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| Index
printing, too: The
1315's automatically generated index print
conveniently shows what's on a memory card,
but is slow printing and reproduces annoying
ads for itself (arrow). Image quality is
admirably high for an index print. |
The 1315 was extremely quiet, but relatively slow.
Waiting nearly six minutes for an 8x10 full-color
glossy seemed like an eternity, especially when
it ties up your computer for that time. (Hint:
Printing from a memory card won't commandeer your
desk- or laptop, and it's faster.) The paper feeder,
which can bulk feed up to 100 sheets of 24-pound
paper or 15 standard business envelopes, performed
flawlessly. On the paper handling front, we found
no easy way to produce borderless 4x6s.
The printer's index prints had pleasing color
and their individual images were large (28x38mm),
high resolution, with loupe-able detail. They
were slow printing, however, and each emerged
with advertisements for Hewlett Packard that
render the index prints useless, in our opinion,
for professional or semi-professional uses.
TEST RESULTS:
Resolution: High (maximum 2400x1200 dpi).
Color Accuracy: Acceptable (Overall Delta
E: 12.49, Best 90%: 11.30, Worst 10%: 23.03).
Highlight and Shadow Detail: Very High.
Contrast: Normal. Image Quality:
High. Speed: Acceptable (5 min, 35 sec
for 8x10-inch print).
Basic image-editing,
too!
We were generally pleased with the printer's
image-editing features, and we admired the ease
and convenience of invoking them using the big,
bright, though somewhat green-tinted LCD screen.
Cropping, rotating, changing brightness levels,
and other controls were a snap and worked as
advertised. We're especially fond of the "antique"
setting, which drains enough color from an image
to make it seem naturally faded.
We were unable to send photos via e-mail from
the printer or transmit photos via infrared
from a PDA to the 1315 because we didn't have
the time to work through the complicated set-up
procedures. The printer did, however, save pictures
from a SmartMedia card to our G3's hard drive
with ease.
The Photosmart 1315 is a natural for digital
camera owners who don't want a computer standing
between them and their pictures. Thanks to DPOF,
you can pull the card from your digital camera,
insert it into the 1315, press a few buttons,
and come back later to find your pre-selected
images printed to the size and quantity you
specified. The only hitch? Depending on the
size of your output, it could be a lot
later.
