If only my d145 could cook supper
Written: Jul 26 '02 (Updated Dec 26 '02)
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Pros: Great printing for a multifunction. Card reader. Photocopying. Photo software
Cons: Pricey, stiff paper tray and huge scanned file sizes
The Bottom Line: If you are a power user or need a multifunction for a home or small office, this is it. There are cheaper ones but not like this.
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| dhascall's Full Review: Hewlett Packard OfficeJet d145 InkJet Printer |
As a power user and one who does lots of work from home, my home "work"station was getting crowded. I have a so-so quality inkjet printer and a nice but cumbersome 36 bit scanner. Serious FAXing and photocopying would have to wait until I returned to my traditional office.
Multifunction Machines: Ever since the first inkjet printers appeared in the dark ages (say early 1990's ha) companies have been trying to create multifunctioning devices. Most didn't have good resolution or high enough dot-per-inch to be acceptable, most were sheet feed only and they didn't have a serious "look." Multis started to be more seriously equipped in the very late 90's and early in this century. Most have the ability to print, scan, FAX and copy or have at least 3 of those 4 covered. I've even noticed some as low as $150 with 3 of those heavily desired features.
HP: Hewlett Packard peripherals have always been high on quality and functionability and a little higher than normal on price.
The (Big) Unit:Big it is. Of course the d145 has to be that way, after all it has a Legal sized flatbed platten glass! The front panel looks intimidating but has one touch scan, copy and FAX controls plus various other menu driven controls. You do need vertical space too, for the platten cover to open. The platten cover also has the snap on Automatic Document Feeder (ADF). Standard paper tray is a bit stiff and takes a minute or so to learn it's use. The 145 also has a duplexor for two sided copies, which takes a little rearward space. Uses one black and one color HP 14 ink cartridges. Each sell for $25, though the black's price has been trending downward. The black lasts a LONG time! The unit also has replaceable printheads (four: black and one each of the three primaries), these are packed separately and must be installed by the customer. Not a bad thing; at least you see and understand how the printing mechanism works.
As a printer: It knocked the socks off of my Canon budget inkjet. It was nearly as crisp as my monochrome Laser at work. Threw a 20 page document at it and it was done in less than 2 minutes, even including turn-on and warm up! 19 ppm in black draft and 16ppm color is great! The duplexor is nice but it's not the best feature. It acts like it is letting the printed page out before it reverses into the duplexor and the printed page exits again, fully printed on both sides. Sometimes the duplexed output is a bit crooked.
As a copier: Dramatic results. I copied an 8X10 photo on photo paper - it looked better than scanning and printing it. As good as the original photo! Draft mode is as good as normal mode on most photocopiers. The ADF is flawless. No one should be without a home copier!
As a FAX machine:Plain paper is where it's at Baby! At my traditional office, even we have gotten away from the drum style FAX machines but the differences between a 1995 plain paper FAX and this are immense. There is no toner, only the inkjet carts that fuel the rest of the functions print out your incoming FAXes. The images both sending and receiving are clean (as long as you aren't receiving from a junk FAX machine). You can FAX without the PC, and even store numbers with the front panel. Does Color FAXing too. The ADF does FAXing differently than if you just put the page (singular) on the glass. The quality is a little better if you don't use the ADF.
As a Scanner: 48 bit scanner. Large photos in high resolution presented the only problem. The files were so huge! One 8X10 scanned in as a .jpg weighed in at 60mb. A little too big to email! Luckily a slider in the software let you decrease quality slightly and that gave much smaller file sizes. For on-line auctions, I scanned some 4X6 photos, the resolution was fine and the files small, only 50kb or so. The HP photo editing software made the job easy and painless. If I was just wanting a color copy of a photo, I'd use the copy function instead but the scanner is quite nice!
As a Digital Imaging Center: This is what sets the d145 far and above other multis. It has card readers to read from Digital Cameras! You don't even the need PC! 1) Put the card in, 2) Tell the 145 to read it, 3) Print out the thumbnail "proof sheet," 4) Take a pencil and darken the premarked ovals for what you want printed 4) Put the marked proof through the ADF and 5) The 145 prints out what you have told it (i.e. 5 8X10's of image 6 and 3 8X10's of number 126).
The included HP Photo software is unique as it lets you make custom albums and reprint photos on standard photo paper with different sizes. I scanned a 4X6 photo and with the softawre and just three sheets of 8X10 photopaper, I was able to print one 8X10, one 5X7 and a 4X6 and 3 4X6. All that I had to do was cut out the photos. Neat!
Siblings: The HP d135 costs $100 less but excludes the duplexor and the media card readers. The d155 is much more expensive but adds network capabilities and a second paper tray.
In Summary: There may be cheaper multifunction machines out there. But not with these features, quality, software and support. If you can afford it, you need the HP d145!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 600
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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Epinions.com ID:
dhascall
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Reviews written: 51
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