Customer Rating: 
Summary: Fine for simple office documents or pictures
Comment: I bought this printer in hopes that I could replace my old Epson 870 in my graphics department. I thought, with all the printers available, anything would be better than my outdated one, I was wrong.
For printing from Word, the text looked great, but when it is given jobs from Adobe, there are problems. Photoshop seems to print okay, but I typically edit in photoshop and print from page layout applications. In Adobe Acrobat, a basic pdf printed out fine, but given a complex pdf file using lots of photos with clipping paths got the printer spitting out skewed images, in black and white when I set it to color, diagonal lines, and "noise". Furthermore, in InDesignCS, no matter what I did, anything using black ink came out dark gray, not the strong dark black in the printer test page or a word file.
I'm sending this printer back, and getting a Canon i9900, which I'm hoping will be a better fit for my purposes. I think this HP must be a great little printer for someone's home office, printing letters, labels and photos, but anything more than that, and this printer gets confused - which is surprising because my only problem with the 4-1/2 year old Epson 870 were print nozzles getting clogged, not interpretting data like the HP 6540.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nice printer
Comment: I just received this printer today. It's replacing an Epson whose printer cartridges clogged. The HP was very easy to set up, but I had to run to Staples to pick up a USB cable to hook it up to my computer. I deducted one star for that because I don't understand why HP doesn't include the cable with the printer. Other than that, the printer looks very cool. The square design will be much sturdier for transport (I move back and forth between college and home) than my Epson was. It also takes up less space and the top is flat so I can put light objects there to free up much needed desk space. The test page photograph looked beautiful and it was on regular paper. I'm sure photo paper will produce lovely pictures. I then printed several full-page graphs. They printed quickly and quietly on the regular setting. My Epson was so loud! Overall this seems to be a great printer for the price. Let's hope it lasts a bit longer than that Epson.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Junk, Junk, Junk
Comment: This printer lasted and did a good job until it came time to change cartridges. I changed both color and black, but the black never worked again. The black cartridge status light keeps blinking indicating a problem with the cartridge - which was new. I read the manual and it said replace cartridge or clean. So, thinking I may have gotten a bum black cartrige I wasted another 21 dollars on another black cartrige, but the light keeps blinking. I even cleaned the new cartridge as indicated in the manual.
If printer manufactures are going to make junk printers to sell over priced ink then they should make them to last at least one cartrige change.
This printer will go into the garbage. I guess I will try a Cannon next, since within the last year I had to dump an Epson because it was hopelessly clogged. I wish I had my old ten year old inkjet printer that just kept plugging away. I changed out for speed, but instead got one of the new throw-aways.
Customer Rating:
Summary: hp 6540 just fine with Tiger
Comment: Just hooked this printer up, 1-2-3! and there is no problem with Mac OSX 10.4.3
I am also hanging on to a few Mac OS 9(classic) programs, so I also installed the Mac 9 drivers for this printer. no problems at all. This printer is so quiet, that I had to look to see if the document had in deed printed. The price is right, and HP product support is the best!
Customer Rating:
Summary: HP DeskJet 6540 Color Inkjet Printer
Comment: This is the 4th home printer for me and without question this printer has been the best hands down. It does not matter which catagory I review, the printer is just flawless. The way that the printer was constructed allows one to not worry about the problems associated with top loading printers. It can be easily positioned, out of the way, under one's desk on a small table or anywhere else one desires. As for installing the printer, again, absolutely no problem. This includes hooking up to either one or two computers. I have been using the printer for approximately two and a half years now and I have only occasioned to look into the provided software once and now that I have ,Wow, it has many features that I could have only dreamed of on the other previous printers I have owned. Although it is to be expected for newer units to have newer features, right? One of the features is the optional printing of both sides of a page. This feature is just great for compiling booklets of copied materials, not only does this save space but as well makes for a neat and professional appearance to your booklets. I guess , a review would not be complete without a mention of reliability. This printer has not missed a letter since I began using it. Oh, I almost forgot to talk about the ink cartridges. The other printers that I have used have all been a pain when it came to refilling with ink. It sure would be nice for a printer to never run out of ink. All I can say is when mine ran out of ink I just ordered a refill kit, I think it was about $12.00, it is supposed to have included enough ink for 10 refills, and I have had no problems associated with either the refilling procedure nor have I had any problems such as ink inconsistancies. As I said , just a nice printer...
Summary: Fine for simple office documents or pictures
Comment: I bought this printer in hopes that I could replace my old Epson 870 in my graphics department. I thought, with all the printers available, anything would be better than my outdated one, I was wrong.
For printing from Word, the text looked great, but when it is given jobs from Adobe, there are problems. Photoshop seems to print okay, but I typically edit in photoshop and print from page layout applications. In Adobe Acrobat, a basic pdf printed out fine, but given a complex pdf file using lots of photos with clipping paths got the printer spitting out skewed images, in black and white when I set it to color, diagonal lines, and "noise". Furthermore, in InDesignCS, no matter what I did, anything using black ink came out dark gray, not the strong dark black in the printer test page or a word file.
I'm sending this printer back, and getting a Canon i9900, which I'm hoping will be a better fit for my purposes. I think this HP must be a great little printer for someone's home office, printing letters, labels and photos, but anything more than that, and this printer gets confused - which is surprising because my only problem with the 4-1/2 year old Epson 870 were print nozzles getting clogged, not interpretting data like the HP 6540.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nice printer
Comment: I just received this printer today. It's replacing an Epson whose printer cartridges clogged. The HP was very easy to set up, but I had to run to Staples to pick up a USB cable to hook it up to my computer. I deducted one star for that because I don't understand why HP doesn't include the cable with the printer. Other than that, the printer looks very cool. The square design will be much sturdier for transport (I move back and forth between college and home) than my Epson was. It also takes up less space and the top is flat so I can put light objects there to free up much needed desk space. The test page photograph looked beautiful and it was on regular paper. I'm sure photo paper will produce lovely pictures. I then printed several full-page graphs. They printed quickly and quietly on the regular setting. My Epson was so loud! Overall this seems to be a great printer for the price. Let's hope it lasts a bit longer than that Epson.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Junk, Junk, Junk
Comment: This printer lasted and did a good job until it came time to change cartridges. I changed both color and black, but the black never worked again. The black cartridge status light keeps blinking indicating a problem with the cartridge - which was new. I read the manual and it said replace cartridge or clean. So, thinking I may have gotten a bum black cartrige I wasted another 21 dollars on another black cartrige, but the light keeps blinking. I even cleaned the new cartridge as indicated in the manual.
If printer manufactures are going to make junk printers to sell over priced ink then they should make them to last at least one cartrige change.
This printer will go into the garbage. I guess I will try a Cannon next, since within the last year I had to dump an Epson because it was hopelessly clogged. I wish I had my old ten year old inkjet printer that just kept plugging away. I changed out for speed, but instead got one of the new throw-aways.
Customer Rating:
Summary: hp 6540 just fine with Tiger
Comment: Just hooked this printer up, 1-2-3! and there is no problem with Mac OSX 10.4.3
I am also hanging on to a few Mac OS 9(classic) programs, so I also installed the Mac 9 drivers for this printer. no problems at all. This printer is so quiet, that I had to look to see if the document had in deed printed. The price is right, and HP product support is the best!
Customer Rating:
Summary: HP DeskJet 6540 Color Inkjet Printer
Comment: This is the 4th home printer for me and without question this printer has been the best hands down. It does not matter which catagory I review, the printer is just flawless. The way that the printer was constructed allows one to not worry about the problems associated with top loading printers. It can be easily positioned, out of the way, under one's desk on a small table or anywhere else one desires. As for installing the printer, again, absolutely no problem. This includes hooking up to either one or two computers. I have been using the printer for approximately two and a half years now and I have only occasioned to look into the provided software once and now that I have ,Wow, it has many features that I could have only dreamed of on the other previous printers I have owned. Although it is to be expected for newer units to have newer features, right? One of the features is the optional printing of both sides of a page. This feature is just great for compiling booklets of copied materials, not only does this save space but as well makes for a neat and professional appearance to your booklets. I guess , a review would not be complete without a mention of reliability. This printer has not missed a letter since I began using it. Oh, I almost forgot to talk about the ink cartridges. The other printers that I have used have all been a pain when it came to refilling with ink. It sure would be nice for a printer to never run out of ink. All I can say is when mine ran out of ink I just ordered a refill kit, I think it was about $12.00, it is supposed to have included enough ink for 10 refills, and I have had no problems associated with either the refilling procedure nor have I had any problems such as ink inconsistancies. As I said , just a nice printer...