HP DeskJet 6540 Color Inkjet Printer

by HP

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 17.7 x 14.4 x 5.7 inches ; 13.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 14 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0002GWJD8
• Item model number: C8963A#B1H
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 21, 2004

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The HP DeskJet 6540 color inkjet printer offers versatile performance and connectivity and a sleek-looking low-profile design. Get fast 30 ppm black printing or up to 20 ppm in color or sharp resolutions that are fine enough even for detailed photos.

The 6540 produces crisp 1,200 dpi resolution in black, up to 4,800 optimized dpi in color. The standard four-color printing yields high-quality prints, or for your finest creations you can choose six-color printing (requires HP 99 photo print cartridge, sold separately). The 6540 also offers the choice of printing photos with or without borders on a variety of media types and sizes, and includes HP photo printing software for easy task management and image editing. An optional duplexing accessory is available for two-sided documents.

The HP 6540 offers versatile connectivity. It features two USB ports, one in the back and one in the front. An optional external print server and optional 802.11b wireless accessory are supported for further expansion. The unit is backed by a one-year warranty.

What's in the Box
HP Deskjet 6540 printer, HP 96 black ink cartridge (C8767W), HP 97 tri-color ink cartridge (C9363W), HP Photo Printing software (Windows only), Printer software (Windows and Macintosh), User's guide on CD-ROM, setup poster, reference guide, power supply, power cord; printer cable not included; HP 99 photo inkjet cartridge not included

See for Yourself
this printer in action

Product Description

Includes: black ink cartridge, tri-color ink cartridge, HP Photo Printing software, power cord, power supply, & more. hp Q8963A DeskJet 6540 Color Printer - This inexpensive color inkjet printer is perfect for both basic office printing, and high resolution photos! With a maximum resolution of 4800 dpi, an optional photo ink cartridge, and premium paper, you can reproduce photographs in a variety of sizes that rival the quality you'll receive from a 1-hour photomat! Another great feature is the front USB port. This lets laptop users quickly connect and print, without the need for expensive wireless options, or cumbersome rewiring. Input Tray - 150 Sheets Output Tray - 50 Sheets Media Types - Paper (plain, inkjet, photo, banner), Envelopes, Transparencies, Labels, Cards, HP Premium media, Iron-On Transfers, & Borderless media Media Sizes - Letter, Legal, Executive, No. 10 Envelopes, Cards, Borderless Photo, Borderless Panoramic, & Custom Sizes - 3x5 to 8.5x24 in. Media Weights - US Letter - 16 to 24 lb. / Legal - 20 to 24 lb. / Banner - 16 to 24 lb. / Envelopes - 20 to 24 lb. / Cards - up to 110 lb. index max. / Photo Paper - up to 130 lb. Connects to a PC or Mac via USB Compatible Operating Systems - Microsoft Windows 98, 98 SE, Me, 2000 Pro, & XP / Macintosh OS v 9.1 or later, 10.1.5, 10.2.3, & 10.3.x

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review from Pc Pro.com, October 7, 2004

By 

Joseph J. Keim "jkeim12" (Ashland, Oh) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HP DeskJet 6540 Color Inkjet Printer (Office Product)

HP Deskjet 6540 [PC Pro]

COMPANY: Hewlett - Packard

DATE: Nov 04

Verdict: Excellent text quality, high speed, expandability and smart styling aren't quiteenough to make this basic printer competitive.

The 6540 is the first unit we've seen from HP's all new Deskjet line-up, a range that's been home to several Recommended and A-List award-winners.

Compared to Canon's Pixma iP3000, the 6540 is a fairly basic unit - there's just a single printer tray, no duplex or CD printing, and no direct-print-from-camera functions, yet it still manages to be almost £30 more expensive. In terms of build quality though, it's streets ahead of the Canon. The dapper metal shell of the HP is much slicker than the iP3000's silver plastic, and the whole unit suffers from much less rattle. The lid is even geared so that it closes softly rather than slamming shut.

This attention to detail is carried over to the button panel on the left; the keys have a positive clicking action and are smartly lit. The bottom button switches between printing modes (draft, normal and best), though the printer software can override this if you'd prefer. Paper follows the traditional HP U-feed path - not a problem unless you want to print on non-standard or thicker media - and there's the usual slot for feeding envelopes. You'll also notice the inclusion of an upstream USB port on the front - not for connecting a camera, but as an easy way to connect a laptop. We're not convinced it's a must-have feature, but it's there if you want it.

In testing, text documents were near laser-quality, with crisp, black and well-formed characters on default settings, while draft mode only added slight feathering. Print speeds aren't staggering, but with our 25-page text document taking four minutes, six seconds to run through on draft mode, and only a minute more for default, the Deskjet 6540 should be fast enough for all but the most demanding users. For extra speed, we found fast draft mode to yield an impressive 21.4 ppm, with still reasonable results.

Photo printing is slightly more disappointing. Though prints are delivered in a timely fashion - one minute, 54 seconds for a best-quality borderless 6 x 4in photo - colours are a little washed out, and detail is softer than we'd like. Some prints also exhibit a slight embossed effect, with ink appearing to sit on top of the printed surface.

The black cartridge can be swapped for a photo cartridge to turn the printer from a four- to a six-colour device. Results were certainly smoother, and though colours still lacked punch and the detail was a little fudged, photo prints of this quality are uncommon in a sub-£100 printer. An additional grey cartridge is also available for smooth monochrome prints. On the plus side, it means you can choose how much to invest in the machine as a photo device; we just wish there was somewhere to put whichever cartridge you're not using.

It isn't just the ink that's modular. HP offers a range of accessories, including an automatic duplexer, complete with separate small paper sheet feeder. There's also an additional 250-sheet paper input tray. Compared to what the Canon iP3000 is offering, however, these aren't cheap, costing another £40 each.

If you're looking for a cheap workhorse inkjet, the basic model is a good choice. Its photo printing is respectable for a printer at this price, and when you add to this smart styling, low running costs, and superb build quality, the Deskjet 6540 deserves a PC Pro Recommended accolade. For sheer flexibility and value for money, though, the Canon is a better choice.

By Christopher Phin

Hope this helps you out.

69 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A+ text & graphics, B+ photos, A+++ Speed, June 21, 2005

By 

disfrazao (Scottsville, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: HP DeskJet 6540 Color Inkjet Printer (Office Product)

Summary:
Excellent printer, highly recommended for printing text and documents in a flash. While standard photo settings lag behind other printers, spending an hour or so learning how to use the Printer Properties will enable you to come up with spectacularly colorful prints, lacking only minor detail. If you're going to be primarily printing photos, get something else, otherwise, the HP 6540 is at the head of its class!

Pros:
- Borderless photo/all purpose printing is VERY useful when you can't quite get the margins small enough... and you don't have to print them at "Best" photo quality.
- Durable build with a geared metal cover which closes softly instead of crashing when closed.
- Unbelievable speed for an inkjet. In Fast Draft mode (which is perfectly fine for text), the printer actually pulls the second sheet in before it has completely finished the first, adding to the speed of the printhead.
- Quiet operation even during Fast Draft mode.
- Easy, responsive print cancel and quality buttons, although no LCD... if the printer has a problem you have to go to the computer to see what it is, which could be a problem if the computer and printer are not near each other.
- Use TONS of different kinds of media, except really stiff stationery which may have a hard time navigating the printer's tight paper path.
- The entire finished paper tray lifts up and out easily to expose the paper load tray beneath... just lift it out to help a paper jam or to feed custom size paper.
- It's just fun to watch.

Cons:
- Large blocks of solid color (like backgrounds) print striped on Fast Draft, Fast Normal, and sometimes even Normal.
- Unless you like playing with the Printer Properties options, photo presets have bland colors.
- "Maximum DPI" setting looks the same as "Best" quality, which is a bit fuzzy on fine details, colors can be very vibrant on normal non-photo cartridges if you spend an hour to learn all the settings.
- Expensive ink cartridges which aren't yet available through remanufacturing vendors. See the recommendations below.
- No "auto-on" feature... when you send a print job, the printer will not wake up, you have to press the power button. Again a problem if the printer and computer are not nearby.
- If you forget to pull out the paper stop, you will have a floor covered in papers at the end of a print, the tray is not long enough to catch the papers without pulling out the paper stop.
- When printing a photo, if ink volume is above the middle range, the print will have a minor raised ink look, which in some applications is not a good effect.
- If you like all the gadgets offered on other printers - card readers, LCD's, juice machines... this isn't the printer for you. It's strictly computer-to-printer and I like it that way - HP concentrated on what was really important!

Recommendations:
- First thing you do, in Printer Properties, click the "Basics" tab, then the "Advanced Features..." button. Put the ink volume down to Light. Even in Fast Draft mode on Light ink volume, text is quite black and easy to read.
- Next, on the "Color" tab, check "Print in grayscale" and then "Black print cartridge only." Just remember when you want to print color to change this, but I like to have it set as default so it doesn't mix in color with the black, which is completely unnecessary.
- Don't pay more for a printer with wireless capabilities, you can share the printer easily through your own wireless (or wired) router.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the best., August 22, 2005

By 

Jason "Biggles" (Roxbury Crossing, Morocco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: HP DeskJet 6540 Color Inkjet Printer (Office Product)

I'll start by saying that the reason I purchased this printer was that in an issue of Consumer Reports, where they rated photo printers, this one came out #1. Normally I'd never buy something like this over amazon, but they did have the best price for this machine.

Photos:

Without question, this printer, using PHOTO PAPER, mind you - don't complaint about photo quality when you try to print on paper, prints the BEST photos I've ever seen come out of a printer. I took my digital camera (Canon PowerShot A75) on vacation to New Hampshire in the spring, and got some amazing outdoor photos. The colors came out vibrant and rich, and I ended up framing some of the ones I printed.

Various photo projects over the course of the last 6 months have all yielded the same results - high quality, top flight prints on photo paper.

It's a little slow on text, but who cares? As a home printer, I can't ask for more. It's reasonably economical on toner, and takes the very common HP number-coded 96 & 97 Black and Tri-Color cartridges.

Bottom line, if you've got a nice digital camera, and want prints that are comparable to anything you could get from a lab - get this printer! Feel free to come to my house and I'll prove it to you! :)