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View Full Version : Photo Printing Paper Q&A Part 1: HP


Jason Dunn
10-02-2007, 11:00 PM
As someone who enjoys printing photos at home using inkjet printers, I've long been curious about some of the things I've seen with photo paper sold at retail. Is one brand of paper superior to another? Why can't I find the size and type of paper I need? Since I'm curious about some of these questions, I thought Digital Media Thoughts readers might be as well. I contacted HP, Epson, and Canon, asking them essentially the same questions. Each company was kind enough to answer my questions, so today I present to you the first of a three-part series of responses. Here's what Thom Brown, of HP's Competitive Media Intelligence group, had to say in response to my questions.<br /><br /><b>Digital Media Thoughts:</b> HP obviously feels paper is an important part of their printer business – I counted just over 40 different paper sizes. How many types of printer paper does HP currently offer, and have you hit the ceiling in terms of paper development, or are there new sizes and finishes yet to be introduced?<br /><br /><b>Thom Brown [HP]</b>: Please find the attached <a href="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/dmt/2007/HP-paper-printing-guide-2007.pdf">HP Paper Guide</a> for HP's complete desktop paper offering. HP currently offers about 50 types of desktop or small format size papers for North America which range in size from 4"x6" up to 13"x19" and are available in multiple finishes for both inkjet and laser printers, falling in to solutions for everyday plain paper printing to premium business communication to professional quality photo. HP Paper is an extremely important part of the printing process. It truly completes the printing experience and is just as important as HP ink and HP printers. <br /><br />It's more than just paper, it's what you touch, feel, and archive. It's what you hand to your client as a direct expression of your business. It's what you give your grandmother to show off the latest image of her grandchild. While HP does currently offer satisfying products, we are constantly tweaking / revising to improve overall performance, ease of use, and customer experience. For example, you would think plain paper has hit the development ceiling, it has not. Recently HP introduced ColorLok everyday plain papers which by design create bolder blacks, more uniform vivid colors, and faster drying. We also just released a new version of HP Everyday Photo Paper. This improved version offers faster drying, increased smudge resistance, and is now compatible across a wide range of printers. <br /><br />For ease of use improvement we've expanded AutoSense to HP Premium and Premium Plus Photo Papers. The basics behind AutoSense is that the HP Photo Paper tells the printer exactly what type of paper it is and automatically sets the printer to the optimized speed and quality settings. Among other benefits, AutoSense also catches sidedness and won't allow you to print on the wrong/uncoated side of the paper. The result is a get it right the first time 20-second 4"x6" borderless lab quality photo done in the convenience of your home.<br /><!><br /><b>DMT</b>: What would you say to those people who were buying generic photo paper for their HP printers – does HP-branded paper offer an advantage over generic photo paper?<br /><br /><b>HP:</b>HP branded papers most definitely offer an advantage with HP printers and HP supplies over non-hp papers. HP paper is not an afterthought. Our printers, print drivers, inks, and papers are all designed and developed together to work as a finely tuned system. If one component of that system is changed, like using non-HP photo paper, the print outcome is sub-optimal. Here's a potential scenario of using a non-HP branded photo paper. The main point is that with non-HP, performance of every step is an unknown. You can also think of it as Maslow's hierarchy of needs whereas each step must be fulfilled to move on to the next.<br /><br />1. Does it work? Will the non-HP photo paper feed properly through the printer? That is does it pick at all? Will it double pick two sheets at once and cause a jam? If it does pick does the paper skew? This becomes extremely important in varying temperature and humidity. We know exactly the paper path tolerances, the materials that come in contact with the paper along the paper path, and how they interact in different environments. HP runs thousands and thousands of papers through the print paths to optimize the pick and feed. The result is reliable sheet feed with HP papers in HP printers.<br /><br />2. Does it look good? OK, you got the non-HP paper to feed. The next challenge is ink media interaction. Does the ink dry? Does the ink puddle? If it does dry, does it dry at a constant rate? How far does the ink penetrate the coating, does it sit on the surface or penetrate at a constant distance? How do color inks mix? How does whiteness of the paper effect color balance? If multiple prints were left in the printer output tray would the pages stick together? We know the answers, we know exactly how the inks interact with the paper to deliver the best output and experience. For example, we know exactly how HP Advanced Photo Paper works with the HP 02 inks that are in the new HP Photosmart D7400 series printer. When you print the image of the Station 49 fire truck the print out is fire-truck-red. With non-hp photo paper it may be brick-truck-red or watermelon-truck-red.<br /><br />3. Does is last? Wow, so you may have been able to get a print out that is somewhat acceptable, albeit not exactly what you were expecting, what about fade resistance and durability? Is that somewhat acceptable print turn unacceptable after 1 year? Does the paper itself turn yellow after being stored in your photo album? What if the print is exposed to Summer humidity on the Gulf? HP knows there's more to a print than the immediacy of the print, there's also the life of the print. Again teams of HP ink and paper engineers have worked in concert to develop great performance. HP delivers dye-ink based prints that achieve the fade resistance levels of pigmented ink systems. HP has been a forerunner in creating fade resistant photos. For over half a decade we've offered home printing systems that can achieve up to 100-years of lightfade resistance as rated by <a href="http://www.wilhelm-research.com">Wilhelm Imaging Research</a>. Now we're achieving beyond 200 years with our Vivera pigmented inks and HP Advanced Photo Paper and HP digital fine art papers. Note that traditional prints (silver halide) from a lab are rated at best 40-years. And it's not just the ink, it's HP Vivera inks and HP papers. If you were to substitute with a non-hp photo paper that rating can drop to less than two years! This is frightening, especially for an uneducated consumer. A customer would have to re-print (assuming they still have access to the original image file) that photo on non-hp photo paper 50+ times to achieve the same life of print performance as the HP. This is not cost or time effective. I have a great software tool that visually simulates fading of HP vs. non-hp over time using any .jpg image. Please contact me if you wish to use this or even post it on your website.<br /><br />Time and time again HP Original supplies and papers have been verified by independent parties to out perform non-HP. Please look into published reports from Quality Logic, Spencer Research or Wilhelm Imaging Research. The bottom-line is that HP original supplies and papers are a better overall value than non-hp. With HP supplies and papers you get confidence and reliability in printing. <br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><b>DMT:</b> One thing that has always baffled me is why so many photo paper sizes differ from the sizes of common photo frames available in North America. 4 x 6” paper is a given because it matches up with photo albums. HP offers 5 x 7” photo paper in limited finishes, which matches up nicely with photo frames available at retail – but where is the 8 x 10” paper? HP offers a variety of paper in 8.5 x 11” size, yet if you go into any retail store and look for frames in that size you won’t find anything other than document holders. 8 x 10” is the standard photo frame size, so where is the HP paper to match that? It’s equally problematic with the bigger sizes of paper as well: try finding a frame for a 13 x 19” print! As someone who enjoys making photo prints at home, this disparity between paper sizes and frames is a source of constant frustration – why aren’t there more choices for 5 x 7” and 8 x 10” paper?<br /><br /><b>HP:</b> HP was a leader in first offering 5"x7" photo paper and concurrently offering snapshot photo printers with the capability to print up to this size. Today HP continues to be the market share leader in 5"x7" photo paper. Just as we are constantly tweaking and improving products we as well are always investigating solutions (such as additional sizes or finishes) to meet/exceed customer needs and expectations. We must balance that however with the reality of working with retailers. HP would love to offer every possible solution, but there is only a limited amount of shelf space.<br /><br /><b>DMT:</b> Digital scrapbooking seems to be all the rage now, with all sorts of online communities and software offering creative ways for people to create digital scrapbook pages and then print them. Several HP printers seem technically capable of printing on 12 x 12” paper, which is the de facto standard for scrapbooking, yet the product pages don’t list 12 x 12” as a supported paper type, nor does HP offer any 12 x 12” paper for sale. Does HP plan to offer scrapbook enthusiasts any options in the future?<br /><br /><b>HP:</b> A similar answer as the above. We are always investigating additional solutions to meet customer needs including this and other creative solutions. The complication with scrapbooking pages is that it's more than just offering the paper. There's also software and content and print formatting needed to deliver a complete solution. <br /><br /><b>DMT:</b> What’s the long-term outlook for photo printing – does HP believe there will continue to be a strong drive for people to print photos are home, or have online photo printing services already significantly weakened the home printing market?<br /><br /><b>HP:</b> According to industry analysts such as Lyra home printing is strong and continues to grow year over year. HP does believe that home photo printing is and will continue to be a strong solution for printing photos. Current HP home photo print systems actually deliver better image quality and better fade performance than online. HP photo value packs (products that combine HP ink and best matched HP photo paper) are competitively priced to online. Printing photos at home also brings print in hand immediacy, more creative control, and privacy. With that said, online does have a place in the market as well as retail/ in-store processing. All three solutions can co-exist. In fact HP offers all three with Snapfish online and our new retail in-store photo kiosks. <br /><br /><b>DMT:</b> Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! Is there any way consumers can direct feedback to HP about paper finishes and sizes they’d like to see?<br /><br /><b>HP:</b> Yes, there is. The best route is to actually contact the HP executive office. 800-756-0608 option 7. Or <a href="http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/contact/email_3.html">use our Web site</a>.<br /><br /><i>Jason Dunn owns and operates <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com">Thoughts Media Inc.</a>, a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He has a bit of a paper fetish.</i>

Chris Gohlke
10-03-2007, 02:49 AM
Nice interview, look forward to seeing the answers from the other players. A bit off topic, but since Thom brought up Snapfish I thought I'd share some thoughts on it.

I had my first experience with Snapfish last week and basically I won't be going back. Our office went out bowling and a coworker took pictures and loaded them to Snapfish to share. They sent me a link through Snapfish, yet I was required to register to even view the gallery - annoying, but I did it. Unfortunately, once I was in, the system then charges you, per picture, to even view the full resolution versions. I found neither of these things consistent with what I would expect from "A Leading Photo Sharing Website". I'm happy to pay for service (heck I've been paying to use Smugmug for a while now), but I really don't like being nickeled and dimed for things that other photo sharing sites give away.