Customer Reviews
Don't do it! 
2003-06-14
I've had HP printers for years and have always liked them. However, this printer is a real headache. We've had 3 --taking the time for returns was a hassle. With each of these HP printers, the paper feed mechanism has been defective. With every document I printed, the feeder malfunctioned and the paper was torn or badly misaligned. I found out on the HP website that others have had similar problems with a number of HP printers--malfunctioning paper feeds. HP has done nothing to correct this problem. I've now become a Canon printer owner am quite happy with Canon printers--excellent quality and no problems. I'll never buy another HP printer.
color ink cartridge 
2002-12-26
I've had this printer for about a year. About every 3 months I need to change the color ink cartridge when I don't even use it. I've called support and they didn't help me at all. I changed the black ink and when I print something, nothing comes out on the paper. On the printer it shows 3 circles on top and 4 on the bottom. I can't keep buying color ink cartriges every 3 months. What do I need to do?
Goes "Haywire" Regularly 2002-12-08
Setup was easy enough, but this printer routinely goes haywire, spitting out a whole cartridge load of paper and refusing to print. I have tried it with several different PCs, with this same intermittent weird behavior. Only a reset of both the printer
and the computer seem to fix everything.
I'm off to buy an Epson!
NOT Fast, Outstanding text,Excellent Images 
2002-10-08
...........~ ~ ~ ~ * * * * ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ When I was shopping for a new printer, I purposely looked for an HP. The Epson I was replacing had given me headaches from the start, with every thing from loading paper, to big lines across printed images. I had had good luck before with an HP series 500 DeskWriter that I used with my Mac.
~ ~The first sign was not promising. I got an e-mail 1 day after my purchase notifying me of a safety recall. I could have screamed. But, as I read more carefully, I saw that all I had to do was see if the power cord was made by a certain subcontractor, and if so, get a free replacement.
When I got the printer, yes, it was the faulty type, but I ordered the free replacement online and got it quickly.
~ ~Since then, everything has been smooth sailing. Set up was very easy. Loading the software onto Windows 98 was easy. (I don't usually even try, I have my brother do it, but this looked like something I could handle myself). Loading paper was easy. Praise the Lord; no more paper jams!
~ ~The disadvantage is that the printer is slow. Even just black and white text documents, and even using just draft quality. The advantage is that the print Quality is great. Even at normal, text documents are crisp and clear. Choosing "best" quality is great for sharp text on transparencies. But where it is really counts for me is on my cherished edited photographs. They are excellent quality.
I definitely recommend this printer enthusiastically* * * *, unless you need fast print jobs.It's Outstanding for crisp, clear documents, and beautiful graphics, but it won't win any races.
Excellent print quality, expensive ink 2002-06-10
While shopping for a new printer, I knew that image quality was very important to me. After reading some reviews of this printer, I learned that some people had problems with tram lines appearing on photo paper. That is a problem I have yet to see, and thus far I have been completely satisfied with this printer. The automatic paper type sensor is annoying at times, but it does what it is supposed to do. Also, having a "print cancel" button is something someone should have thought of about ten years ago, when printers were more prone to spit out random ASCII characters, but it is still a nice thing to have now.
My only caveat about this product is the high price of ink, where a regular-sized black ink cartridge can cost [a lot], and a color one even more. I am willing to pay that since my last printer died because I had been using generic ink cartridges, but think about long-run costs if you plan on doing a lot of printing with this printer.
A good all-purpose printer 2007-01-13
I've had this printer for nearly five years, and it's outstanding for printing text and general purpose printing, including envelopes. I've read some reviews of people having problems with paper feeds and envelopes, but I haven't had one problem yet. This printer has probably spit out about 10,000 pages, and I'm yet to have a problem, other than expensive ink.
I'm really into photography, and I do not use this printer for that - I have a much more advanced printer for that purpose. It's fair to note that HP has a very good track record with photo printers, however. But, this printer has a three color cartridge, so it's not really well suited for printing more than the occasional print.
Overall, this is a great printer that I'd recommend you pick up used if you are looking for a printer to run lots of text through. (I don't believe it's available new anymore.) It takes the widely available HP 45 Black and HP 78 color cartridges. One drawback - the ink is a bit on the pricey side - upward of $30 for the black, and slightly more for the color cartridge. I've tried using generic cartridges, and the print comes out jagged and not readable, so you're better off sticking with the genuine HP cartridges.
HP has lived up to it's well-earned reputation of making solid printers with my HP 960. I won't replace it for printing out text until it dies, and then it will probably be another HP.
Fine basic printer 2006-04-04
I have had this printer for several years and use it alot. It's fine for general purpose printing. It is slow, but I am able to print out more than 200 meeting notices every month, labels, some photos and there have been few problems. In all these years I think I have had three or four jams, easily fixed. The photos are not the highest quality, but they are more than just OK. I may replace this printer for an all-in-one that scans and photocopies. But for regular color printing, there's nothing wrong with this one, other than it is slow.
Good printer, so so on photos, crap for envelopes. 
2004-10-01
I have just spent 5 minutes trying to get this damn printer to print an envelope without mangling it. Wonderful.
TERRIBLE PRINTER 2004-07-09
I've had this printer for a while now, and i rarely can get it to work properly. When it is not taking 2 pieces of paper at a time, it is printing in some strange code. The quality of the picture is alright, but nothing special. I would highly recommend not to buy this printer
Flawless. 
2003-10-29
This printer worked like a champion. I retired it for a 2230 and later for a cp1700. I made countless prints off it. Never had it fail me, misfeed or so much as tell me no. I bought the duplexer and loved that thing too! I wish I had one for this CP1700. The ink prices and refilling the carts are the only complant I have. But it is what it is. All desktop printers are designed to make there bosses money. When you buy a printer you are buying a subscription to ink. Though compared to everything else on the market in it's class the 960 is the champion. If I had to estimate the page count I put on that little machine I'd have to say about 12,000 pages in color over a 1 year period, at least 1,000 pages per month. Most everything I print is full page color. It sucks that HP doesn't make them like the 900 series anymore.
