from 2006. It was $600 (maybe had a $150 rebate iirc). HP has doubled the toner cost to ~$240.

My current meh inkjet is a Canon TS9020 from 2018 at $50. But it drinks ink. (I used to own a wide-bodied Epson Photo EX in the olde days.)

Consumables cost on the Canon at my lowish print rate for 10y is $1240 (based on my 6y so far).
Consumables cost on the HP going forward at my rate for 10y is $460 (based on 18y).

I found a TCO plot using the version of the HP prior to yours (M855dn)... when they only had the large cartridge and included that with the printer! Too bad that's not the case now. They kept the price the same and put in a much smaller toner cartridge.

Can’t blame you. The only good thing about HP with my printer is it doesn’t seem to be part of this new subscription push and the toner cartridges last essentially forever for me. I’m with you in wishing for more options for good color laser photo printers.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-color-laserjet-enterprise-m856dn?pStoreID=epp

Just saw this come up. While the 856x has been unobtanium for a while, this just came up for $3865. It doenst have all the extra bins, but is otherwise the same printer, I think. Still pretty pricey.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

We Never Agreed To Only Buy HP Ink, Say Printer Owners - Slashdot

HP "sought to take advantage of customers' sunk costs," printer owners claimed this week in a class action lawsuit against the hardware giant. The Register: Lawyers representing the aggrieved were responding in an Illinois court to an earlier HP motion to dismiss a January lawsuit. Among other...

hardware.slashdot.org

 

[lofat]

How glossy are the prints from the M856? I'm still trying to find an M856 over an M751 bc consumables seem cheaper per volume, M751 seems to have some paper handling issues, and the difference in price is the difference in toner pages so M856 sounds better. I missed your ping. Next time an M856dn goes on sale I hope to get one.

FedEx Office locally seems to use the Canon imagePRESS C700 which is 2400x2400. Too bad there's no prosumer printer like that, as you said.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

How glossy are the prints from the M856? I'm still trying to find an M856 over an M751 bc consumables seem cheaper per volume, M751 seems to have some paper handling issues, and the difference in price is the difference in toner pages so M856 sounds better. I missed your ping. Next time an M856dn goes on sale I hope to get one.

FedEx Office locally seems to use the Canon imagePRESS C700 which is 2400x2400. Too bad there's no prosumer printer like that, as you said.

Depends on the paper you choose to print on. On the glossy paper I bought, it comes off better than any slick magazine. The paper I got is so thick it comes of as a glossy card stock that you would see in an art gallery.

But, there is also matt paper for it, and it's not glossy at all.

And lastly, I use crap paper for most my prints, it it's not glossy. When you do print in Enhanced mode, the toner on even matte paper does get more magazine slick. I guess it would depend on how saturated the coverage of the print is, but it's not particularly glossy. But probably a bit more glossy than say boring standard laser printer print.

There is something to this toner. You dont feel or perceive much difference on crap paper and standard/normal output, but even on crap paper, the enhanced mode does give the output more of a magazine like feel with your finger over the thick toner portions of a print.

It's a little bit like the old ink stick printers, if you ever used those. Even when you print out on garbage paper, the ink stick gave a very glossy feel to the print. This is a bit like that, but not nearly as intense an effect, but still palpable.

Yea, I bet that image press is pretty fantastic. But I suspect it might be a team's worth of upkeep to keep it running well. But maybe not.

I wonder if you might not find this printer on ebay for a lot less.

HP M856 Color Laser Jet Enterprise Printer- Excellent Condition | eBay

<p>This Color Laser Jet Enterprise M856 from HP is a top-of-the-line workgroup printer that delivers exceptional performance in color printing. With a maximum resolution of 1200 x 1200 DPI, this printer produces sharp and vibrant prints, perfect for professional use. It has a memory of 1 GB and...

www.ebay.com

 

[lofat]

The cheap ones are usually missing the toner cartridges lol like buying an armored car without the gold in it!

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

The cheap ones are usually missing the toner cartridges lol like buying an armored car without the gold in it!

It’s easy enough to ask the seller that it comes with all that. The tough thing will be delivery. To say this thing was large and the original packing matters is a huge understatement.

 

[lofat]

Wish me luck. I may buy the open box one and lean hard on that ebay guarantee lol. I've messaged the seller.

P.S. This thing is *made in Japan*??!!!

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Good luck!

 

[lofat]

Good luck!

Thanks! Not super confidence inspiring, seller will see if it works ha. It’s manufactured 2019.

The M880 MFC is older from 2015 iirc. There’s an MFC that shares the exact same toner cartridges as the M856, the M776. It is cool but too much $$$. Arrr.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Thanks! Not super confidence inspiring, seller will see if it works ha. It’s manufactured 2019.

The M880 MFC is older from 2015 iirc. There’s an MFC that shares the exact same toner cartridges as the M856, the M776. It is cool but too much $$$. Arrr.

Yea I was nervous getting this monstrosity straight from HP. The packaging! Jesus. I wish I saved it and did a video of the unboxing. The engineering into the packaging alone was insane. It came on a wooden pallet. It's so freak'n heavy i had to grease the FedEx guy to get it into the house. When you unbox it, the packaging materials have these integrated ramps (like ramps for the built in casters to roll off the crate like for building an Egyptian pyramid or something). It was nuts.

When we move from here, I have no idea how Im going to get this thing moved. It's rather ridiculous.

One cool thing from the manual. This thing can tell when it's been moved or there is an atmospheric change, and it will run a self diagnostic and recalibrate the toner and other things to keep the colors true. Crazy stuff.

 

[lofat]

Yea I was nervous getting this monstrosity straight from HP. The packaging! Jesus. I wish I saved it and did a video of the unboxing. The engineering into the packaging alone was insane. It came on a wooden pallet. It's so freak'n heavy i had to grease the FedEx guy to get it into the house. When you unbox it, the packaging materials have these integrated ramps (like ramps for the built in casters to roll off the crate like for building an Egyptian pyramid or something). It was nuts.

When we move from here, I have no idea how Im going to get this thing moved. It's rather ridiculous.

One cool thing from the manual. This thing can tell when it's been moved or there is an atmospheric change, and it will run a self diagnostic and recalibrate the toner and other things to keep the colors true. Crazy stuff.

Well, I bit the bullet and bought an M776dn off eBay. Has most of the internals from the M856 with a scanner/ADF on top. Supposed to have 500 pages on it. We will see. I'll add the 2x base myself. It's only 150 lbs without it

Since a low-end Kyocera TaskALPHA (2554ci) is under $3400, the list price of $6000 seems outrageous. This guy shipped it for just under $3300.

Are there some color registration tests I should perform to make sure it is working well?

Excited

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Well, I bit the bullet and bought an M776dn off eBay. Has most of the internals from the M856 with a scanner/ADF on top. Supposed to have 500 pages on it. We will see. I'll add the 2x base myself. It's only 150 lbs without it

Since a low-end Kyocera TaskALPHA (2554ci) is under $3400, the list price of $6000 seems outrageous. This guy shipped it for just under $3300.

Are there some color registration tests I should perform to make sure it is working well?

Excited

Wow, good luck! Hope it comes perfect! As for registration, i Didn’t do so as I went right to testing my own prints but it’s probably a good idea. I would think it should have some of its own tests internall, and the manual is a good place to start. Looking forward to hearing about your results!

 

[lofat]

The MFP M776dn is here!!! 🤩

The delivery truck broke down the first day it was supposed to deliver, and they had to "recover the cargo". But today, thanks to God the rain stopped long enough to get it dropped off, pallet jacked down the driveway and with help somehow up a couple of steps into the house.

First impressions:
This is a big boi! Like > 150 lbs but also very bulky with its 24" girth. The printer was packed in its original packaging with all the tape strips on like from the factory. Indeed toner cartridges show 100% and it had 513 pages on it.

Copier:
It's nice having a tabloid size platen to copy on, but the UI is confusing and it wasn't obvious how to get it to reduce from a larger page size to a smaller one. Reduction still wants to use to original paper size, or crop inappropriately if forced to a smaller paper. Copier has no apparent control over color quality, and only prints using the diffusion dither mode, which I think is "Normal" quality. The diffusion dither shows patterns in large, plain areas.

It spits out pages fooking fast compared to my old B&W laser, and without much fuss.

Printing from iPhone:
Identified by phone without any issue. The M776dn doesn't have wifi, so it's plugged in. Wrhis did a more traditional halftone screen in I think "Enhanced" mode. This is mixing dots in a 600 dpi box. This gives the traditional magazine lot and it awesome at first blush.

I need to hook it up to a computer and try printing from that next! Hopefully I can test the three output modes (Normal, Enhanced, Fine Lines)

Thanks for getting me to jump on this journey! I am so thankful for all the help here!

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Congrats man! Totally looking forward to your review. But you REALLY need the full printer driver. Many of the modes are just not in the AirPrint (or iOS) drivers. Furthermore, get some nice paper for it, it does make a big difference!

 

[lofat]

First Driver thoughts:

I now have HP drivers installed on Windows and Mac. Windows had 3 choices, I went with PCL 6 v3. It's going to take time to sort through them. I also have reference prints from ye olde inkguzzler on Photo paper.

With these choices, first of note is that the Windows and Mac drivers yield very different results. Is it different color matching? The Mac output has more contrast by default. Printing on Mac more closely matches the inkjet and monitor reference (which are actually pretty close to each other). Enhanced produces more colors than Normal, though perhaps overdoing the saturation in the process. Inkjet on Photo paper does show less texture and a larger gamut (ofc) but the Mac Enhanced prints are pretty close. The Windows prints were farther from the reference.

Their were only minor screening differences between Standard, Enhanced, and Fine Lines on Windows. Both Win and Mac with the M776 handily beat the inkjet on plain paper.

I also need some better laser paper! So much to try...