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A special feature on the top raffle prize in the recently concluded ScrapMeet2! |
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We simply got to thank Hewlett Packard (HP) for giving away an HP PHotoSmart during the recently concluded ScrapMeet TWO (and thank scrapper Mel Dominguez who made it all possible on such short notice!). It was so generous of HP to print our pictures right on the spot using the PhotoSmart 325 Photo Printer (fantastic colors!) and doubly great that they have chosen to giveaway a brand new unit of the same model to one lucky scrapper!
We can talk all we want about scrapping great photos, photography techniques, settings and the like but having your very own photo printer takes the cake! Imagine scrapping a layout and having the HP PhotoSmart right beside you printing your photos instantly! Wow!
No wonder Malu Lim was ecstatic with her printer! Now all we do is wait for Malu to send us her layout just in time for the "relaunch" of our new Gallery! Its still under construction but we promise, it will definitely be worth the wait! :) - Mabelle |
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HP PhotoSmart 325
Technology: Ink-jet
Printer output type: Color
Connectivity technology: Wired
Max speed:
0.8 min/page, 1 min/page,
1.5 min/page
Compatibility: PC, Mac
Max resolution (b&w):
1200 dpi x 1200 dpi
Max resolution (color):
4800 dpi x 1200 dpi Included in the box:
• HP Photosmart 325
• Power Adapter & Cord
• #95 Tri-color Cartridge with Vivera Inks (7ml)
• Users Guide
• CD-Rom with Drivers & Software |
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Hardware
The HP Photosmart 325 is probably the smallest, fully-featured 4x6" photo printer that is available in retail. The front of the printer has a flat, full-faced panel that folds down to expose the memory card slots, USB PictBridge connection, cartridge door, and paper ejection pathway. This panel also serves as a paper-catch for prints that are done, so they don't just fall anywhere. The cartridge door opens downwards to open up the cavity where a single ink cartridge is inserted for printing.
The ink cartridge slides in and clicks in place with minimal force. The rear of the unit has a panel that pulls out similar to the front, yet it will only pull out slightly. This is where the photo paper will be loaded. There is a little, plastic stem that you can pull up, which gives the small stack of photo paper a spine and keeps them flat while they're sitting, waiting to be printed upon. You can load up to 20 sheets of photo paper into the tray, and there is a spring-loaded adjustor that hugs the edges and keeps everything straight.
The USB port and power port are also located on the back of the unit. The bottom of the printer has a door locked with a screw, which opens the space for the portable battery pack (sold separately) that will let the printer be used without the use of the power adapter. The top of the printer has a small 1.5" color LCD screen that is used to preview pictures that are on memory cards inserted into the card slots. There are buttons to turn the printer on, delete pictures, print pictures, cancel, confirm, and scroll through options/images. The buttons are rubber and nicely tactile. The cancel button is quite marvelous, since prints will immediately cease upon the pressing of the button. This is an ink-saver, due to the machine discontinuing it's printing process and not wasting more ink on an undesired photo. The memory card slots can read every card type available right now. This is handy since users can own any brand digital camera that they want and still be able to print all of their pictures, all without the use of a computer. |
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Navigation of the menu options is simple. The main menu allows users to modify the print quality, print sample or test pages, clean & align the cartridges, modify bluetooth settings, and access the help feature. There are additional preferences that can give enhancements to pictures that are printed directly from the unit. You can change the smart focus, digital flash, date/time settings, colorspace, borderless, and passport photo options. You can change the menu language as well.
Printing is done fast and easily. Once a memory card has been inserted into the HP Photosmart 325, it will automatically detect and read the images. From there, users will be given an option of how they want to set up the number of prints on a page. You can choose to have 1, 2, 4, or an index of 16 pictures done on each 4x6" photo sheet. As you browse back and forth through the pictures, you can press the center OK button to select the pictures that you want to print.
There will be a check mark displayed on the bottom left hand corner of the LCD screen for those images that have been selected for printing. Press the OK button again to increase the copies for that particular image. Once all desired images have been selected, printing is as simple as pressing the print button and waiting for the unit to process everything. Each photo takes less than a minute to print, so those who demand instant gratification will be pleased. While the printer has memory card slots for computer-less printing, you can still hook up the HP Photosmart 325 to your computer and print any photos that you have stored on the PC.
Since this unit does not have automatic paper weight detection (like most of HP's full-sized machines), you can make adjustments to the paper type and ink output when printing through the computer. One new feature on this series of portable Photosmart printer is the bluetooth capability. Most (not all) bluetooth capable camera-phones can send it's saved pictures directly to the HP Photosmart 325 without any need of cables or memory cards. This is a pretty impressive addition that HP has included to this small printer, since I know many people/customers that have such bluetooth enabled phones and can appreciate truly mobile printing. |
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Software
HP has been good at providing effective, yet easy to use software with all of their printers. The imaging gallery portion of the software lets you view all the pictures in any directory on your computer. From there, you can choose your pictures that you want for photo prints, album prints, emailing, ordering prints online, creating online albums, or burning. Use of the emailing service, online album pages, and online print ordering is all done through signing up for the service with HP, though such features can be found built in most ISP's personal web spaces they provide for their customers.
The software also gives you access to minor image editing features such as: image rotation, color adjustment, brightness adjustment, image sharpening/blurring, red-eye elimination, or adding titles. I feel that the best part of the software is their album printing software. Even though it's only 4x6" paper, users can choose from over 15 (double it if you include landscape orientation of those templates) templates of how they want to print a 4x6" album picture (yes, picture albums come in that size too!).
Once you choose the template you wish to use, it appears on the right hand side of the screen, while all of your pictures that you want to browse through are on the left in thumbnail form (just pick the directory you want to load and they'll all display). From there, you drag & drop the images that you want into each picture spot in the template. You can adjust the images in the template frame to center on the part of the picture that you want. Once you're satisfied with the result, print!
You can load more than one template at a time if you wanted to do multiple pages at once, or even to compare how different combinations would look. Overall, the software provides 100+ templates for your creative needs, from paper size ranging from 4x6" to tabloid size (and many other options in between). On top of that, if any of the templates aren't what you want, you have the option of manually creating your own album template to stick your pictures in and print. Personally, I think that the album templates are the strongest part of the imaging software that HP provides with the printer.
The HP PhotoSmart 325 printer currently sells around eight thousand pesos (more or less). Grab your own unit now and discover why they named it PhotoSmart and what makes it such a SMART buy! |
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