The HP DesignJet Buying Guide: Five Decisions, In Order

Look at the largest sheet you print full-size on a normal week. A 24-inch roll covers ARCH D (24×36 in), ANSI D, and ISO A1. A 36-inch roll adds ARCH E (36×48 in), ANSI E, and ISO A0. If you plot E-size or A0 full-size even occasionally, buy 36 — width is the one spec you can’t upgrade later without buying a second machine.

A single-roll machine holds one media type at a time. A dual-roll machine loads two rolls at once — bond and gloss, or two widths — and switches automatically between them mid-job. Dual roll matters during set-running weeks, when a manual roll change would stall a long collated set at exactly the wrong moment. If you feed one bond roll and never change it, single roll is honest.

Only if you scan a wide-format drawing at least once a week — field markups, old as-builts, marked-up client prints. If you can’t name a weekly scanning job, you’ll rarely use it, and you’re paying for a bigger machine and an idle feature. A one-time archive of legacy drawings is often cheaper as a service than owning a scanner you’ll then leave idle.

When your color is presentation work — renderings, client boards, GIS base maps, photographic imagery with smooth gradients. The CAD families handle color-coded linework and flat fills cleanly on plain bond. The graphics/photo class earns its cost only when gradient smoothness and gamut decide whether the output looks right. Check the measured gamut rankings before assuming a datasheet gamut claim holds.

Dye ink is vivid and lower cost but fades faster with light and moisture. Pigment ink is water- and UV-resistant and archival, which is why it’s the AEC default — permit sets and as-builts need to survive a job site and a filing cabinet. Technical machines print crisp linework on plain bond regardless. For color that has to last, pigment is the safer choice.

When your volume is industrial — plan sets by the hundred, every day. A cut-sheet CAD plotter run at repro-shop pace wears out early. At that point you want the PageWide/production class of stationary print-bar machines built for continuous duty, or a repro partner. Buying a workhorse CAD plotter and flogging it at production volume just means replacing it sooner.

It’s five questions that map to the five decisions in this guide — width, family, scanner, rolls, and color duty. Answer them and it points you to a machine class. Then read the class against the ranked grids on this page, which carry the current models with live scores and prices. The quiz narrows; the grids pick the specific machine.

Worth doing if you’re open on brand. Both build capable technical and graphics machines. The decision logic on this page — width, family, scanner, rolls, color — applies to either line. See our HP vs Epson head-to-head for the class-by-class comparison, then let the live leaderboards and measured color data settle the specific model within whichever line fits your workflow.

If bid sets are a regular part of your week and involve more than one media type, or if the sets are long enough that a mid-job roll change would stall them, choose dual roll. It lets the machine collate a mixed job unattended instead of forcing you to feed paper against a deadline. Single roll is fine only when volume is steady and you print one media type.

Because the lineup and prices change, and stale copy helps nobody. This page keeps the decision logic — which doesn’t move — in the prose, and lets the live ranked grids and the finder quiz carry the current models, scores, and prices. You work through the five decisions here, then read your answers against the leaderboard beside them.