HP Deskjet D1560 review :
HP's Deskjet D1560 is compact, lightweight and inexpensive.
It weighs less than 2kg and has a footprint of just 422x260mm. Its small size means it should fit on your desk, but we were more excited by its low price and the high-quality prints it produced in our tests.
After installing the drivers, we were encouraged to perform a manual print head alignment. The printer produced a couple of pages and asked us to select the best option from several marked symbols. This process not only helps to optimise the output from the print heads, but also asks you to locate the edge of the page. We've experienced problems with some front-feeding HP inkjets, and this process helps to eliminate skewed prints.
Draft text printed at 10.4ppm and with significantly better print quality than that of most budget inkjets. Text was dark and well aligned, with slightly fuzzy edges but no broken letters. However, without an output tray, we had to keep an eye on our pages to prevent them spilling on to the floor.
Normal quality prints were clear and sharp, with precise lettering that's good enough for formal correspondence. At 3.7ppm, we had to wait a little under seven minutes for 25 pages, which is slower than most of the printers in our last inkjet group test (Labs, Shopper 246), but acceptable for occasional high-quality print runs. Colour prints looked good, although a speed of just 0.9ppm won't set any records. Solid colours were clear and bright, while text and fine detail was easy to make out. Closer examination revealed graininess and white specks, though.
Photo printing was problematic, as the printer's driver only allowed us to print 6x4in pictures with a 1cm white tab down the side. Quality was generally good, and we printed some great-looking photos with borders. Shading was smooth, although some colours could have been more vivid.
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| HP Deskjet D1560 Printer Driver |