HP Designjet T1200PS

The Designjet T1200PS is a six-colour inkjet printer targeted at medium-size technical workgroups of up to 12 users. We've taken a look at what Buyer's Lab (BLI) made of Hewlett Packard's wide-format device.  
So, first thing's first, how are the prints? Well, according to BLI, very good. On bond paper, fine lines and curves were distinct, and colours were of good quality; this remained the same throughout the test period. On gloss paper, there was very good image quality, with skin tones and natural colours looking, well, natural - especially when compared to other wide-format inkjet printers. In the way of black printing, there was no visible ink spray (though the printer fared only 'average' when viewed with a magnifying glass) and the T1200PS produced line art with consistent widths. Black-and-white photographic prints were also rated 'very good'. These results show that, although HP have marketed the device at technical workgroups, it would be suitable for graphics printing.

The colour management on the printer achieved a 'very good' rating. The Before/After preview, which lets users see on the monitor any colour adjustments that they have made, got particular mention. Changes are made using sliders within the Advanced Color Settings Tab, and there are selections for grayscale, monochrome and colour printing. There's also an additional level of colour management, thanks to the HP PANTONE Emulation feature, which matches PANTONE definitions in the file with the closest CMYK colours.

Not that the T1200PS only received 'very good' ratings; the applications compatibility test managed to achieve a grade of 'excellent'. It handled all basic file formats, as well as more complex HP-GL/2 files, without any image defects or delays. In fact, the printer did not falter when processing any of the files in the BLI test library - likely the result of the built-in 32GB memory, dedicated to file processing. It's not uncommon for these features to be present in wide-format devices but it's good to see HP using it so well.

In the way of downsides, the most that the BLI report could muster was that the second roll feed can only be accessed from the rear, which requires the device to be moved if it is positioned against a wall. For a dual-roll printer, this is a bit of an issue but we have to admit, the fact that this printer even has dual-roll capability far outweighs any positioning problems.

In its favour, when loading media into the feeds, the T1200PS only needs you to insert the leading edge of the roll into the slot and the rest is automated (including roll switching). Sheet media is more difficult to load but, in our experience, that's not something specific to this model.

The T1200PS also includes a handy accounting feature that lets you keep track of costs for each printed job. And there's HP's Instant Printing Utility for simplified submission of files (and multiple file types) to the printer.

All in all, the T1200PS showed itself to be highly reliable in the 10,000-square-foot BLI test. No service calls were required and print quality remained consistent throughout. The quality of both colour and black-and-white prints showed that it would be suitable for a range of printing methods, and that the device would be highly suitable for both technical and graphics workgroups.

Find out more about the HP Designjet T1200PS at Jigsaw24.com. You can also get in touch with our CAD experts on 03332 409 204 or email CAD@jigsaw24.com.