HP Designjet 5500 User's Guide

welcome to your hp designjet printer

hp designjet 5500 series

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This guide gives you the information you need to make high-quality prints on a wide range of printing materials.

The information is organized into three main categories:

● How do I ... describes how to carry out routine procedures such as

loading paper or changing an ink cartridge. Many procedures are illustrated with graphic animations.

● Tell me about ... gives background and reference information about the

printer.

● The problem is ... helps you to solve any problems that may occur

while printing.

In addition, there is a comprehensive

index to the whole guide, and a

glossary of technical terms.

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how do I...

hp designjet 5500 series

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how do I use paper and other printing materials?

how do I use rolls? how do I use sheets? how do I download media profiles? how do I use non-hp printing materials?

how do I use the ink system?

how do I use the ink cartridges? how do I use the printheads? how do I use the printhead cleaners? how do I switch ink systems?

how do I use the front panel?

how do I print the internal prints? how do I obtain information on the printing material? how do I select the ink emulation mode? how do I change the page size? how do I change the print quality? how do I select production mode? how do I change the drying time? how do I set page format options? how do I set image options? how do I use print management features? how do I print the front-panel configuration? how do I change the graphics language setting? how do I change the language of the front panel?

how do I calibrate the printer?

how do I perform accuracy calibration?

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how do I...

how do I perform banding calibration? how do I calibrate color output? how do I align the printheads?

other questions

how do I start webaccess? how do I maintain my printer? how do I upgrade my printer's software?

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how do I use rolls?

hp designjet 5500 series

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loading roll guidelines loading rolls onto the spindle trimming the printing material loading rolls into the printer unloading rolls from the take-up reel unloading rolls changing the core tube media length tracking

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how do I use sheets?

hp designjet 5500 series

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how do I load sheets? how do I unload sheets?

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how do I download media profiles?

hp designjet 5500 series

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Each supported printing material has its own characteristics; refer to physical

characteristics of printing materials. For optimum image quality the printer

changes the way it prints onto each different printing material. For example, some may need more ink and some may require a longer drying time. So the printer must be given a description of the requirements of each printing material. This description is called the “media profile”. Existing media profiles for your printer are already installed in the printer's software.

However, you would find it inconvenient to scroll through a list of all HP printing materials, so your printer contains media profiles for only the most commonly used materials. If you buy an HP printing material for which your printer has no media profile, you will find that you cannot select that material in your printer driver, in WebAccess, or in your printer's front panel. In this case, you should use

webaccess to download the correct media profile.

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how do I use non-hp printing materials?

hp designjet 5500 series

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During the loading process, the front panel will ask you to select the vendor of your printing material. In the Media Selection menu, you can choose HP or Others. If you use UV inks, you can also choose 3M.

hp or 3M

If you choose HP or 3M, you will be shown a list of printing materials. Whichever you select, a media profile is already available to define to the printer the precise characteristics of the material.

others

If you choose Others, you are offered a selection of media profiles grouped by families (coated, photo, fine arts, textile, etc.). Choose the family that seems closest to the characteristics of your non-HP printing material.

After choosing a family, you have two different options:

● Choose profile to choose a specific media profile from the selected

family.

● Print sample if you need help to decide which media profile to use.

One sample will be printed for each media profile in the family; this takes some minutes, depending on the printing material and the print quality selected in the front panel.

When you have printed the samples, choose the media profile that gives the best results for your printing material. Remember which media profile you chose, so that you can use it again the next time you use the same printing material.

RGB sample

CMYK sample

Many of our customers prefer high-grammage printing materials (about 170 g/m²), and HP has provided a generic media profile best suited to such materials. Choose Heavyweight Coated, and then HW Coated 2. This profile is designed to give particularly good quality, especially in Production mode.

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how do I use non-hp printing materials?

In some cases it may be possible to select Production mode although the nonHP printing material is not compatible with Production mode. In such cases the printer will print in Productivity mode.

how do I use the ink cartridges?

hp designjet 5500 series

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how do I obtain ink cartridge statistics? how do I remove ink cartridges? how do I install ink cartridges?

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how do I use the printheads?

hp designjet 5500 series

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printhead precautions how do I obtain printhead statistics? how do I remove printheads? how do I install printheads? how do I perform printhead recovery?

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how do I use the printhead cleaners?

hp designjet 5500 series

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how do I remove printhead cleaners? how do I install printhead cleaners?

When you change a printhead, you should also change the corresponding printhead cleaner. Leaving the old printhead cleaner in the printer will shorten the new printhead's life and possibly damage the printer.

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how do I switch ink systems?

hp designjet 5500 series

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There are three steps to perform when changing ink systems.

how do I remove the ink system? how do I install the ink system? how do I store the ink supplies and ink tubes?

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how do I print the internal prints?

hp designjet 5500 series

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Select a print ...

menu print configuration print printer usage information image quality print service configuration hp-gl/2 palette samples

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how do I obtain information on the printing material?

hp designjet 5500 series

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Choose the icon, then Roll/Sheet Info. You will see the following information displayed on the front panel:

● The manufacturer's name

● The type of printing material you have selected

● The total width of the roll in millimeters

● The maximum printable area available

● The media profile revision

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how do I select the ink emulation mode?

hp designjet 5500 series

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The ink emulation mode can be set from WebAccess or from your printer driver.

To set it from the front panel, choose the

icon, then Internal RIP Settings

> Ink Emulation. The selection you have made will be indicated by the √ symbol. Watch the animation below.

For an explanation of the ink emulation mode, see

ink emulation mode.

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how do I change the page size?

hp designjet 5500 series

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This example shows how to adjust the page size. Make sure the front panel displays the printer setup menu icon. If it does

not, press the Top key. The selection you have made will be indicated by the √ symbol. Watch the animation below.

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how do I change the print quality?

hp designjet 5500 series

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Your printer has four different print modes that determine the print quality and speed of printing. The four modes are called Max Quality, Productivity, Production, and Max Speed. For more information on these print modes, see

print resolution and printing materials and print speeds.

You can change from one print mode to another:

● using the printer driver from your software application,

● using WebAccess from your Web browser, or

● using the front panel.

If you would like to select Production mode, see

how do I select production

mode? for more detailed instructions.

to change the print quality using the printer driver

Go to the Device Options tab (Windows) or the Printer Specific Options tab (Mac OS). You will see a Print Quality option that allows you to select the Max Quality, Productivity, or Max Speed print modes.

You will also see an Enhanced IQ check box. If you check this box, the effect is to increase the quality but decrease the speed of whichever print mode you have selected. The exact nature of the effect depends on the print mode selected (see

print resolution).

to change the print quality using webaccess

Choose Submit Job and you will see a Print Quality option. With this you can select the Max Quality, Productivity, Production, or Max Speed print modes.

to change the print quality using the front panel

Press the Print Quality key repeatedly until the print mode you want is selected. A green light is shown beside the selected print mode. When Production mode is selected, two green lights are shown.

notes

● The print mode set with the printer driver or with WebAccess overrides

the print mode set with the front panel.

● You cannot change the print mode of pages that the printer is already

receiving or has already received (even if they have not started to print yet).

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how do I change the print quality?

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how do I select production mode?

hp designjet 5500 series

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Production mode is a fast print mode that gives acceptable image quality for some purposes. It is available only with dye-based inks and certain specific HP paper types: Coated, Heavyweight Coated, Productivity Gloss, and Productivity Semi-Gloss. When one of these paper types is loaded, the front panel announces that Production mode is available.

If you decide to use a non-HP printing material, we recommend a highgrammage (160 to 170 gm) coated material. See

how do I use non-hp

printing materials?

to select production mode using the printer driver

To select Production mode in the printer driver, you must select the Max Speed mode with the Enhanced IQ option. The exact method of doing this depends on the driver; see the examples below.

Mac OS 8 or 9 driver

Mac OS X driver

Windows HP-GL/2 driver

Click the More button above to obtain the Advanced Optimization Options box, below:

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how do I select production mode?

Windows 9x or NT PostScript driver

Windows 2000 or XP PostScript driver

to select production mode using webaccess

Choose Submit Job and you will see a Print Quality option. Select Production.

to select production mode using the front panel

Press the Print Quality key repeatedly until you see two green lights, beside Productivity and Max Speed. The two lights indicate that Production mode is selected.

image quality problems?

If you experience banding in Production mode, try banding calibration.

how do I change the drying time?

hp designjet 5500 series

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You may wish to change the drying time setting to suit special printing conditions. For more details, see

tell me about drying time.

Choose the

icon, then Device Setup > Drying Time > Manual. The selection you have made will be indicated by the √ symbol. This is illustrated by the animation below.

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how do I set page format options?

hp designjet 5500 series

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how do I adjust the margins? how do I rotate an image? how do I print a mirror image? how do I scale the image?

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how do I set image options from the front panel?

hp designjet 5500 series

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how do I view current configuration settings? how do I view the colors available in a palette? how do I change the palette settings? how do I change the treatment of overlapping lines?

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how do I use print management features?

hp designjet 5500 series

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canceling a page canceling the drying time managing the queue tell me about nesting pages

Note: RTL and HP-GL/2 jobs are single pages, but PostScript jobs may consist of more than one page.

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how do I print the front-panel configuration?

how do I print the frontpanel configuration?

hp designjet 5500 series

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1. Make sure that some printing material is loaded (either a roll or a sheet).

2. Press the Top key on the front panel.

3. Press the ↑ and ↓ keys at the same time.

The animation below illustrates this procedure.

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how do I change the graphics language setting?

hp designjet 5500 series

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Unless you are troubleshooting any of the problems listed under Comments in the table below, you should not need to change the default setting.

To change the graphics language setting, choose the

icon, then Device

Setup > Lang, where the following options are available:

Language Comments

Automatic

Choose Automatic to let the printer determine which type of file it is receiving. This setting works for most software applications.

HP-GL/2

Choose this setting if you are not working with PostScript files, and you have experienced image position problems or timing problems.

PostScript

Choose PostScript if you are printing only PostScript files and your PostScript jobs do not include PJL language switching commands.

TIFF, JPEG, PDF, CALS G4

Choose these options only if you are sending a file of the appropriate type directly to the printer without going through a printer driver. This is normally done only from WebAccess, in which case the language setting is done by WebAccess and you do not have to do it yourself.

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how do I change the language of the front panel?

hp designjet 5500 series

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To change the language of the front-panel menus and messages, follow this procedure:

1. If your printer is switched on, switch it off using the switch at the rear of the printer.

2. Switch on the printer using the switch at the rear.

3. Hold down the ENTER key on the front panel until the printer makes an audible beep.

4. As soon as you hear the sound, release the ENTER key.

5. You should see a menu of alternative languages. Highlight the language you want using the ↑ and ↓ keys, and select it by pressing the ENTER key.

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how do I perform accuracy calibration?

hp designjet 5500 series

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Your printer was calibrated at the factory to ensure that it operates with the greatest accuracy in normal environmental conditions. If you are operating under significantly different conditions, you should recalibrate the printer as explained here. You may also need to recalibrate the printer if you are using non-HP printing materials or if you are experiencing image quality problems for some other reason. Before recalibrating the printer, you should always use the

image quality print to verify that you do actually have image quality

problems caused by media advance problems. Note: the accuracy calibration applies only to the media type currently

selected in the front panel. Other media types will keep their original media advance settings.