HP Designjet CP Series Printers - Product Overview

New High-Speed print modes are HP-developed Varware and wide-mask technology used to reduce the number of passes while maintaining a similar level of image quality. The result is a 60% faster print speed. Every HP Designjet CP printer is wide-mask capable, but to take advantage of it an external RIP is needed. The external RIP can be either the Fiery X2-CP RIP in the case of the HP Designjet 2800CP and 3800CP printers, or any other increased-productivity RIP for the remaining HP Designjet CP Series printers (visit http://www.hp.com/go/Designjet for the latest list of increased-productivity RIPs). to launch the HP Designjet Online Web site. The improvements in mechanical print time achieved by the HP Designjet 2800CP and 3800CP printers are similar to those achieved by an increased-productivity RIP.

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Some degradation in image quality may occur when using some types of files on HP Coated or Heavyweight Coated Paper in Productivity/ Normal mode. The workaround is, in those cases, to use Photo/Best High-Speed mode.

The new HP Designjet 2800CP and 3800CP printers are photo-quality printers, as any other CP Series printer. In general, the print quality of the High-Speed print modes is comparable to that of the native (non-Varware) print modes. Therefore, the High-Speed Best/Photo print quality is similar to that of the native Best/Photo, while being more than 60% faster (i.e. 32 sqft/h vs. 18 sqft/h on HP Coated Paper). On the other side, High-Speed Normal/Productivity print quality is comparable to the native Normal/Productivity, but also 60% faster (i.e. 49 sqft/h vs. 29 sqft/h on HP Heavyweight Coated Paper).

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This is true except when using HP Coated or Heavyweight Coated Paper with area fills.

The 60% improvement is achieved with the mainstream media such as HP Coated and Heavyweight Coated Paper and HP Semi-Gloss and High-Gloss Photo Paper. The only exception is when using HP Coated Paper in Productivity/Normal mode, since the native print mode already achieves up to 46 sqft/hour. For other media, the native (non-Varware) print modes have to be used, with no improvement in printing time. However, processing time reductions will still be achieved due to the Fiery X2-CP RIP.

The resolution at which your print will be output is summarized in the table below:

Relative speed improvements depend on a set of variables like print mode, media, file, humidity, and temperature. When considering raw printing times, the HP Designjet 1000 Series can be about 1.5 times faster than the HP Designjet 2800CP and 3800CP printers. However, that is not comparing the same level of image quality (near photo-quality vs. photo-quality).

The default screen method for the HP Designjet 2800CP and 3800CP printers is stochastic. This method offers a very good ratio of processing time vs. image quality. The image quality level achieved with stochastic screening is comparable to that of the HP Designjet 2500CP and 3500CP printers.

However, for those situations in which you want a plus in image quality, error diffusion screen method will maximize image quality. However, there is a penalty in processing time, an average of 3 to 4 times slower than stochastic method.