HP Printer Saga
Add comment April 25th, 2007
The majority of home users print mainly text and rarely some photos. To achieve a good text quality a *real* 300×300 dpi is far enough. 600×600 makes sense only for vector/technical drawings or very complex fonts.
Epson started years ago fooling customers on the equation that “more dpi = more quality” (like Intel with the Mhz-race for the cpu) being sure that the normal customer doenst know what quality means in typographic terms. Nowadays we can all see that is impossible to buy a normal 300×300dpi inkjet to print for example just b/w text documents at low price (like an old Deskjet 500).
Marketing Research tells that customers now want the so called “photo” quality so that we’re now overcrowded by all these 2400dpi printers that have NO option to print for example in less than 600dpi.
–> Avoiding the possibility of using only b/w colors.
To push the user on throwing away more money as possible on inks a good method is to forbid him to print using only the black color.
This way is well known in low-end deskjets for example.
Using this trick the printer is programmed to use a “composite” black instead of pure pigmented black, or in other cases to request the mandatory presence of a working color cartridge even if we wanna print b/w.
–> Promising amazing quality but ONLY using HP paper.
This is maybe the only thing that technically makes sense.
Every printer in the world is programmed, tested and certified to achieve a “Gamut” gamma output on specific papers only.High-end models are very flexible about it and in many cases can be programmed by color experts to work good even on Epson paper for example.Low-end Deskjet are UNprogrammable, not because they suck but to avoid customers on using 3rd party papers and enslave them on buying only from his local HP dealer.
(note that HP paper is the most expensive and is in part made by Xerox). In this case using HP paper is the ONLY way to achieve decent results.
–> Forcing the printer to be INcompatible with standard inks
To avoid the customer buying refilled or 3rd party inks HP changes the size, the electronic and the ink chemical of the cartridges quite often, even in models that have similar specifications.Doing this is quite difficult for refiller companies to stay in business, because actually they’re just able to make inks for the old deskjets but not the new models.
–> Forcing inks to expire after a short date
This is one of the most offending and poisonous techniques.In many new high-end products like DesignJets apart all the tricks discussed before HP now puts a smart-chip on each cartridge, officially for a more accurate diagnostic.
–> While is it true that diagnostic is much improved and sharper, these results can be achieved even without a protected chip.
–> The cartridge will be “disabled” after a specific time date written on it , EVEN if full of ink so the user will have to buy a new one in ANY case, moreover, HP can then predict in advance how many $ can be sucked from a customer.
–> The smart-chip drives a sensor inside the cart to detect any movement in the amount of ink.
If we try to refill it for example the chip will detect that the ink amount is greatly increased and will mark the cartridge as FAIL, stop functioning, and requiring to buy a new one.
–> Forcing the Printhead to stop functioning avoiding “force-mode” options
In high-end products a sensor will take care of numbering the dead “nozzles” in a matrix. (nozzles are the holes from which the ink comes out). To avoid that customers use the same expensive print-head for too much time instead of buying a new one, the machine is programmed to detect how many nozzles are functioning (in a quite arbitrary way). When more than 30% of the nozzles are marked “dead” the machine will stop asking for a new printhead (lets say 200 euros) AVOIDING the possibility to “force” the machine to continue printing.
–> Avoiding Customization and Software Flexibility
In order to force the customer on buying the high-end versions of a product many printers come out “windoze-only” or “mac-only”.In some frequent cases they have only support for a specific OS version like W98 but not W2000 or XP trying to force the user to upgrade to a new machine. In many other cases the bundled driver is programmed to lock some useful functions like b/w-only, use of compatible papers etc, but unlocking this functions in the higher versions (that have normally the same hw board but with a different firmware).
–> PostScript sw RIP sold as Real PostScript
All the high-end LaserJets and DesignJets supports natively (–> built in the firmware) Adobe PostScript Level I/II/III. To do this HP must pay Adobe a small fee for each printer sold with PS3. In the low-end segment instead of embedding a real PS3 parser inside the printer they make the same machine with a horrible Software-PS3-Parser masqueraded as RIP, and selling the product as “PS3 Printer capable” (note the “capable” instead of “supported” or “built-in”).
–> Doing this way the driver will create a huge PCL file, send the file to the PS3 RIP that for a complex A3 color page can take no less than 20-30 minutes to process on a PIII 500. After that sends this monster file (can be even half a Gb if you use CADs etc) via LPT or USB. (and remember that low-end printers cannot mount network card).
–> In some cases the driver has bugs converting PCL to PS3 and there’s NO WAY to solve the issue except waiting for a new driver release that sometimes never comes. (like in the evil HP ColorPro series).
–> During the PS3 render the cpu is 100% used by the RIP and you have to wait ages to finish your work, and crashes are not rare even on Mac.
–> Making crap plastic chassis to save money on manufacturing
To make a printer cheap and let it look “consumer” and trendy, the first step is make a crap plastic chassis with poor-imitated Imac colors, instead of a good “old-school” LaserJet3-like rock-solid-chassis.
* Note that is clearly written in the proof of purchase that NO parts of the chassis are to be considered part of the warranty.
* Replacing plastic part is a huge waste of money on consumer product lines.
* Note also that no one ever read the proof of purchase.
–> Feature Creep
When a new product is designed it must satisfy the customer needs, based on Marketing research normally starting defining the most lucrous versions (high-end). Then when designing the SoHo and consumer version, based on the final budget and price the product will be mutilated of some important features.. In the majority of the cases if you open your cheap deskjet together with an high-end one and check whats inside you will see the same mainboard, similar mechanic, similar chips, memory etc. Often the ONLY things that really change are the chassis and the FIRMWARE.
–> The Firmware is responsible for example to limit the resolution to 1200×1200dpi or avoiding using b/w-only, connecting a network card (even if you got the socket well hidden inside) etc.
–> Other cases are the ones where the firmware is “locked” to receive only one printjob at once and only from one user at time, while the “high-end” version is unlocked and cost 4-5 times more.
–> To avoid that smart users can force a firmware upgrade to the high-end version the flash-updater program is locked to avoid this and download the firmware is often forbidden to users not subscribed to the online support where is checked their s/n and model.
