Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Printer for CD's / DVD's!!!
Comment: Simply put, this is a GREAT printer -- especially for CD's and DVD's. That's the main reason I bought it -- we have a business involving producing custom DVD Slideshows. The results we've achieved from the D5160 rival most professional printers, at a mere fraction of the cost. I've heard it's being discontinued. Get it while you can!!!
Anyone who complains about the lousy CD Label-making software included with this printer is obviously a computer novice. Just don't use it! There's also no need to purchase some other 3rd party Label-Making program, unless you really don't know how to create a printable layout in the programs you already have. We use Adobe PageMaker to layout our label designs, and then print directly from that program to the D5160. In fact, you can print onto CD's/DVD's from any page layout program ... or for that matter ANY program at all (Photoshop, InDesign, even Paint or Word)! The previous reviewers who said that this printer only works with the included software for CD/DVD printing are simply wrong! All you have to do is choose the "Printing Shortcuts" tab after choosing "Print...", and then choose the "Print on CD/DVD" option. All the other printing options (tray, print quality, etc.) will automatically fill in for correct disc printing. Of course, the trick is lining the image up properly. If you check the option to "Show Print Preview", it will show you how your image lines up before you waste a disc. This helps you to line up the image in the square that ends up on the circular disk. Once you have it lined up properly once, you can save a template and use it over and over.
Other Thoughts: Some people have complained about the printer's tray scratching the DVD's surface. While I have not had that problem, I decided to be proactive and follow another user's suggestion to put a blank paper CD Label Sticker onto the tray to provide a clean, smooth surface for the disk to sit on. Seems to do the trick!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great printr
Comment: Printer is great! Two paper trays mean you are not constantly changing paper. Also, my choice for printing photos. You can use a gray ink for black and white photos. I currently have three different printers and the HP 6980 is my favorite.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous CDs, Great-looking photos
Comment: I bought this ink jet to print on CDs, and figured it'd also be great to have an ink jet (I have a color laser) for heavier papers and the like. I didn't buy it to print photos, but liked that it has that ability (and have already printed out two photos to test it out--they turned out very nicely).
As other reviewers have mentioned, the included software is a nightmare for printing CDs. It's slow, allows very little customization, and is just generally clumsy. But, I found that I could print to a CD from any of the graphics programs I tried (I tried Corel and Gimp on my Windows XP machine). Simply design the CD label (I just made a 8x8" square and let the printer resize it), then when you click print, click properties and select the CD option.
I used Verbatim silver CDs and they turned out really beautifully. And it was so wonderful not to have to align the paper labels on a batch of 25 CDs!
One thing that is annoying, when you're printing several labels at once, is that you pull up the print menu, and then you have to go over to the printer and press the "OK" button. Since the printer is currently across the room, I did a bunch of walking back and forth :-).
If you're just printing one CD, it doesn't require you to press the OK button.
The other thing that frustrated me was trying to use the manual double-sided printing feature. I was printing on a letterhead paper and the printer jammed several times. Then, after printing out 5 of the first side, I flipped the papers over and put them back in (it has a very easy to follow directions screen that pops up on the computer monitor to walk you through this), clicked Continue, and it proceeded to print out the first page on the back of the first page (so I now had two page ones instead of a page one and a page two).
Since it was just a two page document, I went ahead and printed 5 fresh copies of page 1, flipped them over and then told the printer to print page 2.
I may try the duplex feature again for a longer document, but it's something my laser handles automatically, so it's not a deal breaker for me. It's just something to keep in mind if you are buying the printer in part for that feature.
The real reason to buy this one, to me, is that CD/DVD printing ability. It's super easy (put the CD into the tray and slide the tray into place), and they print out beautifully. It took about a minute per label for me, but that might depend how complicated they are.
The printer works well with both my Win XP desktop and my Mac laptop, so I'm really pleased. And it's going to make labeling CDs easy and professional-looking. It's well worth the price. (Also, I still have more than half my color ink left after printing the photos, about 50 pages of text [with some color], and 24 full color CDs. I have well over half the black ink left, according to the menu.)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Avoid Buying for CD Printing
Comment: Do not buy for CD/DVD printing. Worst software I have ever encountered. Worst customer support I have ever encountered. Took mine back. Received a full refund.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Inkjet CD printer
Comment: Very versatile!It does a good job printing on inkjet printable CDs with the right software. This printer also has good speed and resolutions. However, the driver conflicts with the BIOS in some computers, including HP. That is, it slows those computers to a crawl when USB is connected while booting. So far, in my opinion, the fixes provided by HP are not satisfactory.
Summary: Great Printer for CD's / DVD's!!!
Comment: Simply put, this is a GREAT printer -- especially for CD's and DVD's. That's the main reason I bought it -- we have a business involving producing custom DVD Slideshows. The results we've achieved from the D5160 rival most professional printers, at a mere fraction of the cost. I've heard it's being discontinued. Get it while you can!!!
Anyone who complains about the lousy CD Label-making software included with this printer is obviously a computer novice. Just don't use it! There's also no need to purchase some other 3rd party Label-Making program, unless you really don't know how to create a printable layout in the programs you already have. We use Adobe PageMaker to layout our label designs, and then print directly from that program to the D5160. In fact, you can print onto CD's/DVD's from any page layout program ... or for that matter ANY program at all (Photoshop, InDesign, even Paint or Word)! The previous reviewers who said that this printer only works with the included software for CD/DVD printing are simply wrong! All you have to do is choose the "Printing Shortcuts" tab after choosing "Print...", and then choose the "Print on CD/DVD" option. All the other printing options (tray, print quality, etc.) will automatically fill in for correct disc printing. Of course, the trick is lining the image up properly. If you check the option to "Show Print Preview", it will show you how your image lines up before you waste a disc. This helps you to line up the image in the square that ends up on the circular disk. Once you have it lined up properly once, you can save a template and use it over and over.
Other Thoughts: Some people have complained about the printer's tray scratching the DVD's surface. While I have not had that problem, I decided to be proactive and follow another user's suggestion to put a blank paper CD Label Sticker onto the tray to provide a clean, smooth surface for the disk to sit on. Seems to do the trick!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great printr
Comment: Printer is great! Two paper trays mean you are not constantly changing paper. Also, my choice for printing photos. You can use a gray ink for black and white photos. I currently have three different printers and the HP 6980 is my favorite.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous CDs, Great-looking photos
Comment: I bought this ink jet to print on CDs, and figured it'd also be great to have an ink jet (I have a color laser) for heavier papers and the like. I didn't buy it to print photos, but liked that it has that ability (and have already printed out two photos to test it out--they turned out very nicely).
As other reviewers have mentioned, the included software is a nightmare for printing CDs. It's slow, allows very little customization, and is just generally clumsy. But, I found that I could print to a CD from any of the graphics programs I tried (I tried Corel and Gimp on my Windows XP machine). Simply design the CD label (I just made a 8x8" square and let the printer resize it), then when you click print, click properties and select the CD option.
I used Verbatim silver CDs and they turned out really beautifully. And it was so wonderful not to have to align the paper labels on a batch of 25 CDs!
One thing that is annoying, when you're printing several labels at once, is that you pull up the print menu, and then you have to go over to the printer and press the "OK" button. Since the printer is currently across the room, I did a bunch of walking back and forth :-).
If you're just printing one CD, it doesn't require you to press the OK button.
The other thing that frustrated me was trying to use the manual double-sided printing feature. I was printing on a letterhead paper and the printer jammed several times. Then, after printing out 5 of the first side, I flipped the papers over and put them back in (it has a very easy to follow directions screen that pops up on the computer monitor to walk you through this), clicked Continue, and it proceeded to print out the first page on the back of the first page (so I now had two page ones instead of a page one and a page two).
Since it was just a two page document, I went ahead and printed 5 fresh copies of page 1, flipped them over and then told the printer to print page 2.
I may try the duplex feature again for a longer document, but it's something my laser handles automatically, so it's not a deal breaker for me. It's just something to keep in mind if you are buying the printer in part for that feature.
The real reason to buy this one, to me, is that CD/DVD printing ability. It's super easy (put the CD into the tray and slide the tray into place), and they print out beautifully. It took about a minute per label for me, but that might depend how complicated they are.
The printer works well with both my Win XP desktop and my Mac laptop, so I'm really pleased. And it's going to make labeling CDs easy and professional-looking. It's well worth the price. (Also, I still have more than half my color ink left after printing the photos, about 50 pages of text [with some color], and 24 full color CDs. I have well over half the black ink left, according to the menu.)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Avoid Buying for CD Printing
Comment: Do not buy for CD/DVD printing. Worst software I have ever encountered. Worst customer support I have ever encountered. Took mine back. Received a full refund.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Inkjet CD printer
Comment: Very versatile!It does a good job printing on inkjet printable CDs with the right software. This printer also has good speed and resolutions. However, the driver conflicts with the BIOS in some computers, including HP. That is, it slows those computers to a crawl when USB is connected while booting. So far, in my opinion, the fixes provided by HP are not satisfactory.
HP Photosmart D5160 Printer. Up To 1200 Dpi Black. Up To 4800 X 1200 Optimized D Reviews: Page 2 of 4
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |