Among the many multifunction machines that have been shown on the market in the past months, HP also launched one, the HP OfficeJet G85. This inkjet follows the previously HP LaserJet 3150, which was also designed as a multifunction device. However, the HP OfficeJet G85 evolved from the less performing DeskJet 970Cxi machine. Unlike the other inkjet multifunctional printers, the HP OfficeJet G85 surprises with its wonderful capabilities and performance.

On the outside, the unit was designed to inspire a solid and reliable look, and that doesn’t eclipse its stylish nature either. It was equipped with options that offer flatbed scanning, printing, copying, faxing, all of these naming the multifunction capacity of the office inkjet. It also has connectivity options through parallel cable that matches the Windows NT 4, and through USB that corresponds with Windows 98 and Windows 2000. Other features include 125 speed dial memory, a 150 sheet in-tray, 125 page fax memory, a 30-page automatic document feeder and an option that blocks unwanted fax numbers as well.

The OfficeJEt G85’s photo printing option offers obvious quality, while the HP’s Premium Plus gloss photo paper offers even better qualitative images, benefiting from a high resolution. Printing this type of photos will take only five minutes and 41 seconds, which proves to be even faster than the other HP impressive printer, the A-Listed PhotoSmart 1100. In numbers, it was exactly three minutes faster than the PhotoSmart 1100. There remains of course the possibility to print on standard quality inkjet paper, which didn’t prove to be such a good alternative for the HP OfficeJet G85, but it isn’t far from the A-Listed PhotoSmart 1100’s results either. In the later case, the prints were less colorful and they had a gray shade, lacking the gloss photo paper’s shininess.

As for the text quality, it is also very good, it was crisp and clear printed, having only a little foggy shade at the edges. The text printing is also very fast, timing only six minutes and 22 seconds for 25 text pages. The timing result is of 3.9 pages per minute, with approximately 0.8 pages per minute slower than the HP’s statement of 4.7 ppm for text printing.

The scan of a photo however, will not turn to be very accurate as in the printing’s case. Scanning can be done easily with the help of the Scan To button placed at the front of the case, in the control panel. Using the HP’s Director software settings of scanning at 600 dpi didn’t prove to make things better, the gray shade didn’t disappear, and proved unsuitable.

The copy option of the HP OfficeJet G85 functions at high standards, unlike the scanning, and the standard document copying can be made with the help of the HP’s Director software, which ensures qualitative copying even while scaled. The best quality that the HP OfficeJet G85 was enriched with is the flawless copying in a short period pf time, and the high quality offered by the copying device.

The Director software is really the greatest asset that helps the user to control all the HP OfficeJet G85’s functions easily, using the simple interface.

What goes best with a digital photo camera? Why, a photo printer of course, preferably one that is small in size and offers high quality prints that you can share with your friends and family. Like in the case of any other product, when buying a photo printer there are several technologies and products you can choose from. There are two types of photo printers that are relevant at this point : inkjet vs dye-sublimation photo printers.

Siemens was responsible for the first inkjet printing device that hit the market in 1951. The continuous inkjet printer technology was perfected and introduced later by IBM, around 1970. But while the inkjet printer has been around for many many years, it wasn't until much later that people actually considered using it for printing photos, and not just text. At this time, inkjet printers are the most common and used printers on the market. But how do they work? Well, what basically happens is that the printer doses very small 'bubbles' of ink onto a paper sheet to create text or an image.

There are two main inkjet technologies that manufacturers are using in today's devices. The first, thermal bubble (also known as bubble jet) is most frequently used by the two well known printer manufacturers, Canon and HP. It uses tiny resistors to create heat. The heat vaporizez ink and really small bubbles are created. The ink bubble then starts expanding and the ink is pushed out of a nozzle straight onto the sheet of paper. The second type of technology is know as piezoelectric. It uses piezo crystals (one crystal at the back of each nozzle) which receives a tiny electric charge. It starts to vibrate inward and pushes a very small amount of ink. Both these technologies work just fine for printing out text, images, and with the help of special photo paper, even decent quality photos.

Dye sublimation printing was invented to provide photo lab quality pictures at home.What didn't make them very popular in the beginning was the extremely high price of the devices. But the more prices go down, more digital camera owners are choosing this technology over inkjet, that quite frankly can't compare as quality. Compared to inkjet, in dye sublimation printing colors aren't just pushed to the paper sheet as individual dots. Featuring a roll of transparent film there are solid dyes that correspond to the four main colors used in printing (CMYB – cyan, magenta, yellow, black). As the print head passes over the film, it heats up and causes those dyes to vaporize. The dye never goes through liquid stage, it turns straight from solid to gas. When the ink turns into gas, it diffuses onto the photo paper and solidifies. This means no small specks of ink to be seen (like in the case of inkjet). Hence, photos look more realistic and lab-quality-like.

Both the inkjet and the dye-sublimation technologies weren't readily available to the home user. In the beginning inkjet was mainly used for text, while dye-sublimation printers were limited to high-end commercial printing (due to the high costs involved). Nowadays, both printer types can be found around the $100 price tag. In an inkjet vs dye-sublimation photo printers race, if a consumer needs the device strictly for printing photos, then the dye-sublimation one should win, quality-wise. But if you need an office printer to handle all your reports and paperwork as well, inkjet is worth considering.