Anyone using the HP Designjet 120?

[Anonymous]

I was considering buying the HP Designjet 120 to use with Archicad 8.1 & Plotmaker on my Mac G4..

Is anyone using this printer? Is it good to use with Plotmaker? Any comments good or bad?

Thanks.

Stephen Duda

[JCovarrubias]

You will be able to use this device as a Printer (File-> Print), while the File-> Plot command won't work with this device (no HPGL/2).

I have worked with a greater number of clients using the the HP DJ500 or HP DJ500PS who have had the option to plot and print (HPGL/2 is optional).

(I have personally used the HP120NR for a few months and found the quality of output sub-par for an inkjet device)

[Anonymous]

Stephen wrote:
I was considering buying the HP Designjet 120 to use with Archicad 8.1 & Plotmaker on my Mac G4..

Is anyone using this printer? Is it good to use with Plotmaker? Any comments good or bad?

Thanks.

Stephen Duda

I've used hp100 to print pdfs on a PC. Works great.

[Anonymous]

JCovarrubias wrote:
You will be able to use this device as a Printer (File-> Print), while the File-> Plot command won't work with this device (no HPGL/2).

I have worked with a greater number of clients using the the HP DJ500 or HP DJ500PS who have had the option to plot and print (HPGL/2 is optional).

(I have personally used the HP120NR for a few months and found the quality of output sub-par for an inkjet device)

Excuse my ignorance, but what are the disadvantages of the Designjet 120 not functioning as a plotter? Can't I get the same output with it as a printer?

Thanks for the information - Stephen

[Anonymous]

Stephen wrote:
Excuse my ignorance, but what are the disadvantages of the Designjet 120 not functioning as a plotter? Can't I get the same output with it as a printer?

Thanks for the information - Stephen

Plotting still tends to be faster than printing and plot files are smaller than PDFs for sending by e-mail, but otherwise there is little or no difference.

In general it is a good idea to start moving toward printing as a uniform standard since HP themselves are no longer including HPGL as standard in their plotters (it's available as an add-on), and they are not even calling them plotters any more - they're "wide format printers" now.

This is also consistent with moving toward using PDF for record sets and archiving. It is likely that they will be readable long after HPGL is a distant memory. PDFs are closely tied to printing and (AFAIK) the is no way to plot them.

[Anonymous]

What about the speed compared to a HP 500. Obviously slower, but by how much. HP's website/tech support are absolutely no help (one is listed as Min./PP the other SF/min). There tech support is absolutely clueless.

In short: How long does it take to spit out an average B&W 24x36 plot?

[Anonymous]

I have had an HP Designjet 120 for 5-6 months. I like it but it is slow to my thinking.
All the size options one could want and I have done A1 high resolution photographic type images which is pretty amazing, but my normal preference is A3 (~twice foolscap for you imperial, old world users) and you get a beutiful fine print if you print at the 'Best' option (...fast, ..normal, ..best, ..high resolution), but this 'best' takes 5 minutes for one A3!!
I had a Conon i9100 A3 which could print this quality in seconds.
David

[Anonymous]

What kind of output speed does it get for 'normal' resolution, grayscale, line drawing, 24"x36" (A1), such as a typical working drawing/construction document.

My Designjet 500 can do the average drawing (above) in around 60 sec. (print time only - not processing).

[Anonymous]

For a company I use to work at had an hp120. I would say about 1 1/2 mins to 2 mins for a 24x36 normal res. If you plan on using it to print sets, I would suggest getting the roll attachment. Loading each individual sheet by hand takes time and if the paper is not perfect the printer will not except the paper. Overall, if I need a large format printer at a reasonable price, I would probably get an hp120.

[Anonymous]

If you want the most productivity, go with a DesignJet 500, and get the HPGL/2 accessory card (You can get a memory upgrade for the card as well; don't get it from HP though, just get laptop memory. It's cheaper ). I used to work in the DesignJet tech support area. . .I REALLY favor the 500/800 series over the other current DesignJet series in that price bracket.