Hewlet Packard Designjet Z-Series - 2100 and 3100 Wide-Format Printers

For all sorts of reasons beyond the control of anybody, our testing of the new Hewlett Packard Z series printers has been fraught with stumbling blocks. We first tested the printers in Barcelona at HP’s headquarters but (quite rightly) were not allowed to take away prints from prototype machines. The next attempt was jiggered by the non-arrival of the 12-ink machine in time for a DCP road show. Then we got to a machine but without the ability to drive it properly (the connected PC was malfunctioning). Finally, at Spring Fair, we had John Henshall run us a test print from the Z3100 and it upon this test that we base our initial analysis.

So far we have shown that in terms of gamut the 12-ink Z3100 is better than its 8-ink cousin the Z2100 - the additional inks certainly do the job intended. The gamut appears to be expanded by about 10%. We are loath to make comparisons between our measured gamut volumes for rival printers because the maths was not identical - the HP profiling target is smaller than the one we always use. The difference between the 2100 and 3100 is, however, shown simply by taking the data from the profile build and plotting it. It is consistent within itself.

The change in gamut may be seen using the Granger Chart. The chart is shown in Lab space at the top, then the Z3100, then the Z2100 and at the bottom the Epson 4800 (onto Epson Premium Lustre). The Z3100 and the Epson 4800 are significantly smoother than the Z2100.

In terms of accuracy the print made at Spring Fair came in with an error of 7.9 Lab DE and 4.4DE 2000, a little higher than we expect from our own profiling and higher than the 5.0/3.22 we measured on the 2100. The skin tones of the test print were slightly desaturated and rotated a little towards yellow. Using a straight measurement of the values obtained by trying to print pure colours, the Z3100 created greener greens than the Epson 4800, the reds were even and the Epson 4800 won on blues and yellows – do not read too much into this though, as it was a rather crude test!

Metamerism was of great interest because the ink-engineers we spoke to in Barcelona were very insistent that they had an edge on this parameter. The Z2100 does not out-perform the Epson K3 ink set but the Z3100 just seems to shave it. As with most things to do with printers and metamerism these days however, all the values are low. You need not force a decision on this parameter if choosing between marques.

There is much that is attractive about the Z3100 for really top-class work. You have to juggle the cost of the Epsons and perhaps an accessory spectrophotometer, compared to the HP, with a spectro already built in. Then you have to decide if the target size used by the on-board HP spectro uses a high enough resolution. Out-of-the-box the Epsons we have audited do not need profiling on standard papers, a random Epson 4800 we tested the same week as the HP had an error of 5.2Lab DE/ 2.95DE200. Then you have to do calculations on ink and media costs. The truth is that the market is so competitive that there may be little to choose, both printers (and indeed the Canon) are all making money for somebody, somewhere!