So I’ve had the HP Photosmart 8750 Professional Photo Printer for almost six weeks now, but I haven’t yet written up a review about it. Why? It’s not for a lack of desire to, or a lack of the necessary supplies (photo ink, paper). Instead, it’s been an issue with printing.
The issue stems from a buggy driver HP released and had the nerve to dub “Windows Vista ready”. The main issue seems to be when printing photos. For starters, they are not sized correctly. Regardless of cropping a photo so that it is exactly 4 x 6, 5 x 7 or 8 x 10, and then selecting the corresponding paper size in the print dialog box, the printer prints it so that it’s compressed. A 4 x 6 comes out as a 3.5 x 5, and an 8 x 10 comes out as an 8 x 9.5. Worst yet, the squeezing of the photo causes ugly jagged borders to show up in the photos themselves, particularly around eyes, mouths, faces and clothes.
The following scan is a comparison of a photo printed on my compact printer, the HP 475, and then the same photo printed on the HP 8750. Both times the print settings were the same (borderless 4 x 6), and both times the same type of photo paper was used – HP Premium Plus, soft gloss.
Where can I go from here?
- Install Windows XP on either my desktop or laptop and print from there, as the border and sizing bug is exclusive to Windows Vista
- Install Mac OS X Leopard on my laptop and try printing from there (again, the bug seems to be exclusive to Vista)
- Deal with the borders and jaggedness
- Bitch to the high heavens at HP
- Upgrade to a printer that doesn’t have these issues
- Find some sort of workaround
Well, I don’t want to go back to Windows XP.
I’m going to be installing Mac OS X Leopard on my laptop as soon as the new hard drive I ordered arrives. But I don’t know how well Mac OS X Leopard will play with my printers, seeing as how they’re connected to our network via a print server that isn’t Mac OS X compatible.
I am not going to deal with the borders and jaggedness, and as documented by others who ran into this dilemma, HP acknowledges the issue but so far has not coughed up a fixed driver.
I’m considering a printer upgrade (I’m watching two listings on eBay for the HP PhotoSmart Pro B9180, whose driver is 100% Vista compatible, so there are no print issues). Cost is the main factor. Of course, I can always re-sell the 8750 after purchasing the B9180…
And lastly, I found a thread on a photographers forum that lamented about the 8750 Vista bug, and in that thread was mention of a program called QImage, which has been advertised as being able to take print sizing and such into its own hands and thus override the buggy Vista driver. I’m going to be installing that tonight, so I’ll report back on my success, if any.
Rating: 
Hello, and welcome to In My Bag! My name is Jenn, and this is my product review blog. In My Bag is where I showcase my reviews of many of the products and services I buy and use, as well as the occasional trials, coupons and freebies that come my way. Interested in learning more? 
I’m still at the point where the price of the ink and paper is too high compared to ordering prints online at Walmart.com. It’s like 15 cents a picture.