A real performer when it comes to quality (HP PSC 1317)

Member Name: marcellep

Product:	HP PSC 1317
Date:	12/10/05 (3231 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quality, Performance, Make, Looks

Disadvantages: None yet

We I bought my new personal computer in January this year; I also needed a new printer so the hunt began for the perfect printer.

**The Hunt**

Well the hunt for a new printer began at the beginning of January 2005 and ended near to a month later. Yes I know a month looking for a printer is terrible. Well I had a lot to consider when buying this new printer. Not just the quality of the print or the cost of the printer cartridges I also had a serious think about what make I was buying. Hunt over I bought the Hewlett Packard Psc 1317 all in one printer.

**Getting It Home**

I love this part it's like Christmas when you open that box of surprises. The box is opened and I see my newest edition to the family all wrapped up neatly and in addition to that I also see the power cord, usb lead, installation disk, a colour cartridge, a black cartridge, a free pack of paper (20shts) and of course a really good instruction booklet.

**The Looks**

Ok so not the nicest looking printer on the market but it's still very cute. Looking at the printer you are greeted with a pleasant dark grey at the sides and a light grey/silver at the top. There is a lid at the top which can easily been lifted opened when you require using it. At the front is where you have the paper tray and this is also where you place your cartridges. All the cables well all of two of them are at the rear of the printer.

**Set Up**

Well this is a little tricky, well for me it was. First point I need to say is DO NOT PLUG THE PRINTER IN TO THE PC until asked to do so. Ok so pop the installation disk in and hit the install button. You will need to accept the terms and condition and then sit back and what the printer install. You will be prompted to plug in the usb lead at that point and only that point plug it in. Once you have plugged the lead in you will be asked to install the cartridges. Ok usb lead in and now the ink cartridges you are almost there. Your printer will then ask for you to enter paper in to the paper feed and the printer will print a test page. Keep that test page as you will need it at the next step. With the page that has been printed you need to align the printer now. Follow the instructions that are printed on the page, they will instruct you to place the page ion the top of the printer underneath the flap (scanner) and then hit scan. That's it done you officially have a new member of the family.

**Controls/Buttons**

There are only 8 buttons on this machine which will allow you to have complete control over the entire printer. Control buttons are located on the top of the printer on the left hand side. Here goes ill explain what the all do. Top to bottom you have the following buttons.

Light Grey button~ is the power on/off, also doubles up as a resume button.

Red Button~ Cancel the job that the printer is doing.

Light Grey~ this is a button that you can use if you want to make more than one copy~ so if you ant 2 press the button twice and so on.

Light Grey~ is the size button options are 100% or actual size.

Light Grey~ Paper selection~ Plain or photo.

Dark grey~ is the button you will pres if you want to make a black and white copy of something.

Light Green~ Press this is you want to make a colour copy.

Blue ~ is the button that you press to tell the printer to scan something (copy)

When you select any of the above buttons the appropriate lights will light up on the control panel. When you press the button to print more than one copy the display panel will display 1, 2, 3, and so on until you stop pressing the button. If there is an error with the printer all lights will flash on the control button, to solve this all you need to do is press and hold the cancel button (red) this will clear the printer.

**Features**

This Hewlett Packard psc 1317 is an all in one gives you the following features:

*Printer~ Perfection every time I print something. Not only is it super fast but that quality is always very good. Even when I am printing pictures on to normal paper you can expect great quality all the time.

Print speed~ Up to 17pages per minute (Black and White)
Up to 12pages per minute (Colour)

Printer speed is very accurate and I can honestly say that I have managed to print 17 pages of writing in black and white within the 1 minute. I have never needed to print so many colour pages but I have printed 6 pages in 38 seconds which is super. Now I know that this printer is fast at printing but you can be guaranteed that you will not lose the quality. Up to 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi colour with 1200 input dpi.

*Scanner~ this is a little bit trickier to use but the quality you get is absolutely super. I thought that the scanner would not be as good as others due to the fact it's an all in one product, but how wrong was I. A simple to use feature that will give you a great scan of any thing that you want. The scanner is a flat bed scanner situated on the top of the printer. To use all you need to do is lift up the lid and put the item in and then close the lid again and press scan. Your image then will appear on your computer before your very eyes. The resolution is 600 by 2400 ppi max

*Copier~ the most amazing part if the printer by far. I never thought for a second that I would be able to copy documents and pictures so well. Its once again so straight forward to use all you do is place the item under the lid face down and press copy. Be careful you select the correct colour, so if you want black and white you press black and of course if you want colour you press colour. When copying you can reduce or enlarge the target to 25% or 400%. It also has the ability to fit to page which is also another great feature.

*PictBridge~ I have used this feature a few times, this allows you to connect your digital camera direct to the printer and print pics. Your digital camera must be PictBridge compatible if it is not you will get a red light flashing at the bottom of the printer. The file format is JPEG and you can use photo or plain paper


**Cartridges**

Ok so not the cheapest cartridges on the market but if you buy HP cartridges you will continue to receive a superb quality print. When you first put your ink cartridge you will think I am not going to get long out of this, but believe me you will be surprised how many sheets you will be able to print from one cartridge. When the ink is running low you will get a warning on the screen each time you print telling you that the ink is running low and that the quality many not be as good. If you continue to print with the low ink warning you will still get good quality prints but not as good as you would expect. I suggest that when you get the warning you change the printer. It's fairly easy to change the cartridge when you pull down the cartridge protector the cartridges will automatically come to the middle of the printer to allow you to change them. When this has happened all you need to do is slide the cartridge in place and close the lid again.

Prices~ Black Cartridge~ Hp 56~ £12.49 on eBay brand new
Colour Cartridge~ Hp57~ £12.49 on eBay brand new

On hp website it reads~ 1,000 printed pages per month maximum


**Paper Sizes**

You have a good choice of what you can print on with this printer. You have four different choices for this printer.

*Plain Paper A4 you can have a maximum of 100 sheets in the tray at the same time for continuous print capability

*Card up to 200gsm you are able to have up to 20 sheets available for continuous print.

*Envelopes up to a maximum of 10 in the tray at one time

*Labels in sheet format up to 20 sheets in the tray.

When you are printing in different paper all you need to do to adjust the size of the printer feed tray is slide the little grey bar along whilst you have the paper in. This will hold the paper in place.

**How Noisy**

The printer is a little noisy when you are scanning a document as the light has to warm up you will then hear the printer scanning the document. This printer is not any noisier that the next. Whilst printing you will hear the printer cartridges going back and forward. To be honest I tend to forget that I am printing items.

**Quality**

I am absolutely delighted with the quality of the prints that this printer spits out at me. You can expect a sharp picture or a crystal clear letter to be sitting in that tray after you hit the print button. I have printed pictures on normal paper on a few occasions and I have always be surprised with the overall quality of the picture.

**Cleaning**

Ok something we all hate doing but we have too. Always make sure that the power is switched off~

To clean the glass~ you can use a class cleaner, but don't spray directly on to the glass, spray on to a cloth then clean.

To clean the exterior~ all you need to do is take a dry cloth and rub gently, ensuring that you do not scrub as you may mark the surface?

**Dimensions**

Height~ 16.97cms
Width~ 42.57cms
Depth~ 25.91cms
Weight~ 4.53kg

**Where to buy/ where I got mines? **

I bought mines from my local curry's store for £89.99. Searching the net today I found the following prices:

www.pcworld.com £99.99 free P&P

www.ebay.co.uk £70.00 Brand new in package £10.00 P&P

www.ebay.co.uk £26.00 current bid BNIP £12.00 P&P

www.currys.co.uk £82.49 web exclusive only £6.99 standard delivery


**Help available/Instructions**

The instruction manual should answer all your questions and also help solve all your problems that you may have with this model. A very well presented and easy to follow instruction book is included with this model. The instruction covers every aspect of this printer with great detail. Should you be unable to find your answer in the instruction book you are able to visit HP website for further help/advice.


**Minimum system requirements**

Windows
o Intel Pentium III or higher processor
o 256 MB RAM
o 1.1 GB (1.4 GB Japan only) free hard disk space plus additional 50 MB free for full colour scanning for Windows 98, 98 SE, and Me; 1.2 GB (1.6 GB Japan only) free hard disk space plus additional 50 MB free for full colour scanning for Windows 2000 and XP
o SVGA 1024 x 768 display resolution with 24-bit colour
o Internet access
o Sound card
o Adobe Acrobat 4.0 or later


Macintosh
o G4 processor or higher
o 128 MB RAM for OS 9; 156 MB RAM for OS 9.1 and higher
o 256 MB RAM for OS X
o 1024 x 768 display resolution with 24-bit colour
o Internet access
o Sound card
o Adobe Acrobat 4.0 or later
Macintosh OS 9.0 and earlier not supported

**Software**

When you in stall the printer you will also install a programme called Hp director. This is a programme that you will require when using the printer. You can send pictures direct from this programme. So when you scan a picture in to your pc using this printer it will store a copy within the director meaning that you can then decide to do what you like with it. Another great feature of this super printer.

**Warranty**

You get a standard one years warranty with the printer that is supplied by the manufactures. Please note that you are not covered for accidental damage, you will need to either claim your home insurance or take out a separate insurance. If you register your purchase you will receive a letter 12 months later inviting you to extend the warranty.


**Conclusion**

I am absolutely delighted with this printer I would go as far to say that this is the best printer that I have ever owned. In my experience of printing I am delighted with the overall quality of the printer the fact that it is fast at printing and still I get the great quality I expect. My printer sits on my desk without too much problem, now I know it's not the smallest printer on the market but I can assure you that the performance of this printer is as big as the size.

**Contact Information

www.hp.com/support this is the site for UK and Ireland

Can I just add here that they have support in most languages so there in not problem if you don't read or speak English

A real performer when it comes to quality~ Robert

Summary: Print in style

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
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