Introduction This User's Reference Guide explains how to use your D/A1 size or A0+/E+ size HP Designjet 500 Plus Printer. The Introduction Tab contains these topics: · · Introducing the Documentation Introduces your printer's documentation. Introducing Your HP Designjet 500 Plus Printer Contains a brief overview of the printer. It contains information about the printer's features and what is included with the printer. Front View of Printer Contains a view of the front of the printer showing the location of the printer's consumable items. Printer Connections Shows all the connections to the printer: power, parallel interface, USB and optional network interface. · · Introducing the Documentation You have the following resources to help you in using your HP Designjet 500 Plus printer. · · The Assembly and Set-up Poster comes with your printer and shows step-by-step information on how to prepare your printer for use. This User's Reference Guide explains the details of using your printer. For more day-to-day guidance you can refer to the Pocket Guide. The Pocket Guide can be found in a slot on the right-hand side of the printer (as shown). It gives information that you are most likely to need for printer operation on a daily basis, such as loading paper or replacing ink supplies. You can also visit us on our Web page: www.hp.com/go/designjet. · · Pocket Guide location Introducing Your HP Designjet 500 Plus Printer · · · · · · · Your Printer's Main Features A general overview of the major features of your printer. HP Ink Supplies A description of the HP Ink Supplies required for your printer. Print Resolution Specifications of the print resolution for your printer. Media A description of the different types of media available for your printer. User Interface A description of the printer's user interface. Memory Details of internal memory and memory options available with your printer. Drivers Details of the drivers delivered with your printer. Your Printer's Main Features The HP Designjet 500 Plus printing system is specially designed for individuals or small work-groups in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) and mechanical CAD design. For the complete printing solution, HP also offers a wide range of media including HP Heavyweight Coated Paper with fade-resistant photo-quality output and HP High-Gloss Photo Paper for high-quality long-lasting prints that produce a professional look and feel. And with the HP Complementary Media Program, HP provides users with a wide spectrum of choice and flexibility in their media selection. The HP Designjet 500 Plus printer comes in two sizes: A0+/E+ size (42 inches/1066.8 mm) and D/A1 size (24 inches/609.6 mm) models. Both models have roll-feed capabilities and come with an HP-GL/2 Accessory Card. The A0+/E+ size model also includes legs and a media bin. · Ultimate Photo Image Quality and Excellent Line Quality: The HP Designjet 500 Plus printer delivers ultimate line quality with a true resolution of 1200×600-dpi, using HP's color layering technology, which layers multiple color ink drops on a single drop, on coated paper. This excellent line quality is achieved due to the fact that each one-half inch/12.7mm printhead contains 304 nozzles, producing miniscule 18-picoliter black pigmented ink drops and four picoliter color dye-based drops, that are idea for engineering and architectural applications. In addition, the HP Designjet 500 Plus printer delivers excellent photo quality for renders and photographs, providing continuous tones and smooth transitions. · Unattendedness: The HP Designjet 500 Plus printing system includes a modular ink delivery system, with 69-cc cartridge capacity, and long life printheads which last, on average, through ten black ink cartridges and six color ink cartridges, depending on use. This modular system allows users to replace individual ink supplies separately, as needed and also provide automatic alignment and cutting and stacking of finished prints in the media bin, enabling continuous and unattended printing. In addition, the HP Designjet 500 Plus printer includes smart chips that are embedded into each individual printhead and ink cartridge that alert the user if it time to replace the printhead and continuously monitor ink levels. · Ease-of-use: The HP Designjet 500 Plus printing system is a true out-of the box solution and provides the user with everything he or she needs to install and use the printer. The HP Designjet 500 Plus printer includes a control-display panel for simple navigation, straightforward media loading and easy-to-install drivers. More... · · HP Premium Printing Material: The HP Designjet 500 Plus A0+/E+ size and D/A1 size printing systems accept a wide range of roll and sheet media from 24 inches/609.6 mm (D/A1 size) to 42 inches/1066.8 mm (A0+/E+ size) wide including HP Satin Poster Paper, HP High-Gloss Photo Paper and HP Heavyweight Coated Paper. In addition, the HP Designjet 500 Plus printer accepts a wide range of media for technical applications. Complementary Media Program (CMP): The CMP helps HP customers grow their businesses by referencing third-party printing material choices to ensure maximum HP Designjet printer flexibility and printing solutions. HP Ink Supplies HP Ink Supplies for your printer contain two components: printheads and ink cartridges. Your HP Designjet 500 Plus printer uses the following HP Ink Supplies: · Black Ink Cartridges are HP No 10 Supplies. · Cyan, Magenta and Yellow Cartridges are HP No 82 Supplies. · All Printheads are HP No 11 Supplies. Each 600-dpi thermal inkjet printhead applies thousands of ink droplets onto the paper. The printer automatically refills the printhead as it prints, enabling continuous uninterrupted printing. The ink is supplied to each printhead from a separate large capacity ink cartridge. There is more information available in a pamphlet which comes with the printheads and in Print Times for a Selected Print Quality. Print Resolution Your HP Designjet 500 Plus printer provides two different print modes that change the print resolutions of each of the print quality modes. These different print modes are optimized for: Line Drawings/Text or Images. You can then choose between three levels of print quality for each of the print modes: Best, Normal or Fast from your software or from the printer's front panel. With the best mode selected you have an additional selection available to provide maximum detail for your printed image by increasing the resolution of your job above the default resolution. Print Quality Setting Optimized for Line Drawing/Text Resolution in dpi Re0×nder Fast Normal Best (default) Best (maximum detail) 300×300 600×600 600×600 600×600 Halftone 600×300 600×600 600×600 1200×600 Optimized for Images Resolution in dpi Render 150×150 300×300 600×600 600×600 Halftone 600×300 600×600 600×600 1200×600 Use Fast to get draft copies of your prints at maximum throughput. Normal is optimized so that you get the best line quality with the fastest throughput. Select Best if you want to get the best quality for images and renderings. Media You can print on roll media or sheet media up to 42 inches (1066.8 mm) wide with the A0+/E+ size HP Designjet 500 Plus printer and up to 24 inches (609.6 mm) with the D/A1 size model. The following media types are supported on the HP Designjet 500 Plus printer: · · · · · · · · HP Bright White Inkjet Paper (Bond) HP Vellum HP Natural Tracing Paper HP Coated Paper HP Heavyweight Coated Paper HP Matte film HP High-Gloss Photo Paper HP Semi-Gloss Photo Paper · · · · · · · HP Paper-Based Semi-Gloss HP Clear film HP Translucent bond HP Studio Canvas HP Satin Poster Paper HP Banners with Tyvek® HP Colorfast Adhesive Vinyl User Interface The printer's front panel includes an easy-to-use interface with a display, giving you access to a comprehensive set of printer functions. See Navigating the Menu System, for a short tutorial to teach you how to navigate through the menus and a description of internal prints. Memory The D/A1 size and A0+/E+ size HP Designjet 500 Plus printers come with 32 MB of internal Random Access Memory (RAM). Additional memory can be added to the HP-GL/2 Accessory card that came with your printer. You can add 64 MB (part number C2387A) or 128 MB (part number C2388A) of memory for large file processing and improved printing. Drivers Always use the right driver (configured correctly) for the combination of your application software and your printer to ensure that your printer prints exactly what you were expecting in terms of: size, position, orientation, color and quality. NOTE: Many software applications include their own drivers. Your HP Designjet 500 Plus printer comes supplied with: · Windows drivers · Mac OS X drivers · AutoCAD drivers for Windows NOTE: If AutoCAD drivers are available for the specific AutoCAD release you are using, it is strongly recommended that you install them to print from AutoCAD. Front View of Printer Ink Cartridge Power Switch/Indicator Printhead Front Panel Printer Connections Your HP Designjet 500 Plus printer can be connected directly to your computer via the traditional parallel interface or through the Universal Serial Bus (USB) port. For Local Area Network (LAN) connection your printer can be fitted with an optional HP JetDirect Print Server Fast Ethernet 10/100 base TX network interface card. See the Assembly and Set-up Poster for information on connecting your printer to a computer or network. Connection Power socket Parallel Port USB Connection Media & Ink The D/A1 size and A0+/E+ size format HP Designjet 500 Plus Printers use a variety of media. The recommended media are engineered to use with your printer and your printer's ink system to give you the best results. The Media & Ink Tab contains these topics: · · · · · · Media Choice explains how to choose the correct media type. Choosing the correct paper type for your needs is an essential step in ensuring good image quality. Roll Media details the procedures used for loading and unloading your roll media. Sheet Media details the procedures used for loading and unloading your sheet media. Ink System gives you an overview of the printer's ink system, with some warnings and precautions for its optimum use. Ink Cartridges details the procedures used for: obtaining information, interpreting errors, checking levels and replacing ink cartridges. Printheads details the procedures used for: obtaining information, interpreting errors, replacing printheads and aligning printheads. Media Choice · Choosing Paper or Other Media Your printer supports several types of paper. Choosing the best paper type for your needs is an essential step in ensuring good image quality. These topics help you to select the best media for your particular printing task. Paper Types Detailed information concerning the different types of media available for your printer. This includes information on: the types of paper supported, their physical characteristics, quality selection, handling and how to obtain information. Print Times for a Selected Print Quality Typical Printing Times for color and black lines and images on different types of paper. Printable Area The dimensions for all the printable areas for all paper and other types of media formats. · · · Choosing Paper or Other Media For best printing results, use only genuine Hewlett-Packard paper or other type of media, whose reliability and performance have been developed and thoroughly tested. All Hewlett-Packard printing components (printer, ink system, and paper/other media) have been designed to work together to give trouble-free performance and optimal image quality. For detailed information on Hewlett-Packard paper, see Paper Types. You should also take note of some important points about paper and other types of media: · This printer supports many types of paper. However, the quality of some images may be reduced if you do not use the correct paper for your application. For example, images with large regions of intense color, where many ink drops are needed to fully saturate the color, will not print well on HP Bright White InkJet Paper. On HP Coated paper, the same images might cause the paper to wrinkle and then come into contact with the printheads, smearing your print and risking damage to the printhead. See Combinations of Media Type and Print Quality Selection. · Whenever you load a roll or a sheet, the printer's front-panel display prompts you to specify the paper type you are loading. It is absolutely essential to specify this correctly for good image quality. The Physical Characteristics of Paper Types table gives you all the information you need. If paper is already loaded and you are unsure which paper type was specified, go to the Paper Menu and press Enter; see Obtaining Roll or Sheet Paper Information. · Make sure th ...