HP Designjet Z3100ps GP 44-in Photo Printer

Fine Arts & Photo
Large Format Printer

Check MBS PricingThe HP Designjet Z Series printers are designed to deliver intuitive, dependable and repeatable color accuracy for 24- and 44-inch museum-quality prints with 200 years' photo permanence.

RIP built into the printer

The new easy-to-use embedded Adobe PS3/PDF RIP enables designers, publishers and commercial printers to quickly and easily work with the files they receive, eliminating the need to dedicate a specific computer just for the RIP software and compressing files. The printer can process the following formats/languages: Adobe PostScript 3, Adobe PDF 1.6, HP-GL2/RTL, CALS/G4, TIFF, JPEG and HP PCL 3 GUI.

HP Advanced Profiling
Solution Software

HP and X-Rite have developed the HP Advanced Profiling Solution which takes advantage of the built-in HP Embedded Spectrophotometer to provide a revolutionary end-to-end calibrated ICC color workflow.

• Calibrate your monitor to see matching colors on your screen and printed paper. Easily check if your printer and monitor are properly color corrected before profiling. Easily perform all operations using a step-by-step software interface
• Generate color profiles for all your paper types in RGB and‚if you are using RIP software‚CMYK to ensure accurate printing. Visually edit your profiles for ultimate color control in a very easy way
• Select for "Expert Options" features in all the profiling and editing steps (illuminants, chart sizes, and more)

The HP Designjet Z Series employs the industry's first embedded spectrophotometer, utilising i1 color Technology from X-Rite. Mounted on the printer carriage with completely self-contained optics and electronics, the embedded spectrophotometer greatly simplifies accurate color-matching, enabling automated ICC profiling and HP Advanced Closed-Loop color Calibration. The result means the user can create color profiles in minutes rather than hours and expect exact color matches throughout the printing process.

Since the HP Z3100 has an onboard 40GB hard drive and embedded web server, any profile you create will be stored on the printer and available to any other user in a network setting. After clicking Create, you'll be prompted to name your paper type, which will then be available in the Custom section of the print driver. The printer will then print a color chart which is measured by the spectrophotometer, and a standard ICC profile is created and installed. These profiles are also stored on the printer's hard drive and will be automatically installed on any computer using that printer, ensuring that all users have the same output profiles available to them.

Leading brands in the creative community, including Adobe, Colorbyte, EFI, GMG and X-Rite, have worked closely with HP to develop solutions optimised specifically for the HP Designjet Z Series to fully address the needs of key markets, such as graphic design, professional photography, prepress and digital fine arts. From X-Rites's i1 color Technology to the use of Adobe's Lightroom calibration application, these solutions further streamline workflow and provide users a simple, reliable printing experience.

HP Gloss Enhancer

The Gloss Enhancer is a clear ink, which when mixed in correct proportions with the other inks on the page, provides a more uniform gloss on the surface of a print, effectively eliminating gloss differential on prints created on glossy or satin papers, and perceived bronzing‚ (a metallic sheen sometimes seen at odd viewing angles) in black and white prints. It is intended for use on glossy and satin inkjet media. It has no perceptible impact on fine art, watercolor, and similar matte papers.

Unlike a clearcoat, the gloss enhancer is applied like an ink, and is closely controlled by software. In fact, the gloss enhancer is controlled by its own screening algorithm and it is applied selectively where it is needed. The gloss enhancer is only applied to areas of an image that have an RGB color value of 254,254,254 or lower. Pure white (which has RGB values of 255 in each channel) will not receive the gloss enhancer. (As a practical matter, I set white and black points slightly under max values when using inkjet printers.)

The user can choose to use the GE or not, on any particular print, and also whether the GE is used just on parts of the image where its required (economy mode) or over the entire print for maximum uniformity. It can also be turned off completely if desired.

New ink and media for exquisite museum quality that lasts 200 years

The HP Designjet Z3100 uses a 12-ink HP Vivera pigment ink system (130 ml per cartridge), including the HP 70 Gloss Enhancer and HP Quad-Black Inks to create beautiful black and white prints and achieve truly neutral greys under different lighting conditions. This also provides continuous tones, uniform gloss and rich blacks, making the HP Designjet Z3100 ideal for high-quality art reproduction, photography and proofing applications. HP's 12-ink printing system involves six user replaceable HP 70 Printheads, each printing two colors of ink with 1,056 nozzles per color.

Water resistance

Prints can be damaged when exposed to water or by handling when wet. However, many Original HP ink and media combinations produce high-quality, water-resistant prints. During the development of Original HP pigment inks, HP tests water resistance performance characteristics most important to customers. HP uses ISO and internally developed tests and considers prints which pass the following tests to be water resistant: ISO standing water, water spray, water drip, and wet smudge.

Scratch and abrasion resistance

HP cares about the entire customer workflow, not just the printing experience. Laminates are generally applied to provide additional scratch and abrasion resistance, water and chemical resistance, as well as extending the image permanence rating.

HP Vivera Ink

HP Vivera pigment inks offer outstanding image quality and fade resistance, along with water resistance, on a wide range of HP creative and specialty media. HP's proprietary Electrosteric Encapsulation Technology optimizes the pigment chemistry and ink properties for stability and performance to ensure a broad color gamut, print permanence, excellent gloss uniformity, and reliable, accurate, and consistent printing.