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Portable Photo Printing
The arrival of a new printer, for testing purposes, is usually followed by a period of hectic activity as boxes and the like are moved around in the vain hope of creating enough space for the printer and its accompanying packaging. I must admit that you can become quite skilled at this type of exercise but it does take up time and can increase the frustration level. However this was not the case with the HP Photosmart 385 which packs its functionality into a small package.
Measuring 220 x 116 x 104mm (W x H x D), this ultra-compact printer, decked out in computer grey and matt silver, resembles a toaster in shape and its light weight makes in easily portable. As its title indicates, this printer concentrates all its functionality on the printing of photographs. These images can be stored on a variety of devices such as memory cards, a camera's internal memory, or your computer's hard disk. Connectivity is provided in the form of appropriate slots on the front of the printer (covered by a drop down flap when not in use); camera port that supports both PictBridge and Bluetooth via an optional USB device; and standard USB 2.0. A case of covering most options in my opinion.
The printer's various controls are situated on top of the unit and are arranged either side of a display screen that can be adjusted to give the optimum viewing angle. Paper input is from the back of the printer with a fairly straight passage through to the front of the device where the drop down flap, mentioned earlier, doubles as a paper output tray.
Whichever way you access your photographs, the display will show the current selection as you cycle through the various images and select those for printing. The Photosmart 385 can print one, two or four images to a single 6 x 4? sheet of photographic paper; print an index page of all images on a memory card; correct red eye; add a decorative frame; and apply a colour effect such as sepia or antique. With appropriate media, this printer can produce a panoramic photo with a 3:1 aspect using 10 x 30cm paper and photo stickers with 16 images per page. There are also options to zoom in on an image; adjust the brightness; and rotate an image.
Considering that the compact printer is churning out photographic images without any assistance from a computer (whether Windows or Mac), the speed of operation is perfectly acceptable. A single 4 x 6? borderless image took, on average, 96 seconds with or without an additional frame while printing four images to a single sheet was completed in 93 seconds. Print quality was excellent with bright, vibrant, realistic colours and good definition. Permitting myself one slight moment of pickiness, my only complaint regarding this printer is the lack of a carrying handle to make this truly a portable device.
Included in the box along with the printer, power lead, and Tri-color cartridge are setup and reference guides plus CDs containing appropriate drivers, HP Solution Centre and HP Image Zone software. Windows users will need a minimum of Pentium II with 64MB of RAM, 600MB of free hard disk space running Windows 98 or later. For Mac users, the minimum specifications are a G3 processor with 128MB of RAM, 500 MB of disk space and Mac OS X v10.1.5 or later. The recommended price for this printer is £149.99 but shop around and you should find it being sold at under this price.
Available at Amazon for £44.99
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