The HP DesignJet Studio is a large-format plotter that comes in two sizes: 24- and 36-inches. As part of the DesignJet family, which HP describes as “the world’s easiest large-format plotters,” the DesignJet Studio targets “design-sensitive professionals.”
That’s not exactly how we would describe engineers, but the bill fits, so we got our hands on a 24-inch DesignJet Studio to put it to the test. To see the large format printer in action, watch our video review below. To read about our experience, scroll on.
Overview of the HP DesignJet Studio
The HP DesignJet Studio comes in two finishes, steel and wood. We were sent the wood version, which comprises a faux pine panel on the top of the printer. Paired with the matte white stand and body, the wooden DesignJet gives off a clean, eco vibe that would fit nicely in any modern office.
At time of writing, the 24-inch DesignJet Studio is priced at $1799 on HP’s website. Unlike some other DesignJet large-format plotters, the DesignJet Studio does not include scanning functionality.
The printer comes with a stand, multi-sheet feeder, and a set of ink cartridges. Assembly is easy, but it’s a two-person job. Built into the stand is a roll-out canvas bin to catch prints before they fall onto the floor. It slides in and out smoothly for a tidier look when the printer is not in use.
When you first turn it on, the DesignJet Studio’s built-in touchscreen display guides you through connecting to your network (both Wi-Fi and Ethernet are supported) and prompts you to install the four ink cartridges (dye-based cyan, magenta, and yellow; pigment-based black). There’s even a little animation showing you how to load paper. After a few minutes of calibration and self testing, the DesignJet Studio is ready to roll.
Testing the HP DesignJet Studio
Our first test of the HP DesignJet Studio was on white letter paper, which we loaded into the multi-sheet tray designed for paper from 13 x 19” to A4. The printer was easy to connect to our Windows laptop, appearing after a quick search in the Printers & Scanners settings menu. We didn’t have to manually download any specific drivers, but the connection process automatically installed an application called HP Smart in the background.
We decided to print a full-color photo at three different quality levels, specified in the Google Chrome printing dialog: low (300 dpi), medium (600 dpi), and high (1200 dpi). 1200 dots per inch is the DesignJet Studio’s max horizontal resolution, but it has a max vertical resolution of 2400 “optimized” dots per inch. Optimized dpi, as explained by HP reseller Resolution GB, refers to slowing the rate of the page feed to effectively double the amount of ink droplets that can cover it in the direction of travel.
The 300 and 600 dpi version of our test photo came out with noticeable banding, regularly spaced horizontal lines cutting across the image (see photo below). The 1200 dpi version eliminated this problem. However, that was the first and last time we were able to correct banding by upping the image quality through the Google Chrome printing dialog. In subsequent tests with the exact same photo, all three quality levels came out with banding.
We tried a few of the printer’s built-in calibration routines, such as cleaning and aligning the printhead, but these had no effect on the banding. Eventually, we stumbled on a solution, though it turned out to be less-than-satisfactory: instead of using the Google Chrome printing dialog, we used the dialog provided by HP Smart. In Chrome you do this by pressing Ctrl+Shift+P to print using the Windows system dialog, and from there you click “Preferences” to open up the HP Smart dialog. From here, you can select from three quality levels: Fast, Normal, and Best. Best eliminates the banding.
The HP Smart process is different for different applications. In Windows’ default Photos app, you hit Ctrl+P, scroll to the bottom of the native dialog, and click “More settings” to open HP Smart. In Microsoft Word you press Ctrl+P and then click “Printer Properties.” Not only is the process different, but the HP Smart dialog also looks a bit different from application to application.
We tried another test using letter-sized glossy photo paper instead of plain printer paper. The HP DesignJet Studio will prompt you to select the type of paper once it’s loaded, and it adjusts the print accordingly. For glossy prints, the touchscreen display instructs the user to wait a moment for the ink to dry before removing the sheet from the printer. We tested three glossy prints at 300, 600, and 1200 dpi, specified in Chrome. The picture looked good at all three quality levels, with no banding and no need to use HP Smart.
Large Format Prints on the HP DesignJet Studio
While it’s nice to have letter-printing capability, arguably the main purpose of a large-format printer is for large-format prints. For that, you need roll paper. The HP DesignJet Studio accepts rolls from 11 to 24 inches (or up to 36 inches for the larger version of the printer).
Loading a roll of paper into the HP DesignJet Studio is straightforward. There’s an animation of the procedure on the printer display. The printer automatically registers the paper and spends a few seconds calibrating the alignment and measuring the width.
We used HP Bright White InkJet Paper—about as plain as you can get—but you can also load rolls of photo paper, translucent film, bond and coated paper, and more. As with sheets, the printer will prompt you to select the type of paper once it’s loaded. If you plan to switch between rolls regularly, HP recommends having additional spindles on hand to simplify swapping (each spare is $75 on HP’s website).
To test our freshly-loaded roll, we printed three demos that came preloaded with the DesignJet Studio: a drawing demo, a rendering demo, and a GIS map demo. All three came out great. The GIS map was particularly impressive for the extremely tiny print that was nonetheless legible, provided your eyes are good enough to make it out (mine struggled), and provided you read Spanish (yo no empanada).
The full color, approximately A2-sized rendering demo took the longest to print; we timed it at 3 minutes and 48 seconds before the automatic cutter sliced it off into the drop bin. The much sparser and less colorful A2 drawing demo took 33 seconds from start to finish. The taller map demo came in the middle at 1 minute and 8 seconds.
We also printed an electrical schematic from Fusion 360 in two sizes, A2 (which uses the roll) and letter (which uses the multi-sheet feeder). Both looked good, and it was nice that we didn’t have to adjust the source of the paper manually between prints. However, the second time we tried the exact same thing, the DesignJet Studio seemed to get confused, printing on the roll when we wanted a sheet and scaling the schematic several sizes too small. It’s possible the paper was not loaded correctly, because a few days later, our third try of the same test worked as well as the first.
HP Click and the HP Smart Mobile App
There are two other pieces of HP software that are compatible with the DesignJet Studio: a desktop application called HP Click, and a mobile version of HP Smart.
According to HP, HP Click provides a “radically simple printing experience for HP DesignJet” with “automatic features [that] simplify your workflow, optimize media usage and reduce your costs.” HP offers a free trial of HP Click with the provision of your personal information. Full pricing information is not included on the site.
The HP Smart mobile app is free to download on both Apple and Android devices. It’s functionally equivalent to the desktop version that’s installed when connecting to the DesignJet Studio, but it allows users to print photos and documents directly from their mobile device. Like the desktop version, many features of HP Smart are locked unless users sign up for a free HP account.
In addition to these apps, HP also provides a web-based console for the DesignJet Studio that you can access in a browser (or directly through HP Smart). As long as you’re on the same network as the printer, you simply enter its IP address in your web browser and login to the dashboard. This web interface lets you adjust printer settings, see estimated ink levels, update the printer, initiate maintenance routines, and more.
Quibbles with the HP DesignJet Studio
Apart from the occasional troubleshooting, there are three quibbles I have with the HP DesignJet Studio (and quibble may even be overstating it). The first is that the touchscreen display, while indisputably a nice feature to have, is tiny. It’s 4 cm tall by 5.5 cm across. Think original iPod display size and you’re in the right ballpark. It’s perfectly useable, but it’s so small for such a big printer that you can’t help but wonder why.
The second quibble I have is the jiggliness of the DesignJet Studio while printing. Many printers jerk back and forth as their printheads jostle them about from the inside, and this is noticeable on the DesignJet Studio as well. The stand is sturdy and I was never worried about it toppling, but I wouldn’t recommend putting your coffee mug on it either.
My final quibble is with the ink cartridges. Like most printer ink, it’s not cheap, and a full set of genuine HP cartridges (the only ink accepted by the printer) will cost you at least $135. How long the set will last, of course, depends on what you print. We didn’t run out in our weeks of sporadic testing. The printer provides an estimate of ink levels, but from what we could tell they seemed a little off. After printing 5 sheets of paper, the estimate was roughly 75 percent remaining of the colors and 80 percent left of black (which is bigger than the color cartridges). Over 50 prints later, including many large full-color pages, the estimated ink levels were hovering around 50 percent for the colors and 75 percent for black.
HP DesignJet Studio Verdict
For the first few days of using the HP DesignJet Studio, I found it lived up to its promise of extreme simplicity. It was easy to set up and even easier to use. As I used the printer more, I started encountering a few problems. There were minor quality issues and a couple frustrating misprints. While these problems didn’t persist, I didn’t like the solutions when I found them (the HP Smart app fixed my banding issue, but it’s far from perfect) and I liked even less when I couldn’t find solutions and simply slept on a problem to find it fixed the next day.
But these problems were the exception, not the rule, and I mostly have praise for the HP DesignJet Studio. It looks good, it’s versatile, and its large-format print quality was great. Is it the easiest large-format plotter in the whole world? I can’t say definitively, but it’s certainly the least frustrating printer at engineering.com HQ.