What is HP Vivera Ink? Good question!

We visited the HP website and found the following definition. This is the text as we found it on the Hewlett Packard web site (source: hpshopping.com).

“HP’s proprietary ink, which has been engineered and tested to ensure delivery of a broad range of vivid, lifelike colors and crisp black text. Vivera ink formulations blend with advanced precision for consistent, realistic-color prints. Vivera ink is also exceptionally pure, so it dramatically reduces print head clogging. This purity, combined with HP-exclusive protectants, guards photos and graphics against airborne pollutants, allowing them to resist fading for decades (based on light fade testing under glass using HP Vivera Inks on HP Premium Plus Photo Paper and HP Premium Photo Paper, according to Wilhelm Imaging Research, Inc.).”

In short, about a 2-3 years ago HP released a new formulation of their printer cartridge ink. Instead of changing the ink that was in all of their cartridges they released a new line of printer cartridges that contained the Vivera ink. This ink is a premium grade ink as compared to the non-Vivera branded cartridges. With this new line of ink HP claimed that printouts could last up to 110 years. This is an increase of 37 years over their current estimate of 73 years.

The introduction of the Vivera inks also brought the introduction of the Smart printing technology. This allows customers to monitor individual ink color levels and permit them to take part in an automated cartridge purchasing program.

We’ve heard a lot of good things about Vivera ink. Customers have reported a definite difference in the colors printed with Vivera ink versus those with HP’s standard grade inks.

If you are using Vivera ink let us know what you think.