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Print Quality (5.00)
The HP Photosmart C5180's on-unit menu does not provide quality settings for pictures and scans, but copies can be set to print at the following settings: Maximum Resolution, Best, Normal, and Fast. These settings are found in the copy menu. They aren’t hard to find, but aren’t as easily accessible as the buttons either. The print quality settings allow users to slowly create masterpieces or be more efficient with time and ink by printing less pertinent documents at the lower quality settings.
Internal Editing (7.00)
Editing text documents and scans isn’t possible, but photos can be altered before printing. They can be viewed on the built-in LCD screen and printed, reprinted, shared, or saved via the Photosmart Express button near the left side of the row of buttons on the printer. Next to that button is one that fixes photos with HP’s Real Life technologies. The single button adjusts the exposure with what HP calls "adaptive lighting," while red eyes are also removed from satanic-looking portraits. This automatic fix didn’t work all the time.
More reliable editing features were available in the photo menu. From there, users can crop, adjust the brightness of the image, and add frames and color effects. This took only a few seconds to find and was more effective than the auto fix. The crop can be adjusted with the zoom control while the brightness is adjusted on the multi-selector on a +/- 3 scale with full steps. There are six frame templates to choose from ranging from the traditional look to the embarrassingly cheap look.
Dedicated B&W Settings/Effects (8.00)
Photos can be edited to print and even saved in black-and-white. The photo color effects include sepia, antique, and black-and-white. The sepia and black-and-white settings are typical, but the antique color setting is unique. It merely washes out the colors a bit like a photo that has sat in the sun for much too long, which ironically is something paper manufacturers strongly market against. Copies can easily be printed in black-and-white via the designated button on the front of the HP C5180 printer.
Media Types (9.50)
The input and output paper trays necessitate that paper be a minimum size of 3 x 5 inches and a maximum of 8.5 x 24 inches. The C5180 printer can handle 16 to 24 lb. US legal-sized and executive paper, photo paper up to 75 lb., and card stock up to 110 lb. The 4 x 6-inch automatic photo tray can handle up to 75 lb. photo paper, but 16 to 24 lb. paper is recommended. Besides the plain, inkjet, and photo paper, the HP Photosmart C5180 can accept No. 10 envelopes, transparencies, labels, and iron-on transfers. The printer can also create borderless photos at sizes of 4 x 6, 5 x 7, and 8 x 10 inches or borderless panoramas at 4 x 10, 4 x 11, or 4 x 12 inches.
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