Product Overview: HP's New DesignJet 4000
By: Hal Reid
Senior Technical Editor, Directions Magazine
| (Feb 18, 2005) |
Classified Ads:
Take advantage of a special year-end sale on SPOTMaps, the 2.5 meter, seamless, color mosaic made to fit your area of interest. Save 25% off all SPOTMaps through November 10th, when you mention this ad! Click here for details
In January, HP introduced a new large
format printer, the HP Designjet 4000. This product is for GIS, CAD and
technical users who need a fast, high-resolution, remotely controlled
printer, that supports both single sheet and roll media. Fast means
that it can produce a D size single sheet in 28 seconds or 100 or them
in an hour (1,000sq ft an hour). It supports media up to 42 inches in
width. Length is limited by the size of the roll.
This
product is not for the casual printer of just a few copies a month, but
is designed for users who print up to 150,000 sq. ft. of output a year.
The print technology uses four cartridges (CMYK) of up to 400ml each (21 times what is a typical cartridge in the printer on your desk). More importantly, this product has technology that uses multiple print heads in an “on the fly reconfiguration” adjusting for clogs, malfunctions, etc., so it just keeps printing. This multiple number of print heads can also reduce the number of passes required in printing lines and polygon fills. This adaptation of print heads on the fly is a first for this class of printer.
The printer itself has a basic internal memory of 256MB, upgradeable to 512MB, and it has a 40GB hard drive. This way, sequential jobs can be passed directly to the printer and stored there until printed. Jobs that are standards can be stored permanently for repeated printing.
The printer stands alone on your network (all built-in) so that there is no required print server; it just becomes another node on your network. You can add wireless and gigabit network connectivity as well.
Note that is not a lightweight device, at 253 pounds. It’s not an impulse purchase, either, at approximately $10,000 to $13,000, depending on features included. It can use all the standard paper types, photo, glossy, coated, vellum, film and canvas. Could canvas printing spiff up your sailboat or hot air balloon?
The most interesting set of functionality is the ability to control the printer via the web using HP's Web Jetadmin software. This is downloaded from the HP web site and works in conjunction with Embedded Web Server firmware that part of the HP 4000. When connected to the printer via Web Jetadmin, all the basic printer conditions can be seen, including ink levels, print head status, job status and media. The printer can be set up to notify its user base via email of problems, job completion, media exhaustion, etc. Job reordering and new job initiation can also be done remotely. There is also an accounting function that lets you export details on ink or media usage to Excel. A certain amount of print pre-viewing can be done with several different file formats (tiffs, jpegs, pdf, etc.), which allow for rotation and scaling by the printer.
Embedded Web Server Features
If you need high volume, high quality, large format printer for GIS, CAD and technical applications, this may be the product for you. Since you can manage this device remotely, if you trained the security guards to your building to change paper and ink cartridges and FedEx to come box up and ship the output, you may never have to go to the office again.
This
product is not for the casual printer of just a few copies a month, but
is designed for users who print up to 150,000 sq. ft. of output a year.The print technology uses four cartridges (CMYK) of up to 400ml each (21 times what is a typical cartridge in the printer on your desk). More importantly, this product has technology that uses multiple print heads in an “on the fly reconfiguration” adjusting for clogs, malfunctions, etc., so it just keeps printing. This multiple number of print heads can also reduce the number of passes required in printing lines and polygon fills. This adaptation of print heads on the fly is a first for this class of printer.
The printer itself has a basic internal memory of 256MB, upgradeable to 512MB, and it has a 40GB hard drive. This way, sequential jobs can be passed directly to the printer and stored there until printed. Jobs that are standards can be stored permanently for repeated printing.
The printer stands alone on your network (all built-in) so that there is no required print server; it just becomes another node on your network. You can add wireless and gigabit network connectivity as well.
Note that is not a lightweight device, at 253 pounds. It’s not an impulse purchase, either, at approximately $10,000 to $13,000, depending on features included. It can use all the standard paper types, photo, glossy, coated, vellum, film and canvas. Could canvas printing spiff up your sailboat or hot air balloon?
The most interesting set of functionality is the ability to control the printer via the web using HP's Web Jetadmin software. This is downloaded from the HP web site and works in conjunction with Embedded Web Server firmware that part of the HP 4000. When connected to the printer via Web Jetadmin, all the basic printer conditions can be seen, including ink levels, print head status, job status and media. The printer can be set up to notify its user base via email of problems, job completion, media exhaustion, etc. Job reordering and new job initiation can also be done remotely. There is also an accounting function that lets you export details on ink or media usage to Excel. A certain amount of print pre-viewing can be done with several different file formats (tiffs, jpegs, pdf, etc.), which allow for rotation and scaling by the printer.
Embedded Web Server Features
- PostScript, PDF, JPEG, TIFF, CALS G4, Hp-GL/2, RTL format directly to printer without needing a driver.
- Control and manage all aspects of Print Jobs.
- See the status of ink cartridges, printheads, printheads cleaners, and paper.
- See statistics on ink and paper usage.
- Change various printer settings (print quality, etc.).
- Set a password to restrict web access to printer.
- Request email notifications when specified warning or error conditions occur.
- Update the printer’s firmware and media profiles.
This is an image from
the HP Designjet 4000 Embedded Web Server. Click image for
larger view.
If you need high volume, high quality, large format printer for GIS, CAD and technical applications, this may be the product for you. Since you can manage this device remotely, if you trained the security guards to your building to change paper and ink cartridges and FedEx to come box up and ship the output, you may never have to go to the office again.
|
Your Comments Post a comment All comments provided in this section are those of the individual who has created the post. These are not the opinions of Directions Media, its editors, staff or owners unless otherwise noted. Directions Media retains the right to edit or delete any comments posted herein.
|
|
||||||
| We are looking for a new plotter at this time for GIS / CAD use. This model sounds right on the mark, but I'm looking for a comparison to the HP 5500. Do you have any comparison comments to help make a decision? Speed is very important, but cost of operation is also. Thanks in advance for any insight into this new product. |
||||||
|
||||||
| When I spoke with HP,as prep for this article, I had a similar question re the 5500. Their response was that the 5500 was more geared to imagery. The 4000 is also used for newspaper proofing and speed is a major consideration for those folks. The 4000 seems to have the most advanced remote managemant firmware as well. HP said that the type of inks and the type of media supported by the 4000 were geared to CAD & GIS users. Hope that helps. |
||||||
|
||||||
| I really was impressed with the capabilities of the 4000 but I could not find whether the inks were UV resistant. We have been getting some grumbling from our clients when their expensive maps start fading. Some day we will get archival inks in our plotters. Jim |
||||||
|
||||||
| Does this plotter come in a 36" wide version, or can you use a 36" wide paper roll on the 42" bed? I am thinking the speed of this machine would make it possible to replace our diazo machine for multiple prints but we do predominantly 24x36" drawings and trimming would defeat the purpose. |
||||||
|
||||||
| How does the plot image quality compare tho the HP500PS? We have a HP1050 and HP500 and the image quality seems to be better on the older HP500. I hope the image quality is better on the HP4000, even though it is "built for speed". |
||||||
|
||||||
| Our trusty designjet 650C is ready to be relagated to backup duty and we are in the process of searching out a new plotter. Primarily we do black and white 2d fabrication/construction drawings, so would the 4000 be 'to much plotter' for us? Speed is a factor as we often need to pump out large volumes. |
||||||
|
||||||
| We are looking for a replacement printer for our CAD, GIS , and remote sensing work. We are highly demanding in terms of image quality. Is this the best machine? Are there better alternatives with other manaufacturers? |
||||||
|
||||||
| Nice plotter and very fast - BUT - the drivers when loaded knackered my other HP network printers, having to use a work around as nobody seems to be able to tell me what the issue is !!! |
||||||
|
||||||
| HP promotes this as a very fast machine, which it is. The speeds they rate it at are for draft mode, which is fine with us as thats what we primarily plot with on our 650c. Bottom line is that the 4000 does a pretty crappy job in draft mode. Fast yes (30 seconds as to 180 secs on the 650), but the quality on the 650 was superb, the 4000 just can't seem to calibrate to the finesse the 650 does. And of course HP does not support their machine in draft mode, even though thats how they advertise it. However, if you can afford to wait around for prints while it plots in enhanced mode, it does a superb job. |
||||||
