HP Photosmart Software Readme

 

 

Contents:

1.  Setup and Install

2.  HP Photosmart Premier

3.  HP Photosmart Essential

4.  Scanning

5.  Upgrading Windows

6.  Other Applications

 

 

1.  Setup and Install

 

·              Administrative privileges are required to install or uninstall the HP Photosmart software in Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

·              Windows XP SP1 (Service Pack 1) install error message:  HP recommends that Windows XP systems be updated to Service Pack 2 or later. With SP1, you might encounter an error message during software installation.

·              During installation on a Windows XP SP1 system, a SVCHOST error, such as “Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered a problem and needs to close,” might occur. This error does not prevent a successful installation. Click “Don’t Send” in the error message to dismiss it, and then continue the installation.

·              The HP Photosmart software supports a variety of HP products.  HP Photosmart software installs by default into the C:\Program Files\HP folder. You can change this install folder during the first install of HP Photosmart software on a computer. Subsequent installs of other HP products that use the HP Photosmart software will automatically use the same folder as the first install. To change the folder where the HP imaging software is installed, you must first uninstall all HP imaging devices and the HP imaging software and then re-install all HP imaging devices and HP imaging software.

·              HP Photosmart software will install in the same language as a previous install on the same system. If you wish to change the language of the HP Photosmart software, you must first uninstall the software for every device that uses the HP Photosmart software, the HP Photosmart software itself, and then re-install. HP Photosmart software will install in the language of the operating system of the PC by default (if that language is supported by the HP Photosmart software).

·              Functionality on systems that just meet minimum system requirements will be limited. Use of many images, or videos, require a system that meets the recommended system requirements for acceptable performance and reliability.

·              Troubleshooting Setup and Install

If your device is not recognized:

·              Ensure your cable is connected correctly. Remove the USB cable, look at the end of the cable, and then match it to the pattern on the USB port. Make sure it is not upside down. Insert one end of the USB cable completely into the USB port on the HP device and the other end into the back of the computer.

·              Check that the peripheral is powered on. Peripherals will not be recognized if the power is off.

·              Ensure that your USB cable is no more than 15 feet or 5 meters in length.

·              Check that the USB port is enabled. Some PCs ship with disabled USB ports.

·              If your device included setup instructions or a setup booklet, review it carefully for details on how to connect your device to your PC.

·              On some systems an “HP Photosmart Fast Start” shortcut may be added to the Windows Startup folder.  (Click on Start>Programs>Startup if you wish to view your Startup folder). This shortcut pre-loads a small HP Photosmart Premier component during system startup to significantly improve HP Photosmart Premier startup performance.  If you wish to disable HP Photosmart fast start, you can do either of the following:

·              Left-click and drag the icon from the Startup folder to your desktop if you would like to keep the shortcut in case you wish to restore it later

·              Right-click on the shortcut and select Delete if you wish to delete it

 

2.  HP Photosmart Premier

 

·              You may have both HP Photosmart Premier and HP Photosmart Essential installed.  Both applications may be safely installed on a PC at the same time, and you may use either of the applications depending on your preference. 

·              If you cannot see some of your photos in the thumbnail viewer, it may be because there are unsupported characters in the name of the file. Exit Photosmart Premier, re-name the file without any special characters in the filename in Windows Explorer, and restart Photosmart Premier.

·              HP Photosmart Premier displays or prints only the first page of a multipage TIFF file. 

·              Keywords and captions added to images may only be viewed and used in Photosmart Premier.

·              Keywords and captions are stored in image files for JPG images by default.  For other image types & video files, keywords and captions are stored in the Photosmart Premier imaging database and are not retained when copying or moving images outside of Photosmart Premier.

·              To retain all keyword and caption information, use the Photosmart Premier Backup feature to move images from one computer to another.  The computer the images are restored to must have Photosmart Premier installed on it to restore the images and use the keyword and caption information.

·              Keywords entered in HP Photosmart Premier cannot be viewed in Photosmart Essential.

 

3.  HP Photosmart Essential

 

·              You may have both HP Photosmart Premier and HP Photosmart Essential installed.  Both applications may be safely installed on a PC at the same time, and you may use either of the applications depending on your preference. 

·              The default imaging application launched after a scan can be modified.  To change the default scan imaging application, launch the HP Solution Center and 1) Select the "Settings" button; 2) Select the “Scan Settings and Preferences”; and 3) Select the “Scan To…Setup” option to change the default application to launch after completing scans. 

·              Keywords entered in HP Photosmart Essential cannot be viewed in Photosmart Premier.

·              Support information for Photosmart Essential may be found in the Photosmart Essential Help.  To access Photosmart Essential Help:  1) Launch Photosmart Essential; 2) Click on the Help button in the upper right-hand corner of the Photosmart Essential application; 3) Double-click on “Use HP Photosmart Essential” in the Help Contents pane to expand the Help contents; and 4) Click on “Troubleshooting and Support” for additional information beyond what is provided in the Photosmart Essential Help, and for web support links for Photosmart Essential.

 

 

4.  Scanning

 

·              Scanning at higher resolutions can take a long time to scan and process and will create big files. For most purposes, the best compromise between quality and time/size is given by the default resolution.

·              Changing preferences for scanning from HP Scanning software does not take effect until you restart the HP Scanning software. Changing preferences from the HP Solution Center, Settings, Scan Settings and Preferences, Scan Preferences software will take effect upon the next scan.

·              To turn off the prompt for additional scans:  In the HP Solution Center, click Settings, Scan Settings and Preferences and then click Scan Preferences.  Click the Automatic tab and clear the “Prompt for additional scans from glass/TMA” option.  Click OK.

·              To turn off the preview scan setting:  In the HP Solution Center, click Settings, Scan Settings and Preferences and then click Button Settings.  Click the tab associated with the button in the HP Solution Center or on the device that you want to change, and then clear the preview options you want to turn off..  (Note:  The preview scan options do not apply to scans started from other software applications.)

·              If you change to or from a Transparency Materials Adapter (TMA) by loading a profile, you must preview again to see an image in the HP Scanning software preview window.

·              The default file type when scanning to the HP Photosmart is JPEG. This file type supports Millions of Colors (24 bit) and 256 Gray Shades (8 bit) output types. If you select an output type of Black and White (1 bit) or any of the 256 Colors output types, the file produced will still be in JPEG. Black and White output types will result in gray scale JPEG files and 256 Colors output types will result in 24 bit JPEG files. To get true Black and White or 256 Colors output types, change the setting for default type to either TIF or BMP in the Save Settings dialog under the Scan Picture Settings accessed through the Settings menu in the HP Solution Center for your device.

·              To use the Descreen feature with a device that has an ADF, first scan one page through the ADF to bring up the scanning application user interface. Then place the images you want to scan using descreen feature into the ADF and click on Descreen in the scanning application user interface. When you click on Descreen, a new scan will start, deleting the images already in the Preview window.

·              When using autocrop, ensure the lid is properly centered on the scanner. This will prevent stray light from entering into the scan and will result in the best autocrop results. Some images may not autocrop well even when the lid is on properly.  In these instances you will need to manually draw the crop area.

·              When creating html files in languages other than the language of the PC operating system during scanning, for best results do not use extended ASCII characters in the file name.

·              OCR recommendations for input files:

1.  300 dpi, 8-bit greyscale or 24-bit image data.

2.  400 dpi, 8-bit greyscale or 24-bit image data for Asian languages (Traditional
and Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean).

3.  Do not use 1-bit files for OCR.



5.  Upgrading Windows

 

·              HP recommends that you uninstall your HP Photosmart software and HP devices before upgrading to a newer supported version of Windows.  For example, when upgrading from Windows 98 to Microsoft Windows XP, uninstall HP Photosmart software and your HP device through Add/Remove Programs and then upgrade to the new operating system. After the operating system upgrade is complete, re-install your HP Photosmart software & device.

           

6.  Other Applications

 

·              Microsoft WordPad does not display compressed JPEG files contained in an RTF file. To display these files, use a different application such as Microsoft Word.

·              Systems with Norton AntiVirus 2002 installed may have an error message displayed when sending an image to Microsoft Word from the HP Photosmart software. Upgrading to Norton AntiVirus 2003 or to Microsoft Word Service Pack 2 will eliminate this error message.

·              ICSharp SharpZip (in hpqszip.dll) is an open source component provided under modified GNU General Public License, version 2. Source code and license text can be found in your install directory under Source\SharpZip.

·              Expat XML Parser

Copyright (c) 1998, 1999, 2000 Thai Open Source Software Center Ltd

 

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

 

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

 

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,

EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY

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TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.