HP C6280 Photosmart All-in-One Printer (CC988A#ABA) Reviews

• Photos Better Than Lab Quality

  
  By A1VWLDNW6YNDIV on 2007-11-28
  I have gone through several color printers in the past few years. This printer by far is the best quality color printer to date. In my opnion it should be rated as a number one printer for the money and quality it puts out.
  
  It is one of the few out printers out there that use 6 color cartridges which makes a HUGE difference in the way your photos appear. With a higher spectrum of color, the blend of colors are much more natural.
  
  I work in an industry in which I work hand in hand with a lot of print shops (I don't work for HP). The shops that use large format HP printers use the same 6 color configuration that the C6280 uses. What that means to you is that you are getting virtually the same quality out of the C6280 as the more expensive $30k to $40k large format printers that print shops use.
  
  One of the greatest features of this printer is that you can get a photo that you had taken lets say 4x6 print, scan it, and print out a 8x10 copy of that photo with just as good resolution. You can do all this without using a computer. You do it all from the printer itself. It is really like your own portable photo lab.
  
  The biggest recommendation that you need to follow is that you MUST use HP photo paper to achieve the best results. That is all I have used and I have not been disappointed yet.
  
  

• Poor print quality, slow over Ethernet, large

  
  By A2I6562SSXAD6 on 2007-10-01
  UPDATE (Sep 4, 2008): I updated to the new HP drivers from Jan/Feb this year. They DO NOT fix the 100% CPU issue. If the printer is OFF, you are running Windows XP, and you are connected via Ethernet, your computer will both slow down dramatically and also heat up. The only solution is to leave the printer on all the time. I suppose that's all right because whenever you turn it on it takes sometimes up to 2 minutes to warm up--but I believe it does suck in 30 watts in idle mode according to the manual.
  
  I have yet to see one person report this configuration (WinXP + Ethernet) who does not have this 100% CPU issue when the printer is off.
  
  UPDATE: I recently changed the Paper Type setting from "Plain Paper" to "HP Premium Paper" (or "Other inkjet paper"), but kept the actual paper the same (20-lb. multipurpose paper). The print quality becomes much better, and I've found the best setting is Fast Normal (the quality is better than Normal, go figure) with HP Premium Paper. HP definitely needs to update their drivers to assign the Plain Paper setting more of the HP Premium Paper properties, and to make Fast Normal the default for text documents. I suspect that poor text printing quality on the C7280 and C6180 may also be fixed with these changes. Thanks for letting me QA your product HP!
  
  --
  
  I recently upgraded from a 3-year-old HP PSC 1510 (the one with the paper feed problems). This printer has print quality issues (you will find a famous mainstream consumer hardware site also confirming the same results).
  
  There are lots of extra dots ("fuzz") on every single letter when you print a Word document on Normal setting. It's definitely legible, but the quality is noticeably worse than my 3-year-old PSC 1510 (and I just did an apples-to-apples comparison). Surprisingly, the print quality gets much better (becomes normal ...) if you print on Fast Draft (the fastest setting) and duplex modes ... but the ink is not as dark. Fast Draft also has a tendency to print your pages off center (even after you've made sure the paper guides are flush against the paper). If you don't believe me, print one on Normal, then print one on Fast Draft or in duplex mode, and compare the difference. The Normal one is WORSE (but darker). (There is an intermediate setting, Fast Normal, but it combines the low darkness and low quality problems. "Best" mode has the same problems as Normal. "Maximum dpi" actually (finally?) looks better than Fast Draft, but it's slow, and may use more ink than Normal mode.)
  
  If you print in duplex mode, the printer also defaults to waiting about 10 seconds per page for the ink to dry, so keep this in mind. This compared to a laser printer which will print the other side right away. There is an option to reduce drying time, but do you want to do that?
  
  The Ethernet network interface also appears to be slow. A 64KB page (just a simply formatted page out of a Word document, no graphics) transfers in after, you guessed it, 25 seconds (you can double-click the printer icon in the System Tray and watch the progress). The PSC 1510 (over USB) seems twice as fast.
  
  After that (using Normal quality), it takes 5 seconds for the printer to get aligned, then 15 more seconds to print a page. So total time to print one page is about 45 seconds, and this is consistent! Subsequent pages will come out every 15 seconds (yep, that's 4 pages per minute in Normal mode--a far cry from the 33pm that's advertised AND with the poor print quality). You can get faster print speeds on Fast Draft, but this is unusable considering how you're guessing whether on this next piece of paper the paper will be pulled in crooked.
  
  The software takes a long time to install (more than the average) on a 2-year-old computer, and you distrust it a bit as your computer slows down in strange places where it didn't before.
  
  The one plus is that it does appear to be more ink efficient than my old printer. I did go through three print head alignments and one cleaning of the print heads before collecting all the results I reported, and the ink levels are still pretty good.
  
  The printer is also larger and twice as heavy compared to the compact HP PSC 1510.
  
  I suspect that HP might be able to update its drivers to fix some issues (faster over Ethernet, don't pull pages off center, print reasonably dark, don't have fuzz around the letters like an inkjet from 1997), but I wouldn't wait around for that, if it ever comes out, and if it ever does bring us to the year 2007.
  
  I just read a review for the parent of this model, the C5280, and the comments on text printing quality are also at the bottom of the range: "a lot of wicking and jagged edges".
  
  

• Great bargain for the price

  
  By A8E1FOUCDHGHJ on 2007-10-31
  I bought this printer for $200 to replace a 10-year-old SCSI scanner and an aging HP PhotoSmart printer that cost me $50+ every time I had to replace the two ink cartridges (which was too often). I also wanted to network it to two wired PCs running Windows XP, a wireless PC running XP and an wireless laptop running Vista.
  
  I do a good deal of digital photography, so high-quality printing is important. I also have many articles published on the Web that I wanted to print two-sided on heavy stock paper. I don't need fax capability, but having a copier at home is a definite plus.
  
  The C6280 was easy to set up and get running right out of the box. It fits into the footprint vacated by my old HP printer. Initially, it was easy to network with my other computers, but the printer tended to disappear from the network until I assigned it a static IP address. Once I did that, it became a very reliable network printer.
  
  I didn't expect this printer to be speed demon, and it's not. However, it is plenty fast for my purposes. It is a bit noisy when it first starts printing and does shake my desk a bit. I consider those minor annoyances, not big problems. To me, the text is black, crisp and clear. I have no problem whatsoever reading it.
  
  For photo printing, it's taken a bit of experimenting with my photo editing software and the printer settings to get the image quality I desire. However, now that I've worked out the settings, the image quality is fantastic. I've done a limited amount of scanning and copying with the C6280, but in general, it seems to perform those functions very well.
  
  The criticism about having to wait for duplex printing to dry on one side of the sheet before printing the other is rather silly. This is an inkjet! Of course it's slower at two-sided printing than a laser printer. If fast duplex printing is important to you, buy a laser printer.
  
  For $200, I thought that this all-in-one printer was a good deal. Now that prices are coming down, it's an even better deal.
  
  Additional comments: I've had a problem with the scan function not working with the primary PC on which I do the most scanning. When the HP digital imagining monitor failed to properly initialize, the scan function would hang up and the only way I could get out of it was to reboot my computer. I finally decided to try using the newest C6280 drivers alone without any of the HP software. This appears to have solved the problem.
  
  

• Excellent All-in-One Printer

  
  By AMMBWF2MFMPRD on 2008-01-05
  I purchased this printer to replace my older HP 7260 Photosmart printer that had run out of ink and an old $5 scanner that I picked up during a Black Friday sale several years back. I really wanted a printer that I could use with my all wireless laptop house - 1 XP, 1 Vista to do routine printing both photo and regular printing, and the fact that the all-in-one was only $20 more than the 7460 with a built-in duplexer and scanner, I thought why not?
  
  Setup Vista: The Vista laptop setup was a real breeze. (I ignored their instructions to try and avoid the HP bloatware) When I went to the Add Printer setting of the Control Panel, Vista detected the printer on the network. I selected have disk to get the driver, and then had a functional printer without going through the HP install process. Yay!
  
  Setup XP: The XP laptop setup was a bit more cumbersome as we had to use the HP install disk. Despite selecting all of the options to not install all of the optional HP software (such as buying your HP supplies online, checking automatically for updates, providing customer feedback, etc.), it detected that our previous installation had those features and updated them all. Argh! It really isn't that big a deal to then go and uninstall all of that junk, but it is annoying. I had 6 HP programs running in the background after the first install. HP should really be ashamed of themselves...Once I uninstalled all of the bloatware, I was up and running with zero problems.
  
  Printing: Classic high quality printing from HP that I have always liked. Did some black and whites using only the black cartridge, a 4x6 photo, some web pages, all were reasonably fast...by the time I got up they were done...that's why I wanted wireless anyways.
  
  Scanning: I wanted to scan a picture. So I went over to the unit, put the picture on the glass and hit Scan Menu. Saw 2-3 options, Scan to Card, Scan to computer. Hit scan to computer and it showed my computer's name. I hit OK, then it scanned and by the time I got back to my laptop I had a dialog box asking about resolution, file name options etc. Once I set up those options, it was done. I scanned a second picture and all of those options were saved, and it was just done before I even got back to my laptop. Excellent!
  
  All in all, a great experience so far. I would definitely recommend this printer.
  
  

• GREAT PRINTER, LOVE IT!!

  
  By A304A9NJ8QHL44 on 2007-11-27
  I recently bought this HP C6280 after searching for a printer that is compatible with VISTA. I had gone thru four other printers, 3 HP and 1 Canon to find one problem after another due to VISTA issues. This printer is fantastic. Set up was a breeze and with the ethernet I find the connection to be as speedy as with USB, not at all slow. I have it hooked up to both my PC and notebook. I like the paper tray and the dedicated photo paper tray is handy. The printer is larger than some and a bit noisey. The price will most likely come down, be careful when purchasing ink, they make two size ink cartridges. Overall I'm happy with this one.
  6 MONTHS LATER: I have to admit my initial review was far too soon after buying this printer. It has been the worst choice I could have made. It is noisey. It sucks up ink like crazy, always needing one or the other of the six inks. It is slow, when I hit the print command it decides to do "ink maintenance" then shimmys and shakes when it prints. The on screen status is not necessary and no way to turn it off. Finally today I got tired and am now using a different make printer.
  
  
  
• I LikeIt
  By A218ZB3ETH4TIN on 2008-03-22
  I have had this printer for only a week now, so I have not played with all of the features. I started not to buy it with all of the negative reviews. But with being a fairly advanced user, I know most users are not that advanced and don't know some of the workarounds. So I decide to go into a retail store and have it demo'd for me. After the first print I knew that this printer was no worse than any others.
  I had my PCS 1350 stop feeding paper, so I had to replace it. I was looking for one that had the 6 colors, duplexing, networking and wasn't overpriced. This was the only HP that fit all of my needs.
  After seeing and hearing it print, I could tell that it was no louder and didn't shake the table any more than the 1350. But that was the demo. Once the purchased printer was setup, it did shake a bit more than the 1350. But it's not that bad. And if it becomes intolerable, I'll move it to a table of it's own.
  It does make a bit more noise than I am used to. But still not as bad as the reviews had made it sound. The strangest thing is when it was done printing (which was fast), it continued to do things. Maybe resetting the heads. It took a while, again longer than I had expected. But that may have something to with having 6 print cartridges rather then the two cartridges in a printer that uses a tricolor cartridge.
  Some complained about the HP software. This has always been a gripe I have had. The software is bloatware. It takes a very long time to load and takes over your computer. It will even cause your computer to become slower. But this is where being an advance user comes in handy. I already knew how to overcome the software problems people didn't like. And its simple. Take the disk that comes with the Printer and throw it in the trash. Goto HP.com and search for your printer. Download the DRIVERS only file. It is much smaller because it doesn't contain all that software you don't need. Use that to install the printer.
  To setup the printer it took me about 5 minutes to unpack, 15 minutes to start it up (including the 4.5 minutes one time startup), less than 5 minutes to download the drivers file, and less than 10 minutes to have it printing. So between 30-40 minutes total.
  In doing some test prints, I have discovered that for some reason It doesn't seem to like the Kodak Paper too much. And my bet is, it has something to do with the autosense that determines if the paper is right side up. But once printed, those image are Lab quality. The duplexing feature work perfectly. Just be sure it is tured on, it is off by default.
  All-in-all, it is already the best printer I have owned. I am glad I did not let a few bad reviews deter me away from buying an HP printer.
  
  
  
• Prepare to spend t-i-m-e on setup, with networking hurdles
  By A3HCVGMNJPBJUM on 2008-02-12
  This printer is far from user friendly, and unless you are the type that is willing to dig for answers and hang tough until you work through a multitude of setup issues, compounded by frequent errors on their support-site instructions, then you are going to end up with an over-priced basic printer that does little else than make copies.
  I bought this printer unaware of the negative reviews already listed here, but have hit more stumbling blocks than should occur with a single purchase.
  The time it took from opening the box until the test page printed was a full hour! That is only 10 minutes to unbox, strip the protective plastic & tape, plug in the cables, open and insert the ink cartridges, and add paper. Then a mind-numbing 5+ minutes while the printer does a "one-time initialization" (I kept thinking...its wasting my ink!). The other 45 minutes was spent waiting on HP's software and drivers to load. In subsequent installs to other computers, I eliminated 10 minutes by doing the advance install and unchecking the "purchase HP Products", "customer participation program", and "HP Photosmart 2.0" (just try to find a way to open a photo in photosmart without having to import everything).
  IMPORTANT: The automatic update check at the beginning of the install gives a very false sense that your software is up-to-date. It is not. I **highly** recommend that you do a manual update at the end of the installation. There are 2 critical updates that the automatic check does not find. And one of those fixes a problem that causes your printer to uninstall itself for no reason. To do the manual update use: Start, Programs, HP, HP UPDATE. Do the manual update *before* installing the printer on a second computer. I found out the hard way. Out of 3 computers I only had 1 uninstall (yep. The one I forgot to run the manual update on). I had to completely uninstall and reinstall it.
  This printer also has a lot of networking hurdles to overcome and their online help has errors in it. When I tried to do a scan to computer the first time, the display just said "error, check documentation". The documentation says nothing, but a search of their online support reveals you have to manually add firewall entries for 6 hp programs, 3 udp ports, 3 tcp ports, shutdown everything that is plugged in then turn them all back on but in a specific order--I kid you not.
  
  I disagree with the others on the print quality though. This printer puts out superb looking photos and text that is as crisp as can be. And, the prints are fast.
  
  But, This has got to be the NOISIEST printer (and scanner) that I have ever owned.
  
  
• Photos with great results!
  By A3O7AOWMZU4V4X on 2007-10-16
  I've had this all-in-one unit for a couple weeks and so far it has produced great photos and scans. It was very easy to set up on my home network in which I have two laptops connected to it. One uses XP, the other Vista. You can also download photos from a memory card into the unit and "share" it with other networked PCs. Printing photos is very easy, especially with the specific photo paper loader. It uses 6 ink tanks which seem more affordable than other brand name inks. Copies and prints have shown great results. The network connection is very convienent when you live in a multi story home. One downside is that you cannot scan film. Another is the fact that your desktop tray keeps notifying you that the unit is "connected" which gets annoying after a little while. All in all, this printer appears to do it's job quite well.
  
  
• HP All-In-One C6280 Printer
  By A2UP871ACBV8RI on 2007-12-11
  I Bought a Brother printer because it made True color copies. I found out later that printing pictures with it was not good. I reserched and liked the Specs on the HP C6280 All in one. Printer-Scanner-Copier. Also I wanted a printer that prints on both sides of a sheet of paper. When the printer arrived, I tested it and picture prints were excellent. Face tones on subject were just right. The printing on both sides workes perfect. I am very pleased with my purchase.
  
  
• Numerous install and software problems
  By A3SSSVZHCZDCVG on 2008-01-30
  After purchase from a local store in late November 2007, I followed the written instructions for setup. Software installation would stop at 96%; hit cancel and it all uninstalls. Spent hours on phone with HP tech support (Philippines, I think). At one point they took remote control of my computer for 3 1/2 hours, told me to reboot and call back if there still was a problem. There was.
  
  After repeated uninstalls and reinstalls was able to get printer to function, but not in duplex mode. Tech support personnel were polite and patient, wait time was short, language and understanding was sometimes a problem.
  
  Scanning would not work using their software, however, I could scan pictures using third party programs. The tech support guy thought that I "should live with that". OCR and text scanning never would work.
  
  More phone calls and installs and uninstalls, got it to print; intermittently in duplex mode. Then had numerous error messages that popped up at random times and often would not cancel. I made numerous requests to replace the printer and/or speak to a supervisor or engineer. All requests were refused.
  
  Now I tried email tech support (online chat never worked). Received copius pages of links and suggestions on various alternate methods to install and reinstall. Spent hours detailing the problems and continued to receive duplicate suggestions to fix the problems, none of which worked.
  
  Also went on internet and googled the various error messages and software and installation problems. Found out that most of these problems with this series of HP printers was very common and that there were few solutions offered.
  
  Fortunately the store had a 90 day return policy and I packed up everything and took it back for a full refund.
  
  Remember, save your boxes and packing material until all your warranties expire!
  
  
• A Nice Multifunction Printer
  By A2GO8Q5SIOLOPL on 2008-02-15
  I bought this printer for the holidays for my wife and she has been glad we bought it.
  
  It makes good photocopies when we've needed copies of letters we're sending out. The photos look wonderful - far better than our old printer. We printed a lot of family photos the week after we got it to send with my wife's family after a visit, and they were all beautiful and possible to print in almost any size. It takes memory cards from our camera or lets you send them through the USB cable. I think it's a bit slow for documents, and the text is not always perfect, but for home it works fine. I like that it prints duplex, which it has done well without any jamming.
  
  The only real negative is the technical writers at HP have not made this product sufficiently idiot-proof. I confess I did not carefully read the directions and the problems I had were mostly my fault for trying to do two things at once, combined with my ingrained male belief that directions are for wimps. However, it is quite possible to make a mess of things while setting it up if you are not careful, and it's not easy to recover from the mess you make without knowing a thing or two about computers. That's a bad feature when most people are not that tech-saavy and don't want to exert a lot of effort on setting up new toys.
  
  We've also used it for scanning in book chapters to distribute to classes as PDF files, and it's a very fast and nice scanner with a good preview function, though again the instructions are less that clear. You need to do some "test runs" to figure out how the software works.
  
  I haven't tried it over ethernet. We just have it hooked up to one computer, so I can't comment on the speed over the network. I hate setting up software on multiple computers unless I have to, so the desktop computer became our printing station.
  
  One last good point -- it's really cheap for a scanner/copier/printer that does so much so nicely. I have used it a lot more than I expected to; it's one of those things that you don't know you need until you have it. It has many more features than printers from a few years ago, and I wouldn't have realized how useful those things are unless I had tried it. It's saved me a lot of trips to the office thanks to PDF + email -- no more photocopy and put in mailboxes!
  
  
• Wonderful Printer - No Mac Manual
  By AZIHYSDBRWYE8 on 2008-03-28
  I ordered this C6280 to replace an obsolete HP 2170 that no longer worked with my Mac OS 10.4.11. It did take a while to set up and connect to my Mac, but once done, it worked great. However, there is NO User Manual for Mac users, and it took a long time to figure out how to print photos from iPhoto (Export/Export to HP Photosmart Print). Beautiful prints! Then I could not get the duplex feature to work, and it took an hour on the phone with a patient and VERY CAPABLE tech support guy at HP. The problem was that I was using the C6280 as a Bonjour printer through my AirPort Extreme using a USB cable instead of an Ethernet cable. Now all is well, and the printer works perfectly.
  
  
• Absolutely wonderful
  By AQ8SR53C3BRI3 on 2007-10-22
  I just got this printer and it does a beautiful job in black and white. I haven't had an ink jet for quite awhile and was using a laser printer. I decided to go back to a color ink jet so I could print color CD/DVD labels. I must say the print quality is awesome. I printed a color photo on the supplied photo paper and it looks very similar to the one I had printed at Walgreens. At first I had the paper in upside down and the gals in the photo looked like they were 80 years old and had really bad hair days. Once I flipped the stock over it came out wonderful (after I let the ink dry). It has all that I wanted and more. I really recommend this printer.
  
  
• A disappointment...
  By A2VYE9EF6VA5CJ on 2008-01-19
  Negatives:
  Mac users: Automatic 2-sided printing doesn't work correctly if you're on OS 10.5 (Leopard) HP says they're working on a fix, but it won't be out for 2-months-ish (a/o Jan 15, 2008). You should check with them first, or look on their website. If the software is version 2.8 or higher, it's probably fixed.
  
  There's no way this thing prints at 30+ pages per minute. If you add in the time it whirs and click before actually starting printing, it's more like 4 pages per minute, unless you're in the fastest draft mode.
  
  Positives:
  
  HP customer service was very responsive when I was trying to resolve the 2-sided printing issue. It's clear it's not they're fault, as it worked fine with earlier versions of Mac OSX so it must have something to do with a change in Leopard. Still, why it takes them so many months to make the software fix is odd.
  
  The quality of the print is good and the design is nice.
  
  But I returned it and bought a Canon.
  
  
  
  
  
• HP C6280 Photosmart All In One Printer
  By A1YSGM7DDBMZXP on 2007-12-08
  Great Printer for the price. The best feature is the duplexer, really saves paper when you print multiple pages. Nice easy user interface to use, & setup was easy as well.
  
  
• Good deal... but
  By A34DROA6R074CW on 2007-12-06
  UPDATE APRIL 2008: been few months now, the ONLY bad point about that product is the wireless network connection!! for some reason, the connection just dies, and you'll have to restart the computer, or the router with the printer... so wasting around 10 minutes trying to set up a connection....
  I'd give it 3 stars instead of my original 4 for that. (end of update)
  
  
  
  Just got it today, the set up is REALLY easy, I'm using it as WiFi (via Ethernet).
  A wide range of options and preferences, I LOVE the two-side prints, didn't have time to try the Scanner and the Copier yet... but I'll follow up as soon as I try them.
  
  Pros:
  
  Easy Set up
  Wide range of preferences
  Double-side prints
  VERY GOOD photo prints quality, and wide preferences
  
  Cons:
  
  The Ethernet cable is not included, is it too much to add such an essential and cheap element???
  
  Sometimes the Printer seems to disconnect from the PC but it last last than few seconds and then connects again, and that didn't affect the printing orders.
  
  I'll add follow up later...
  
  Over all, so far I recommend it, and I'm happy about it... a
  
  
• Don't buy if you are using Win2000!!!
  By A27YY6EJL1LIOK on 2007-12-16
  If you are using Windows 2000 DO NOT buy this printer!! It says that it supports Win2000 on the box and the install disk also says that it is Win2000 compatible, however, after 2 hrs on the phone with HP support they said that it wouldn't work with Win2000!! And then the tech hung up on me because I wanted to know why the install disk and the box said that they did support Windows 2000!!!
  
  
• Great Printer
  By A3JHTJ5L6RAMFE on 2008-03-23
  Was easy to set up on my Linux box as a network printer. Scans great. Had no trouble.
  
  Using Kubuntu Linux and a Belkin Router
  
  
• Easy to use and great results
  By A3ENPVJ8L2362Z on 2008-02-08
  I bought the printer to replace an ink jet that was about 10 years old, and was looking for something that would allow me to print my own invitations for my upcoming wedding. I am extremely satisfied with the quality of the printing. I've done photos and text, on card stock and metallic paper with no smudging at all, and printing on odd sizes of paper (such as 3.5" x 6.75") was no trouble. The copy and scan functions are easy to use and quick. Even the fast draft option is high quality. My fiance has a more expensive ink jet of a different brand in his office, and prefers this one.
  
  
• Great Performance, Awful Stability
  By A3OC3WZ0U4NAJH on 2008-02-11
  For 200 dollars you'd think they could make a machine that is actually able to just print something when it's plugged in. Apparently not.
  
  When this thing works, it's beautiful. The automatic double sided printing, the scan and photo quality is more than you could want.
  
  But the software and drivers for this thing are a nightmare. I've had to reinstall them about five times now just because they are so sensitive to system changes of almost any kind. What's worse is that they are next to impossible to uninstall correctly. Even cleaning after deep-cleaning my registry and purging all mentions of HP there are still traces of the old software that make putting it in again impossible. And then you're reduced to half-functionality. What do they expect you to do? Format the drive every time there's a printing error?
  
  But now I long for the days of half functionality. After unplugging USB cable from my printer to deal with some setup and hardware issues, the printer refuses to reconnect! The USB cable is fine and tested with other hardware. But this stupid, stubborn HP software refuses to cooperate.
  
  I used to think HP was the king of printers. My how the mighty have fallen.
  
  
• Works great for me!
  By A1744CWTLIE4O1 on 2008-05-03
  She has what I wanted:
  ...(1) Duplex [2-sided] Printing
  ...(2) Networked Printer
  ...(3) Photo Prints Direct from SD Card
  ...(4) Scanner
  ...(5) NO UNNECESSARY SOFTWARE INSTALLED ON MY SYSTEM (by choice...see below)
  ...for medium home use: Kids Homework Projects, Scrapbooking Photos, Girl Scout Flyers, etc...
  
  Does it fit the bill? Yes!
  
  Almost painless installation onto my home network with two wireless computers running WinXP (thus I didn't need a USB cable). Both systems have Norton AntiVirus on them. I did NOT have to change any AntiVirus or Firewall settings or temporarily disable anything.
  
  Here's how I did it:
  ...(1) Start downloading the latest "Basic Drivers" install from HP's website: (~35 MB as of 30 Apr 2008)
  http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=mp-52292-3&lc=en&cc=lamerica_nsc_carib&lang=en&os=228&product=3194498&dlc=en
  ...(2) Unpack Box Contents
  ...(3) THROW THE PACKAGED CD IN THE TRASH!
  ...(4) Remove all tape/plastic
  ...(5) Hook up Power
  ...(6) Install Print Cartridges
  ...(7) Insert Paper and Align Cartridges
  ...(8) Hook up Network Cable
  ...(9) Install Software that you Downloaded in Step #1 above...being sure to select the "Network" option.
  ...(10) Pat self on back
  
  Some quirks:
  ...(1) While at the printer I could not use the "Scan to Computer" option (no real suprise here though...we didn't install all the bloated software!). But I was able to scan from the computer across the network using several programs that were TWAIN enabled by selecting "WIA-HP Photosmart C6200 1.0 (32-32)" as the source.
  ...(2) When printing with the Duplex option turned on, I get a message saying that the Automatic Two-Sided Printing Module is Missing, and that the document will be printed one-sided. But when you click on Print...it prints two-sided anyways!
  ...(3) The print cartridges that came in the box did NOT work. The printer claimed that they were defective (or not the right kind) and would not align itself. Good thing I had already bought a complete new set of cartridges at the store!
  ...(4) Yes...it is a little on the noisy side (it scared my daughter the first time it fired up next to her) but it's not deafening or anything.
  
  
• GREAT ALL-IN-ONE
  By A7CAE6EWO2WE9 on 2008-07-16
  I have owned a lot of printers, all different brands. This one tops them all. I am running Windows XP and had no problem installing the software. I print a lot of email letters from family and take them to a nursing home where the parents reside. I use #14 size letters and print them in fast draft. This saves ink and the letters still look good. I use the two-sided mode for all letters. This saves paper. I also copy a lot of material for taxes and the copy looks great. Printing photos turns out a first rate result. You won't be sorry if you buy this one.
  
  
• Good home office printer
  By A2SXWFW5GGEPXV on 2008-01-12
  The HP C6280 all-in-one printer does good job printing documents and copying. I was dissappointed with the quality of photo prints, but maybe it was my camera's fault. It does not have blue tooth, but I connected it to the router and can access it wirelessly. Some computers on my network keep losing this printer though. Overall, a very good office printer/copier for this price range.
  
  
• Outstanding All in one
  By ALZQ3F9U23MCL on 2008-01-28
  I recently purchased this model all in one printer, I must say it is very simple to install and easy to use. One of the features that I like the most is the simplicity to change the ink. But the best feature is that you can access all functions directly from the printer or using the solutions center on the pc. I would definitely recommend this product.
  
  
• Photo smart review
  By AOQ113CV8WH56 on 2008-03-15
  The C6280 is an excellent 3 in 1 printer. Using photo paper, does and excellent job. The only problem I had was the software for this printer that you load kept changing the C6280 to the default printer from my other laser jet. HP has been very responsive to help get the problem straightened out. So far, seems to be working.
  
  
• Karen D.-
  By A3HHRER8M8S473 on 2008-05-20
  As far as I can tell, we like this all-in-one printer very well. We haven't had it long enough to put it through alot of tests but the colors are excellent.
  
  The only drawback that I have would be the number of cartridges that it takes. I wish it would have had only one cartridge to replace!
  
  
• Love it, giving another as a gift.
  By A3CDXF0B5B3TF6 on 2008-05-27
  I purchased this needing to have the photo print option. I have now gotten grad pictures of my daughter to use as thank you cards. I've printed 150 photos and they are excellent. I've printed from CD's, digital camera cards and scanned pictures. It works well with my PC and on it's own. I will be buying one for my daughter when she moves to another state. It won't replace every photo copy job, but for cheap at home options it is wonderful.
  
  
• Great printer although difficult setup
  By A1FWMTEUAT4HDG on 2008-09-28
  I bought this printer to replace my Canon MP170. It had the features I wanted including 6 ink cartridges, color screen and front-loading paper. I have a 6 month old Mac and I am used to plug and play when it comes to printers. After fully loading the software and the printer not initializing, I found an OSX 10.5 update on HP's website needed to make the printer work. After downloading the update and reloading, everything worked great - although only having the printer about a week, I am very impressed with it's print quality, scanning and copying.
  
  
• NOT TOTALLY SATISFIED
  By AEZPMTB80P1UP on 2008-02-23
  I WAS SATISFIED WITH THE PRINTER BUT ALL OF THE INK REFILLS WERE EMPTY. I HAD TO GO AND PURCHASE ALL NEW ONES AND HAD TO CALL CUSTOMER SERVICE TO GET THE PRINTER TO GET THE ERROR MESSAGE OFF BECAUSE OF THE EMPTY CARTRIDGES. I WROTE TO CUSTOMER SERVICE TO HAVE THE PRINTER PICKED UP AND THEY WERE FINE, BUT DECIDED IT WAS MORE OF A HASSEL TO RETURN IT BECAUSE MY GRANDDAUGHTER NEEDED IT RIGHT AWAY FOR HER APPLICATIONS FOR COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS AND WE DIDN'T HAVE THE TIME TO WAIT. SO I HAD TO SPEND THE MONEY FOR INK CARTRIDGES AND THEREFORE HAD NO SAVINGS BY BUYING IT THROUGH AMAZON.
  
  
• HP Photosmart C6280
  By A21ACOZZO5N3HC on 2008-03-29
  Elected to purchase newer printer for my network setup at home. This has been great selection for family photo printing and working with both pc's, but have run into problems with software allowing both pc's to use the scanner. Otherwise I'm satisfied with product
  
  

• HP 02 Light Magenta Printer Cartridge
• HP Yellow Printer Cartridge (C8773WN)
• HP Magenta Printer Cartridge (C8772WN)
• HP 02 Black Twin Pack Ink Cartridge with Vivera Ink
• HP 02 Light Cyan Ink Cartridge (C8774WN)

• HP 02 Inkjet Print Cartridge Color Combo Pack (CC604FN#140)
• HP 02 Black Twin Pack Ink Cartridge with Vivera Ink
• Belkin F3U133-06 Pro Series Hi-Speed USB Cable (Six-Feet)
• Belkin F3U133-10 Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Cable (10 Feet)
• HP 02 Black Printer Cartridge (C8721WN)