HP DesignJet 500ps

The 500ps was never meant to win a race. It was meant to sit in a print room and turn CAD files into readable D-size drawings without drama. On bond, on vellum, on the 24-inch roll, it lays down monochrome line work that a plan checker can actually read. Fine lines hold. Small text stays legible. For an office producing HP-GL/2 and PDF output through a familiar HP driver, that predictability is the whole point.

The “ps” designation is the part worth caring about. It shipped with PostScript handling, which mattered for offices pushing color coordination drawings and the occasional presentation sheet through a mixed workflow. On a deadline, a plotter that chokes on a PostScript job is a plotter that keeps you late.

• Small studios running low weekly volume who just need reliable D-size check prints.
• Backup duty behind a newer production plotter — the machine that saves the 4:45 bid set when the main unit jams.
• Vellum and specialty media work, using rolls like the HP Vellum Paper 24-in and HP Matte Film.
• Offices with a stockpile of HP 10, HP 11 and HP 82 cartridges already on the shelf.

Single roll. That’s the failure mode you’ll feel first. Run out of paper mid-set and someone is standing at the tray reloading while the clock runs. A modern dual-roll machine switches sizes and never stops. This one stops.

Then there’s throughput. This is a four-cartridge dye-based design from an older generation. It is not fast by current standards, and it wasn’t fast by the standards of the machines that replaced it. For a busy civil or MEP department pushing large mixed-size plan sets every day, the wait adds up across a week into real hours.

Parts and service are the quiet risk. Discontinued means your local dealer’s shelf, not HP’s. When a printhead carriage finally quits, availability is a phone-call lottery, not a next-day certainty.

Staying in the HP family, the step-up in our catalog is the HP DesignJet T918 36-in — wider, and it adds an integrated scanner for copy and archive work, though it too is now discontinued. If you want a current machine with a warranty and stocked parts, the cross-brand 24-inch field is where to look: the Canon GP-200 24-in for entry-level color work, or the Canon iPF605 24-in and Canon iPF610 24-in for higher daily volume. Line them up side by side in our 500ps vs iPF605 comparison before you sign anything.

See where the 500ps ranks against the current class on the 24-inch plotter leaderboard to gauge how far behind the field it really is.