Suhit Gupta
05-13-2004, 03:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1583439,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1583439,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div>"Almost any ink jet printer today can print photos at something approaching photo quality. But for professional photographers and serious amateurs, nothing short of true photo quality will do. This is the group that the Epson Stylus Photo R800 takes aim at, and it does a good job of hitting the mark. As icing on the cake, it also prints on printable CDs and DVDs and from standard business applications well enough to serve as your only printer. <br /><br />The R800 looks a lot like Epson's $100, near-photo quality R200, with a rounded front, gray and silver design, and a set of four control buttons and three status lights on top. [However] the R800 uses eight ink cartridges: cyan, yellow, magenta, red, blue, two versions of black, and a gloss optimizer cartridge."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/epsonr800.jpg" /><br /><br />"The red and blue inks yield a larger than usual color gamut. The two versions of black—one for plain and matte paper and one for glossy paper—let it use black ink on all media, rather than mixing colors to create a composite black in some cases. The gloss optimizer adds clear gloss to areas with less ink to provide a consistent level of glossiness. And these are pigment-based inks, which means they resist fading."<br /><br />The R800 doesn't appear to have done very well in PC Magazine's printer test. It doesn't appear to be a very fast printer and got average results on the QualityLogic's PageSense software. However, if you are looking for a printer that can produce very accurate colors, you might want this $399 printer that can print true photo color images.