HP Large Format Printers

[guzhogi]

Not sure if the right forum, but here goes:

I work in a school district that has a few HP Designjet large format printers. However, I've taken tours of some art schools, gone to some digital photography stores, and all of them use Canon or Epson large format printers. Plus, many paper manufacturers have ICC profiles for many Canon & Epson printers, but very few, if any, profiles for HP printers. I've never used Epson or Canon printers, so I don't know how good they are. However, are HP printers that much lower in quality, or is it just that Canon & Epson do better marketing?

 

[cmaier]

Not sure if the right forum, but here goes:

I work in a school district that has a few HP Designjet large format printers. However, I've taken tours of some art schools, gone to some digital photography stores, and all of them use Canon or Epson large format printers. Plus, many paper manufacturers have ICC profiles for many Canon & Epson printers, but very few, if any, profiles for HP printers. I've never used Epson or Canon printers, so I don't know how good they are. However, are HP printers that much lower in quality, or is it just that Canon & Epson do better marketing?

Canon and Epson are usually favored by photographers, as they have better color rendition (partially due to profile support, etc.). HP is usually thought of as a “business” printer, even the large format stuff.

 

[Allyance]

I had a HP DesignJet for many years, it was built for architectural plotting, signs etc. I plotted 1000's of ACAD drawings, but It never did a good job with photos. Canon and Epson make excellent photographic printers with large ink reservoirs ($$$) as they use much more ink than a line drawing. You buy a tool for a specific job. Your school district may have gotten a special grant or had budget restrictions.

 

[guzhogi]

I had a HP DesignJet for many years, it was built for architectural plotting, signs etc. I plotted 1000's of ACAD drawings, but It never did a good job with photos. Canon and Epson make excellent photographic printers with large ink reservoirs ($$$) as they use much more ink than a line drawing. You buy a tool for a specific job. Your school district may have gotten a special grant or had budget restrictions.

Cool. We use our HPs for school related posters. As a public school district (Kindergarten - 5 schools & grades 6-8 schools), our needs aren't too particular. Most of the schools in the district have a lower-end "business" model, while one of the 6-8 schools has a middle-high end one. Printed text and basics graphics pretty well. Don't print pictures that much, but those we did came out pretty decently. Again, nothing too fancy, and I'm by no means a serious art fan. They serve our needs. Just wanted to know why I see more Canons & Epson vs. HPs out in the wild. Thanks for the info