HP Designjet 500 Plus (HP Designjet 500 Plus)

Member Name: ben922

Product:	HP Designjet 500 Plus
Date:	23/06/09 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap compared to other, good print quality and ease of use

Disadvantages: Can take a long time to print, buffer memory can be exceeded with large files

From my own experience the hp designjet 500 has been very reliable.

The only major downside would be that if you send a large file to print it may exceed the buffer limit and parts may be missed from the drawing.

The limit seems to be around 4mb but that again is only from personal experience.

It takes roughly 3 mins to print a colour a1 which isn't too bad if you have 1 or 2 to print but if thee are say 20 it can take a while.

The plotter can be bought new for between £800-£1000 depending if you shop around or not. This price may seem quite steep but considering other slightly more professional plotters on the market today it is a bargin.

The paper is fed through the plotter on a roll and therefore there is no need to insert a1 paper like a traditional printer.

Providing the roll of paper is wide enough you can print up to any length you wish (as long as you have enough paper) so the plotter can be used for advertising as well as a1 drawings.

Of course it can print down to any size too but it all depends on how much paper you want to use.

A major problem that I have found is that the colour on the screen can sometimes vary to the colour that is printed out, however this may be my screen contrast rather than the printer itself.

Overall I would say if you want a cheap, reliable and decent quality plotter then consider the hp designjet 500

Summary: Good plotter, does everything a more expensive plotter would do

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