HP becomes brand of the year. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that HP has been able to implement impressive innovations, leaving its competitors far behind. This process did not begin today: let us at least remember how long ago HP built a paper sensor into printers. And today innovation continues. Meet the new flagships - Photosmart 7960 and Scanjet 4600 - with new features and elegant ergonomics.

To begin with, the Photosmart 7960 is almost the ideal printer for users who want to print beautiful photos with the right corrections and without the help of any complex software. In fact, this printer eliminates the need for a computer at all - except for storing photos on your hard drive.

As for the Scanjet 4600, this scanner can be called the most impressive and attractive model for last years. Its transparency completely changes appearance scanners - it’s impossible not to love him.

But does the quality of their work match their appearance?

The Photosmart 7960 printer immediately attracts attention. At first you might think that it prints on A3, but alas, this is not the case. However, you will quickly forget about this after looking at the list of features. If you're familiar with HP printers, the 7960 combines the best of the desktop series. Deskjet printers and a series of Photosmart photo printers. Plus some innovations. For example, the printer comes with black Deskjet cartridge and a Photosmart photo cartridge and is equipped with a paper sensor from the former and a flash card reader from the latter. Moreover, the printer can independently correct photos.

Paper sensor

Let's start with the convenient and indispensable paper sensor, which competitors are trying to imitate. Its presence deserves unequivocal approval.

Thanks to the sensor, you don't have to dig into the driver. As the name suggests, the sensor allows you to detect the type of paper: matte, glossy, typewritten, transparent - and change the print resolution accordingly. You will not encounter any problems - the sensor works accurately and efficiently, saving time and money. The printer always produces the best quality print possible, without the hassle of trial and error with dollar-a-sheet photo paper.

Cartridges

The printer is compatible and comes with four cartridges: black (56), photo (58), color (57) and gray (59). However, there are only three compartments inside the printer.
Only cartridge 58 can be installed in the left compartment (photo).
The middle compartment is for the color cartridge (57).
The right compartment can accommodate either cartridge 56 (black) or 59 (gray).

So you will have to change cartridges quite often: install black for printing text documents and gray for photo output. For the free fourth cartridge, the engineers have provided a compartment built into the printer - and it will not get in your way.

The flash card reader understands Compact Flash, SD, MMC, xD and Memory Stick formats. As a result, you can easily do without a computer when printing photos.

But if direct printing is not of interest to you, then you can still use the reader thanks to the presence of two keys to the left of the screen. One of them (E-mail) sends a letter by email with an attached photo, the second key (Save) allows you to save the photo to a computer connected to the printer.

When you insert the card, the number of photos, as well as the first one, will be displayed on the printer screen.

Select a photo using the OK key. At this stage, only the keys to the right of the screen are used. They speak for themselves.

• The "Zoom" key allows you to enlarge the photo up to five times to see the details. Below the screen are directional keys that let you move the photo right, left, up, or down.
• The "Size" key allows you to select the paper size. It is given in inches: 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 8.5x11, 2.5x3.5, 3x4, 3.5x5 and Combo (5 prints of different sizes on one sheet).
• The "Rotate" key allows you to rotate the photo.
• The "Copies" key sets the number of copies of one photo.
• Once you're done, click "Print".

As you can see, direct printing is carried out without a hitch.

Select a photo and press the "Menu" key below the screen. You can then select four options:

• Print special
• Enhance image
• Tools
• Preferences

The first option, Print special(special print), will be useful for printing smaller versions of photos (thumbnails) stored on the card.

Under each photo there is a small white circle, which can be marked with a pen or pencil - to select a photo. At the end of the photo page, you can choose the number of copies (1, 2 or 3) and the format - from A4 borderless to 4x6", including composition options, for example, six photos on one sheet. The bulleted list of photos must then be inserted into the printer, after which The 7960 will scan it. In fact, the scanning process involves a paper sensor - it detects the marked circles. The printer then outputs the selected photos in the required quantity and size. Impressive!

Option Enhance Image(enhance image) allows you to make corrections to the photo.

The first correction function removes red-eye. A good idea, but its implementation is not very effective. Of the five photos, only one was corrected properly, another was only partially corrected (an eyesore), and the remaining three photos were unchanged. The function is interesting, but it’s still too raw - let’s hope HP will improve it.

In the same menu, you can specify six brightness levels, add a frame (ruffles, hippos, etc.) and effects. The first effect - Black and White (black and white) seemed to us more useful than others (Sepia / brown scale and Antique / aging). And here the gray cartridge will come to your aid. Of course, without it the prints are also completely fine, but upon closer examination they look red. When using a gray cartridge, no extraneous shades are observed. The result is very good - if on other printers you have to forget about black and white photographs due to the low quality of their printing, then here everything is different.

Option Tools(tools) allows you to view the images on the card with a delay (slide show), set the quality (high or normal), alignment and clean the print head. It is unlikely that you will look at this menu often.

The last option, Preferences(Settings), used to select the number of thumbnail photos per index page (from 9 to 25), add the date and time to the photo, define a color profile (default sRGB or AdobeRGB), and define contrast.

What's missing from the correction?

In general, we expected to find more flexible functions in the correction menu. We lacked the following features.

• Improve red-eye correction: If a photo cannot be corrected automatically, it would be nice to be able to zoom in on an area of ​​the image so you can select the correction area with the cursor.
• Add a histogram function where color levels could be adjusted.
• Add saturation correction.
• Finally, why doesn't the printer allow you to change the white balance? After all, this is a sore point for digital cameras. It would be nice to be able to correct photos that are too red, too green, etc.

Original document, 3X magnification
Original image, 3X magnification	Original text, 3X magnification
	HP Photosmart 7960, black cartridge

When using a black cartridge, the Photosmart 7960 produces simply gorgeous prints of black and white and color sources. At normal resolution, the quality turned out to be better than that of competitors ( Print gurus are looking for new ways: a review of the latest inkjet printers from Canon, HP and Epson).

If you set the printer to Draft mode through the driver, you will get a speed increase (three times faster), mainly due to faster paper feeding. But at the same time, the printer becomes noisy and less stable, vibrating distinctly. But the quality is so good even at low resolutions that you'll probably end up using this as your default mode when switching to a high resolution Only for outputting important documents.

HP Photosmart 7960, black cartridge	HP Photosmart 7960, black cartridge

Canon i865	Epson C84
HP Photosmart 7760

For comparison, we have provided printouts on Canon printers and Epson. This test is primarily designed to compare prints from a Photosmart 7760 with a photo cartridge and one color cartridge and a Photosmart 7960 with a photo cartridge, color and gray cartridges.

Having a gray cartridge not only affects the quality of black and white photos, but also improves color photos. As you can see, the Photosmart 7760 turned out to be very good, and when using a gray cartridge, the quality becomes even higher.

Above we have enlarged the photo three times. Here we increase it six times.

Original photo, natural size	Original photo, 6X magnification
Canon i865	Epson C84
HP Photosmart 7760

At 6x magnification we can see that the gray cartridge produces a smoother result on the Photosmart 7960 than on the Photosmart 7760.

If the previous test was not enough for you, then this one should dispel all doubts. HP comes out on top. The printer's colors are the most true to life (though there's a slight lack of red), and the drops are the least noticeable among other models, even at high magnification. Then comes the Canon i865, which is overtaken by the Epson - with too much red bias and clearly visible drops.

Original photo, natural size	Original photo, 3X magnification
Canon i865	Epson C84
HP Photosmart 7760

It is quite noticeable that only the Photosmart 7960 produces true black-and-white prints. Other printers produce either red or blue tints. If a black and white cartridge was useful for color printing, then for black and white photographs it is simply necessary. If you haven't printed black and white photos before inkjet printers due to poor quality, the situation has now changed.

Before us is the first of its kind transparent scanner, which scans the image underneath. That is, you can see what you are scanning. Think about possible applications. You remove the scanner from the base and scan a card on the wall, a book on your lap, or any other object.

We were impressed by the device's flexibility - but also disappointed that the scanner uses a wire.

You need to connect a wire to the scanner, which splits into two to connect to the computer and to the power outlet. It would be nice if HP engineers developed a scanner with Wi-Fi support on batteries that would be recharged from the base. Then the device would truly become mobile!

We scanned a photograph lying on the table. The scanner eliminated the background without any difficulty and displayed a photograph with the correct borders on the screen. Impressive!

Scanning is carried out by a moving crossbar that emits a dim blue light. The crossbar moves quite quietly - and quite quickly when previewing a document (less than six seconds). It took us 11 seconds to scan a 10x15 cm photo at 300 dpi. After the first acquaintance, we realized that the scanner was intended for the mass market. The driver closes after each scan, and running the moire removal function (not very successful) results in rescanning for preview etc. If you need to scan one photo, then this is not a problem, but for a couple of dozen photos the procedure will be very tedious.

Like all scanners today, the Scanjet 4600 has three buttons on the front to automatically send images to a program, printer, or email.

HP Scanjet 4600, 75 dpi

Epson CX3200, 75 dpi	Epson Perfection 3200 Photo, 75 dpi

Resolution 75 dpi gives best ratio volume/quality for websites. The two scanned Epson images were close to the original, while the HP produced an image that was too saturated, leaning into the yellow part of the spectrum. Also, the picture seems less clear; in general, 4600 stars are missing from the sky.

HP Scanjet 4600, 600 dpi

Epson CX3200, 600 dpi	Epson Perfection 3200 Photo, 600 dpi

The same is true here: images scanned on Epson are closer to the original, while the HP image, like at 75 dpi, is slightly yellowish and oversaturated. In addition, the image is over-corrected.

HP Scanjet 4600, 2400 dpi

Epson CX3200, 2400 dpi	Epson Perfection 3200 Photo, 2400 dpi

Here image correction has reached its limit. It is so strong that the image is simply deformed. Note that the CX3200 scanner, where 660 dpi is interpolated into 2400 dpi, gives a better image than the optical 2400 dpi for the Scanjet 4600.

Of course, the scanner does not give much high quality, but on at least, Scanjet 4600 fast

Six seconds preview, 10 seconds scan at 75 dpi. Other models work faster, but this is not important. A speed of 4600 will be quite enough for ordinary users.

The Scanjet 4600 scanner is almost twice as fast as early model Scanjet 3570c in 300 and 600 dpi resolutions. In all other respects, he shows average results.

Even when scanning at 2400 dpi, the scanner takes less than a minute.

Conclusion

The Photosmart 7960 printer and Scanjet 4600 scanner are very attractive devices. Perhaps for some, the appearance can compensate for the few shortcomings.

As for the printer, it would be nice to speed it up a little, lower the price of cartridges and add more effective image correction functions. The red-eye correction feature needs improvement. Also, while you can enlarge an image, you cannot reduce it (say, if the image doesn't fit the printer's size and the edges extend beyond the frame). It would be nice to be able to change color levels or have the ability to correct whites. The dimensions of the printer could be reduced, and the design of the keys on the front panel could be improved to match the appearance of the device.

Let's get to the good stuff. We really liked the quality of black and white prints, the functional paper sensor, and the quality of photos when printing from a computer and in standalone mode. Finally, we note the good ergonomics of the menus - they turned out to be quite intuitive.

Overall, despite all our criticism, the Photosmart 7960 is a good buy for users who want the ability to print directly from flash cards.

Although the Scanjet 4600 scanner is beautiful in appearance, we were not very satisfied with its performance. Let's be honest: good looks don't match the quality of the resulting images. Despite the capabilities and price, this device should be considered a scanner entry level, which is able to cope with ordinary work such as scanning documents and illustrations, copying office papers, etc. This scanner is not very good for photos. As we noted above, the entry-level Epson scanner does this job much better.

Our goal is to provide you with the most fast access to the device's operating instructions. Using online viewing, you can quickly view the content and go to the page where you will find a solution to your problem with HP (Hewlett-Packard) scanjet 4600 Series.

For your comfort

If viewing the manual HP (Hewlett-Packard) scanjet 4600 Series directly on this page is inconvenient for you, you can use two possible solutions:

• Full-screen viewing - To conveniently view the instructions (without downloading to your computer), you can use full-screen viewing mode. To start viewing instructions HP (Hewlett-Packard) scanjet 4600 Series on full screen, use the Full Screen button.
• Download to your computer - You can also download the instructions HP (Hewlett-Packard) scanjet 4600 Series to your computer and save it in your archive. If you still don't want to take up space on your device, you can always download it from ManualsBase.

Manual HP (Hewlett-Packard) scanjet 4600 Series

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Print version

Many people prefer to read documents not on the screen, but in a printed version. The option to print the instructions is also provided and you can use it by clicking on the link above - Print instructions. You don't have to print all the instructions HP (Hewlett-Packard) scanjet 4600 Series but only some pages. Take care of paper.

Procedure for manual download and update:

This HP ScanJet 4600 embedded driver must be included in the operating Windows system® or be available for download through the Center Windows updates® (Windows® Update). The built-in driver supports the basic functions of your HP ScanJet 4600 hardware.

How to perform automatic download and update:

Recommendation: Windows users If you are inexperienced in updating HP Scanner device drivers, you can update these HP ScanJet 4600 drivers by using driver update tool DriverDoc. DriverDoc makes it easy to update ScanJet 4600 drivers by automatically downloading and updating them.

The biggest benefit of using DriverDoc is having access to over 2,150,000 drivers (updated daily) so you can ensure all of your PC's drivers (not just Scanner) are kept up to date.

Install optional products - DriverDoc (Solvusoft) | | | |

HP (Hewlett Packard) Upgrade Frequently Asked Questions

What do HP Scanner device drivers do?

Device drivers ensure proper interaction hardware devices (Scanner) with your operating system. HP has written these unique, "mini" programs to ensure proper operation of the ScanJet 4600.

What operating systems are compatible with ScanJet 4600 drivers?

The ScanJet 4600 currently has device drivers for Windows.

How to update ScanJet 4600 drivers?

ScanJet 4600 drivers can be updated manually using Device Manager(Device Manager) Windows or automatically by downloading a utility to update driver software.

What are the benefits and risks of updating ScanJet 4600 drivers?

Access to new hardware features, optimized compatibility, and overall performance improvements are the benefits of updating your ScanJet 4600 drivers. Primary risks of installing the wrong Scanner drivers include software crashes, slower performance, and PC instability.

About the author: Jay Geeter ( Jay Geater) is the president and general director Solvusoft Corporation is a global company dedicated to software and focusing on innovative service programs. He has a lifelong passion for computers and loves everything related to computers, software and new technology.

Install optional products - DriverDoc (Solvusoft) | |