Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart P1100

As a "photo printer", the HP P1100 does a very good job. Photos are reasonably bright, very clear, and print out at a decent speed. You may find it helpful to bump the brightness setting down a notch or two however, to get better saturation of colors on your prints. The P1100 offers two slots for digital camera memory cards (Smart Media and Compact Flash). I find being able to print out a sheet of small thumbnails (contact sheet) a helpful thing so you can see what's on the card(s). I rarely print directly from the printer however, as I like to "tweak" my photos using Paint Shop Pro, before printing from the computer. You can use these card slots to download photos from your card into your computer or image program however, saving battery power on your camera. A really nice feature. The instruction manual is a little sparce, but as long as you're not a total technophobe, you should be able to have the printer up and running shortly. Just make sure you fully understand settings - such as "normal" for everyday print jobs, to "Best" for printing photos. Customer service is a toll number, NOT toll free (boo), so read the manual carefully before having to call and pay $$ for it. My only beef (explained in the weakness area) is the fact that while this is a "photo printer", H.P. does advertise it as a printer for everyday print jobs, too. Well, be advised, that certain types of envelopes will smear and/or jam in this machine. A standard #10 sized "self seal" style envelope will almost always be smeared, for example. I finally got someone at H.P. to admit that this machine (as well as it's 970 model cousin) have paper feed systems that may be the problem with this, but it took MANY toll calls to get this admission). So just be aware of this if you're buying the machine for an office environment. Today's price (as of May 2001)is $229-$299 in stores for this machine. Well worth it for the memory card handling, and photo quality output. As long as you don't need it as an envelope printer, you'll be fine.

Black in color - fits in better than the same old white or beige colored printers. Separate 4x6 photo paper tray comes in handy. Ability to handle both Smart Media AND Compact Flash memory cards is an added perk. Two sided printing works great, provided you use thick enough paper.

Inability to print on certain types of envelopes (such as self-sealing type). When using certain image editing programs, and you wish to swap cards to download photos into them, you must turn off the printer and the program, insert the next card, and reopen the program or you may not be able to read the new card.

HP 672, HP 722, HP 970 (same envelope problems as P110), HP laserjet, Xerox XP multifuntion laser.

Poor. They are good at handling basic questions; however, when I came across the problem with the printer smearing envelopes, it took no less than 6 calls (on a toll number) and over 4 hours of long distance charges before I finally got a rep to admit, "yes, we might have a design flaw here". Previous reps did not acknowledge this. I respect a company that admits to a design flaw rather than tries to cover it up, and the last rep I had talked to seemed to indicate that they were not supposed to admit this flaw, however, newer Photosmart models (1200 series) should have it corrected, according to him.

If you find my review of the H.P. 970C series printer, you'll read of how after two "defective" 970 units, H.P. wound up sending me a P1100. Here's the details: I had purchased a 970 series printer and discovered it did a horrible job of printing certain types of off-the-shelf envelopes. H.P. sent a replacement, but it too, had these problems. While I still have never gotten H.P. to admit there may be a design flaw in the newer models in the way they handle envelopes, they did offer to send me the P1100 to replace the second "defective" 970 unit. (As an added note, I recently got a H.P. rep to come VERY close to admitting that they're discoving a paper feed design flaw in the 970 AND 1000 series printers, but he stopped just short of admitting it.) Needless, to say, if you're buying the P1100 to do any kind of everyday printing (especially "self-seal" envelopes), then you may be disappinted. I have actually found the text output, while good, to not be on par with the older 722C model of printer. Even when properly aligned, the text output of the P1100 upon close inspection shows slight "shadowing", even when using the H.P. Bright White paper. When trying the envelopes mentioned above, expect frequent smearing. Of course, this is sold as a "photo printer" technically, and here, it does very well. Photo output on this printer is excellent, especially when you use coated photo papers. Even plain paper is acceptable for casual photo printouts, too. The slots that allow you to use your digital camera memory cards work well - I use them to download photos into my computer from the printer every day. You can cancel a print job in mid-print to save paper if you goof, and if you like, can print a photo directly from a memory card without ever turning on a computer. If you need a good photo printer with the extra plus of being able to use it as a memory card downloading device, then you'll really like the P1100. If you're looking for an A+++ text and envelope printer...hmmmm... well, I'd give it a B- at best.

A+ photo output. Ability to accept Smart Media and Compact Flash memory cards from digital cameras. Reasonably quiet. Duplex ability, to print on both sides of paper is helpful when printing out long emails (saves paper!)

Acceptable, but not "great", text output. Poor ability to print certain types of envelopes, especially off-the-shelf "self-seal" envelopes.

H.P. models 970C, 722C, 672C. Old Canon model BJ 100.

Poor when handling the 970 envelope issue. I've had to call them a couple of times regarding minor issues with this printer, and would rate it as "acceptable", though not thrilled with having to call a TOLL number and holding.

Fantastic printer in every regard. Far exceeded my high expectations. Easy setup; Stunning Prints! Great printing software that lets you arrange photo collage pages, or single prints with incredible flexibility; Duplex printing is great for printing articles / resesarch; Flash mem card reader is incredibly convenient and gives you portable printing cabability; Faster than I can believe - I'm still surprised daily. Don't forget that this printer is also a text workhorse, with great clarity, speed, and Duplex printing. If you have to carry around a 50-page report, it's now only 25 pages and HALF the WEIGHT ! As far as price, yeah it's pricey, but you get all that it promises - no hype. I use it for photo and regular printing (as per my comments above). So I have saved money compared to buying TWO printers. I may have to buy two scanners, for instance to get the push-button convenience in one and photo/negative/slide capability in another. Not one problem since installed. I will defintely try the Canon photo paper as suggested in a previous review. If it's that much better I can't imagine how great the prints are going to look on Canon papaer since the prints on HP photo paper are photo-lab quality and indistinguishable from my Triniton monitor images.

Stunning Prints! Great printing software; Duplex printing; Flash mem card reader; Speed!!!

None of the probems mentioned in previous reviews here.

Previous printer was an Epson Stylus 600 - Not in the same league (but to be fair, 3 years earlier on the evolutionary curve).

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Ok, Ok. I got bit by the 'Digital Darkroom' bug... Got kinda tired of spending hundreds a month at the local 1-hour. Got me the Olympus C-3000 Digital (see my review there), and this printer. Nothing like it... No other printercan do what this one does. You can bring it with you everywhere, and just slip your card from your camera into one of the card slots, pick the pic you want, and Rock and Roll! The output is fantastic - I never imagined they would get it this good. I tried a few different papers in it - I find Canon's pro Glossy 8x10 to be the best. As a matter of fact, it's the best in every size. Might be a little tough to feed, 'cause it's so darn thick, but if you want a photo too FEEL like a photo, it's the best. Anyway, I printed my first print on plain, generic printer paper, and other than the usual bleed it looked great! Printed the 8x10 in under 4 minutes. Why did I buy this one instead of the P-1000? I figured the paper transport might be a problem on the 1000 - I read your reviews - and on this one it might not be, because of the duplexer. I ended up with a slightly faster printer that really doesn't jam! I only use it for photo printing, but I've seen output of other stuff, and it's great. It's also fun to turn the lights off and run calibration - that eerie blue light... I used some of the HP paper, and I must say I'm unimpressed. It's Canon that is a photography company, and their paper proves it... Cheaper per print, too.

Excellent color rendition - couldn't tell the diff between my monitor and the printed photo. Fast, fast print. Take it anywhere if you have SanDisk (smartmedia) cards, IR, USB, or Compactflash cards. This has TREMENDOUS possibilities to make $$$... Every interface is included. I wish the Olympus did IR transfers... Easy to use front panel. Ability to read DPOF files. Looks professional, too.

HP's paper leaves a LOT to be desired. after drying a photo overnight, I was still able to mangle the print with my fingernail. With Canon paper I couldn't mess it up TWO MINUTES later. Silly software makes you specify HP paper - what - are you SERIOUS?

Looked at everything else - NOTHING even comes close to this gem.

Not yet

I like the HP 1100 for all my small business needs plus my passion, digital photography! My only complaint is that it seems the ink cartridges must be almost full when printing photos or we get some black lines through portions of the photo. The ink cartridges seem to go forever for regular printing, but oh, when it's photo time... I now know to wait until I put the 'fresh' ink in.

Gorgeous photos, especially on the thick glossy photo paper.

The black lines that appear on photos if the ink cartridges are not full.

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