|
| |
Setup & Software Summary |
|
• Includes drivers for both PC and Mac
• No image editing or other software is included.
|
 |
Product Tour |
Page 3 of 13 |
Printing Speed |
 |
Setup & Manuals (5.0)
Thw B8850 takes a bit of time to set up before you can start printing. The process itself is mostly straightforward: unpack the printer, remove the myriad bits of tape holding it together, then install the ink cartridges and print heads, and then wait 30-40 minutes while the printer initializes itself. This is somewhat longer than most other printers, which typically took only a couple of minutes to initialize. HP's manual encourages you to use this time to install the software, and this is a reasonable idea, atlhough you may have time left over to make a cup of tea; we found that the software only took 10 to 15 minutes to install.
The whole setup process is detailed in the printer quick start guide that comes with the printer. Other features of the printer are detailed in the main manual, which also comes in a printed version and as a PDF file. This is good to see; many manufacturers are looking to save a few cents by not printing the manual, but printed versions remain the easiest way to quickly look something up.
Drivers (7.0)
Windows users get a pretty standard set of options from the printer driver. The screen shown below are accessed by hitting the properties button in the print dialog.
| Windows Driver Options |
 |
Advanced
The first screen the driver presents you with is, oddly enough, the advanced options screen, where you can control things such as the overspray (where the printer |
 |
Printing Shortcuts
The second screen provides access to a number of shortcuts for common printing tasks, such as creating a borderless print or doing a fast photo print. This is a slightly odd choice for this printer: although having shortcuts is an advantage, this is a high-end photo printer that most people are going to want to do a few high quality prints on, not to frequently switch between different types of prints. However, you can tweak the shortcuts, creating your own or modifying the settings on a per-print basis. |
 |
Features
The third screen is the features screen, which gives you access to the most commonly used options, such as type pf print, paper size, etc. |

 |
Color
The final screen is color, where you can set if the print is produce in color or on black and white, or what color management appraoch is used. Clicking on more color options gives you the screen shown below, which provides more settings for individual colors. There is no way, however, to use different print profiles from within the driver: these have to be used within the printing program itself.
|
Mac Drivers are also included, which contain the same set of features as the Windows versions.
| Mac Driver Options |
 |
Paper Type/Quality
The main screen of the Mac driver is where you choose the paper type to be printed to, and the quality at which it will be printed. Sub-pages are available for setting color options (such as boosting particular colors) and for tweaking the ink volume used. |
 |
Borderless
Controls the margin on borderless printing. With some papers, this may need tweaking to produce truly borderless prints. |
 |
Printer Driver Information
Gives you the details of the driver, including version numbers |
 |
Printer Utility
You can't check the ink levels from within the printer driver itself, but the Printer Utility allows you to check the ink levels, run cleaning cycles, etc. |
Software (1.6)
The only seperate piece of software to come with the B8850 is a Photoshop plug-in that allows for the creation of index prints, groups of pcitures to be printed together, etc.
Other Software (0.0)
No other software is included with the B8850.
|