HP Designjet 90 still available!

A great bargain.

Click on ‘Printing’ in the left hand column and you will see that I am a huge fan of HP’s previous generation DesignJet 90 18″ wide printer. A small footprint, fade free inks, great reliability and …. cheap for what you get. HP’s current large format printers start well north of $2,000.

I thought that the HP DJ90 was no longer available, but a quick spot of Googling and it seems they are still available new.

The print quality is beyond reproach, not least owing to the use of dye inks which results in a really deep black. As for the fade free claim, I can attest to one print I have at a friend’s home, under plain glass, which is in bright sun 8 hours a day and has been for two years. It’s as good as new.

So if large prints are your thing, check out the HP DJ90 or 130 (which will print up to 24″ wide).

Update: Check the Comments to this piece for a discussion of paper and supplies availability. I have also added extensive details about HP’s newly released (2008) profiles for many non-HP papers.

5 thoughts on “HP Designjet 90 still available!

  1. For instance, HP itself lists only 13″ x 19″ paper. Googling for “ARCH C” or “18 x 24” paper seems to bring up HP only; I haven’t yet found any other brand.

    Is it a good assumption that the ink cartridges and printer heads will remain available for the life of the printer?

  2. HP 18″ x 24″ paper is available from B&H – click here.

    Atlex, from whom I have ordered with no problems, has a vast range of HP paper for the DesignJet series here and lots of original ink and printing heads elsewhere on their site.

    Alternatively, do a Google search on “HP 18 x 24 paper designjet” and you will get hundreds of hits!

    As for parts and ink, you can still get them for HP printers over ten years old and HP made and sold a great number of these (not just 18″ and 24″ but also the 13″ wide model which shares ink and head designs with its larger stablemates), many to professionals, so I doubt they are about to jettison a key constituency.

  3. I wonder why the HP website itself does not list the 18×24 paper. The HP store still has the 90, 90r and 90gp.

    Anyway, I suppose the DesignJet 90 will work with 13×19 paper just as well, which seems to be a more universally available size; and existing 18×24 supplies will last a while. I’m that close to pulling the trigger – the printer is very attractively priced, and you’ve given it such testimonials! I feel I’m wasting my 5D (and not learning as much as I should) by not being able to print large.

    Since the 5D aspect ratio is 3:2 and 18×24 is 4:3, do you crop to print 18×24 or do you really print 16×24 on 18×24 paper?

  4. HP’s site is famously a mess. Beats me.

    Cllick here and you can get profiles for the following non-HP branded papers for the DJ 30/90/130 series from HP itself:

    ICC Profile – Arches Infinity Texture 230
    ICC Profile – Arches Infinity Smooth 230
    ICC Profile – Digital Arts Supplies DAS Geo Canvas
    ICC Profile – Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 188
    ICC Profile – Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Duo 196
    ICC Profile – Hahnemuhle William Turner Textured 190
    ICC Profile – Hahnemuhle William Turner Textured 310
    ICC Profile – Lysonic Photo Gloss / Hahnemuhle Photo Gloss 265
    ICC Profile – Lysonic Photo Matte / Hahnemuhle Photo Matte 170
    ICC Profile – Ilford Smooth Gloss Paper
    ICC Profile – Ilford Smooth Heavyweigth Matte
    ICC Profile – Ilford Smooth Pearl Paper
    ICC Profile – New HP DJ30/90/130 Photo Gloss P ICC profile
    ICC Profile – New HP DJ30/90/130 Photo Satin P ICC profile

    When you realize that HP released these in July 2008 it certainly doesn’t feel like they are giving up on that printer series.

    I ordinarily crop the original to fit the 18″ x 24″ frame. However, if you get a roll sheet feeder and roll paper (HP or other) you can print 18″ wide (DJ90) and any length you want so, as a minimum, you will be able to print 18″ x 27″ which will use every part of an uncropped 5D frame.

    As for the claimed (Wilhelm Research) better life for the latest pigment printer inks compared to the Vivera dye inks in the DJ series- 110 vs 83 years – who cares? What you will care about is the very frugal way in which the printer uses ink and the ease of replacement of heads which are completely separate assemblies from the ink cartridges. And forget all those claims that 8 or 12 cartridges are better. My 4 ink Epson 1270 made prints every bit as fine as the six ink HP DJ90 – the problem with the Epson being nozzle clogging (which the HP avoids by keeping the nozzles warm even when switched off, so make sure you keep the printer plugged in at all times) and,of course, fading inks. Fade free technology was not around when the 1270 was made.

    I have been banging away at my DJ 90 since March 2006 and except for one printer head replacement have had no issues – no clogging, no failures, just consistently great prints with inky blacks.

    Your 5D comes to life at 13″ x 19″; at 18″ x 24″ or 24″ x 30″ it begins to sing. I use 13″ x 19″ – which it prints fast while using little ink – for proofing, leaving these out for a few says while I deliberate final adjustments for the 18″ x 24″ for matting.

    To get your colors right, let the print dry a day and all will be stable. That’s a function of the HP’s inks – these are wet, slow drying dyes which need to be absorbed by the paper, unlike pigments which dry in a surface layer.

    After some 100 18″ x 24″ and maybe 200 13″ x 19″ prints over a thirty month period, I have never had a clogged head or a paper jam (once I learned how to properly insert the paper tray! – insert from the left then make sure the right side is fully home), and have had to replace just one printer head. My piece on that will guide you through HP’s pretty awful diagnostics to make sure you change the right head when it eventually fails from use.

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