HP Photosmart C5580 All-in-One Printer

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Average Customer Rating:	2.5
Brand:	Hewlett Packard
Model:	C5580
Weight:	15.71 pounds
Dimensions:	17.8 inches x 8.03 inches x 15.24 inches [Width x Length x Height]

Product Categories

All-In-Ones; All Hewlett-Packard; USB; Bluetooth; 31-40 PPM; 21-30 PPM; Bluetooth/Hands-Free Phone; 2008

Product description

This all-in-one gives you the freedom to print photos directly from your Bluetooth enabled devices and memory cards. It also takes the guesswork out of printing with its friendly features like automatic paper-type sensor and HP Smart Web Printing.

Features

All in One Printer, Scanner, Copier w/2.4 in LCD Color Display

34 ppm Black and up to 25 ppm Color

Scan Up to 4800 x 4800 dpi

Copy Up to 50 Copies, Reduce/Enlarge: 50 to 400 Percent

1 USB 2.0, Memory Cards, Bluetooth Connectivity

Customer reviews

« Photosmart C5580 All-in-One »

After some real issues with the installtion (on the phone with HP Help for a couple hours) the unit has been working well since. One inconvenience is that it doesn't auto start when a print order is inititated. Also seems to be using more ink than my previous HP.

Rating: (4 out of 5) @ 2008-12-13

« A lot in one machine for $120 »

Installed under Windows XP Home Edition

[These comments are limited to the features I have used after a week of ownership.]

Pros:

A lot in one machine for $120 [at Office Max]: Prints on just about every medium, including envelopes, plus is a copier. Certainly lives up to its claim as an "all-in-one" machine. About the only thing it isn't is a fax.

Two paper trays, one for regular paper and one for photo paper so you don't have to change between the two kinds of paper.

Inexpensive to buy.

There are only two ink cartridges, black [hp 74/74xl, $15/$32] and color [hp 75/75xl, $18/$35].

Fairly easy to install and set up.

Prints directly onto printable standard and mini CDs and DVDs, the main reason I purchased it. Excellent print quality for printable CD/DVD labels, considering limitations [see below].

Makes very good photocopies [at least of text - I have not photocopied pictures], and no need to turn the computer on, just turn the printer on and use it like you would a Xerox.

Very good scanning feature for both text and images. It scans text to an editable .rtf file [editable by importing it into your separate word processor]. The optical character recognition [OCR] is not perfect but very good compared to Omni-pro 8 that I have been using.

Cons:

Extremely limited in text for printing directly onto CDs and DVDs [and probably their paper labels]. You have only a small three-line text box in which to enter your information, which is only one font of one size, one color [black], plus bold and italics. It does have the capability to import photos as part of the label. A work-around that allows you to make titles of various fonts of varying sizes is to use a photo-editing program [like PhotoShop] that has a text tool and to create a .jpg file containing the text you wish and import it as a picture. This is tedious, but it works. A good reason to do it this way is you can save your work, whereas there appears to be no way to save a printable CD/DVD label design created using the printer software. According to the instructions, you are supposed to be able to "click on a photo or text in the preview to edit this label," but the program does not do this for photos. You have to go back to the separate photo editing program and modify it.

The area you can use is limited by the large hole in the center of a regular label. The layout doesn't show this in the outline so you have to play with your photo-editing program to adjust the text to avoid the hole ... that is, until later in the "Create" sequence you discover there is a pull-down option that allows you to print to the hub and specify its inner diameter. These settings don't get saved as default, unfortunately, and the program reverts to the large hub the next time you start it. It would have helped a lot if HP had shown the hole in the layout, but you know you are overwriting it because the text gets masked behind it. The "Basics Guide" doesn't explain any of this.

Like every photo printer I've owned [three by HP], it can consume a lot of photo paper and ink getting it to print a picture with the correct color balance and contrast. Other than for an occasional print for those who don't care about these fine points, you are light years ahead by taking your photo files to a professional service for printing; it's cheaper and will result in really good pictures. [The one in my area charges $0.34 each for fewer than 100 prints and $0.29 if the order is 100 or more.]

Does not print banners. You will have to print individual pages and tape them together.

The "Help" feature is woefully lacking. For example, its search and index do not contain the words "scan" or "scanning" as one would think for a machine that is supposed to be able to scan. I have encountered this problem with several other searches for words that should be in the Help.

There is no Windows style window/toolbar, and the tools are represented by symbols not always clear and are scattered about the view.

The included "Basics Guide" is just that - basic and bare-bones. I recommend that you download a .pdf version of the Users Manual from the HP website. It has very detailed instructions and a very good index.

Additional information:

There is a carrier that holds the CD/DVD, so the disk doesn't spin. The instructions advise burning your disk first.

Can scan an image to .bmp, .dcx, .fpx, .gif, .jpg, .pcd, .pcx, and .tif, although I have not used this feature.

It has the Bluetooth capability and an included wireless adapter that I have also not used.

Rating: (4 out of 5) @ 2008-12-09

« Hard to believe »

What a mess this printer is to set up. Like the previous reviewer I had to install and uninstall the software for several hours, and spend several more googling patches to the problem. "Fatal error during installation" pops up during install - and never goes away. You close it and it pops back instantly. Need to uninstall - again - and ship the whole thing back. Garbage.

Rating: (1 out of 5) @ 2008-12-04

« Oh my goodness..... »

Let me first start out by saying that this is not my first time to add hardware to a computer. I've added audio cards, power supplies, fans, video capture cards, loaded all sorts of software, added scanners and printers, etc. many times over. This was my first time to try an HP product and I shall say it will be my last.

PROS: Very sleek looking design, relatively compact and the 3-in-1 idea is practical. Price is very good for this item.

CONS: Where or where to start. First off, I have Windows XP on this computer. Followed every step from the setup instructions precisely after having made sure that any other program that might interfere with the setup was shut down-- and confirmed they were shut down. Machine turned on, looked great, added the ink cartridges as directed and then, it told me to go ahead and connect the beast to my computer via the USB cable. I did. Began to load the software as directed, which took a while. Then, it tells me that it cannot load the drivers because they are either "unsigned or they are signed improperly." Uh huh. So, thinking maybe there is a patch or perhaps a newer version of the driver, I visited the HP website to get tech support. I verified I had the latest driver and that there was no other available. So I uninstalled the whole mess and spent the next hour repeating what I had just done. This time, I get a different error, which frankly I don't even remember at this point. Of course, I scour the paperwork that came with the unit and can find absolutely no 800# for tech support or customer service to see if there is something I have missed.

Bottom line, this one is going BACK. Seriously, if you have this much trouble and spend three to four hours out of your life to just try to find a way to make something work, what will the next year or two be like in trying to get the thing to do what it is supposed to do? Buy something else.