HP Transforms Color Experience for Graphics Professionals

HP announced it is changing the way graphics professionals create large-format images with the unveiling of the HP Designjet Z Photo Printer Series.

Continuing to expand its professional printing portfolio, HP is leveraging its pigment ink technologies developed for the HP Photosmart Pro B9180 to create the first large-format printers employing HP’s Scalable Printing Technology.

The HP Designjet Z Photo Printer Series is designed to deliver intuitive, dependable and repeatable color accuracy for 24- and 44-inch museum-quality prints with 200 years’ photo permanence.(1)

“The HP Designjet Z Photo Printer Series enables photographers, graphic designers and artists to print their vision accurately and consistently,” said Enrique Lores, vice president and general manager, Inkjet Commercial Division, HP. “With our breakthrough color management features, freelance graphics professionals can now leverage a truly intuitive and automated printing process that expands both their business opportunities and their creative boundaries.”

Experience simple and intuitive color management
The HP Designjet Z Photo Printer Series employs the industry’s first embedded spectrophotometer, utilizing Eye-One Color Technology from GretagMacbeth/X-rite. Mounted on the printer carriage with completely self-contained optics and electronics, the embedded spectrophotometer greatly simplifies accurate color-matching, enabling automated ICC profiling and HP Advanced Closed-Loop Color Calibration. The result means the user can create color profiles in minutes rather than hours and expect exact color matches throughout the printing process.

Leading brands in the creative community, including Adobe, Colorbyte, EFI, GMG and GretagMacbeth/X-rite, have worked closely with HP to develop solutions optimized specifically for the HP Designjet Z Photo Printer Series to fully address the needs of key markets, such as graphic design, professional photography, prepress and digital fine arts. From GretagMacbeth/X-rites’s Eye-One Color Technology to the use of Adobe’s Lightroom calibration application, these solutions further streamline workflow and provide users a simple, reliable printing experience.

The HP Designjet Z Photo Printer Series color management partner tools include:

• The embedded spectrophotometer, built on GretagMacbeth/X-rite’s leading Eye-One color technology.
• HP’s Advanced Profiling Solution,(2) co-developed with GretagMacbeth, provides additional options for profiling and calibration. Integrated with the HP embedded spectrophotometer, this solution includes a monitor calibrator and profiler with editing capabilities to offer an end-to-end color-managed workflow.
• EFI’s RIP Designer Edition 5.1,(2) developed with HP-specific inputs, is the latest version of EFI Designer Edition. New photo features and an improved user interface give graphic designers full control over digital proofing needs, saving users time and money.
• Imageprint v.6 photo RIP from Colorbyte and ColorProof v.4 prepress RIP from GMG, also developed with HP-specific inputs. The Imageprint v.6 is optimized for use by prosumers and professional photographers. The ColorProof v.4 works directly with the embedded spectrophotometer for print verification, radically shortening workflow.
• The HP ProPrint Plug-in and the “Calibrate Printer” button in Adobe Lightroom, co-developed with Adobe. Print expected colors on the first try from Adobe Photoshop with the free HP ProPrint Plug-in, and use the Adobe Lightroom “Calibrate Printer” button to launch the color management tools directly from within the application.

New ink and media for exquisite museum quality that lasts 200 years(1)
The HP Designjet Z2100 features an eight-color HP Vivera pigment ink system, including both matte black and photo black inks, providing a broad color gamut on matte fine art papers and glossy photo papers for photographic and creative design applications.

The HP Designjet Z3100 uses a 12-ink HP Vivera pigment ink system, including the HP 70 Gloss Enhancer and HP Quad-Black Inks to create beautiful black and white prints and achieve truly neutral grays under different lighting conditions. This also provides continuous tones, uniform gloss and rich blacks, making the HP Designjet Z3100 ideal for high-quality art reproduction, photography and proofing applications.

Both models deliver outstanding photo permanence on a wide variety of HP media up to 24- or 44-inches wide.

“With the HP Designjet Z Photo Printer Series, we have color prints that are as good as, and in some cases superior to, traditional media and normal color C-prints. It’s a win-win situation for us,” said Thomas Hoepker, photographer, Magnum Photographers. “We have better color. We have a wider gamut. We have total control over it. We don’t have to send it out to a dark room specialist. We do it at home and we have this long lifespan.”

With the HP Designjet Z Photo Printer Series, graphics professionals have the ability to print beyond the limits of traditional papers using the widest range of media options on the market. With 11 new media offerings, users have the flexibility to choose from more than 30 media options within HP’s media portfolio.

HP also announced a strategic alliance with Hahnem¼hle FineArt — the 400-year-old pioneer in developing and producing fine art paper. In addition to co-developing three fine art papers, HP Hahnem¼hle Smooth Fine Art Paper, HP Hahnem¼hle Textured Fine Art Paper and HP Hahnem¼hle Watercolor Paper, Hahnem¼hle’s entire portfolio of digital fine art media types is compatible with the HP Designjet Z2100/3100, providing customers a complete and reliable printing solution with the ultimate media choice and flexibility. Profiles of Hahnem¼hle’s 21 fine art papers are available at www.hahnemuehle.com.

In addition, the HP Designjet Z Photo Printer Series’ automated color management features have opened doors to more media options. Leveraging relationships with strong brands like Hahnem¼hle, the HP Designjet Z Photo Printer Series can quickly create ICC profiles for the most relevant commercially available img.

New tools and services make printing even easier
Backing the HP Designjet Z Photo Printer Series’ superior color experience are a variety of HP services and support options that give users greater confidence in their printing. Users can rely on the HP Color Center tool for step-by-step instruction on color management and HP Color Expert Service for a single point of contact for remote live assistance to resolve color issues in the workflow. From setup to media profiling, fine-tuning to finishing tips, HP ensures a flawless, straightforward printing experience for novices to professionals every step of the way.

Pricing and availability(3)
SKU Model Price Expected availability
Q6675A HP Designjet Z2100 24″ $3,395 October 2006
Q6677A HP Designjet Z2100, 44″ $5,595 October 2006
Q5669A HP Designjet Z3100, 24″ $4,095 First half of 2007
Q6659A HP Designjet Z3100, 44″ $6,295 First half of 2007

About HP
HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company’s offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2006, HP revenue totaled $90.0 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.