HP unveiled its new cartridge technology that can produce ink droplets in two different sizes. Apart from the usual five pico-liter (the volume of ink contained in a droplet), a 1.3 pico-liter droplet is also available for obtaining smooth colour gradations that is an important factor in photo printing. This eliminates the need for users to use a special photo cartridge for printing images.

When smooth gradation is required, the DDV (Dual Drop Volume) technology kicks in, thus enabling a single cartridge to do both — everyday printing as well as photo printing. The new tri-colour HP ink cartridges, the HP60/HP901 (for home and office printers respectively) series have this DDV feature and are compatible with common HP printers like the F4280, F4288, etc.

According to HP, for users looking at printing photos at home, even a normal entry level three ink printer (dedicated photo printers can use up to six inks) can produce better quality results with the new cartridges than with earlier ones that produced only a single size droplet. The HP 60 Vivera inks, when used on Advanced Photo Paper are also claimed to be water resistant and instant drying.