HP Ink Challenge Assignment #3

As you would expect most of these assignments are going to revolve around printing some control photo or project and comparing them to see which one is better. This is to be expected, but this week Thom, our head ink-ologist came up with a little twist involving water.

Our all HP HP printers printed up 8 photos on HP branded 4x6 photo paper and our refill inks HP Printers printed these same photos on another brand name (Kodak) 4x6 paper to see how they perform with a little sprinkle and a dunk in water. I think you'll agree there's a solid case for keeping your printing accessories all in the family.

The sprinkle test is quite simply sprinkling some water on the prints, let the water set for a minute, then dry them off with paper towel. In the videos below I've edited out the waiting period. After First up, HP inks and HP paper:

As you can see, even with rubbing it dry the print is streak free. The print itself feels like it's still dry, meaning the paper is stiff. Pretty impressive actually. Next up, the refill inks on Kodak paper:

I didn't have to rub all that hard to get the ink to start coming off. And the paper felt wet and limp. Next up was the dunk test where we submerged photos of each type (HP inks, HP paper and Refill inks and Kodak paper) and let them dry:

I was surprised the inks of both types stayed put. But the Kodak paper rolled up while drying.

The other big printing project was to choose a project from HP Creative Studios which offer a wide range of printing projects primarily focused on family stuff and kids. I chose to print out the Chinese Zodiac calendar because of the full page size, and the detailed background graphics. Using the supplied HP Matte Brochure paper I printed up a copy on each printer. Print quality wise they are very similar, with the HP inks being a little darker in the yellows. But I did feel that the refill inks print felt heavier and not as stiff as the HP print did. I'm wondering if more ink was applied to the refill ink print thereby saturating the paper more..

The supplied Everyday Photos were printed up again to finish up this assignment. It's kind of unfair to compare week 1 to week 3 of the refill inks since they are a different set. Compared to the HP inks I'm having a hard time seeing a difference. That's all for week 3.

Disclaimer:
The products mentioned in this post were provided by Hewlett Packard as part of their HP Ink Challenge.