Epson Helps You Print Your Large Life

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.trustedreviews.com/printers/review/2010/05/04/Epson-Stylus-Photo-R2880---A3--Inkjet-Printer/p1' target='_blank'>http://www.trustedreviews.com/print...kjet-Printer/p1</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"If the numbers of ink colours manufacturers build into their high-end photo printers goes on increasing, there&rsquo;ll be one for every conceivable colour before long. If you don't believe us, witness the Epson Stylus Photo R2880 and its new UltraChrome K3 ink system. It uses a mammoth eight colours, including a 'vivid' magenta, two grey inks and a choice of blacks, making it ideal semi-professional and professional photo printing."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1272991989.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 0px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>While we keep on talking about the great benefits of the paperless office, it is still a very, very long way away.&nbsp; Personally, I have found little use for printers, be it for photos or personal or business use.&nbsp; I like keeping everything digital.&nbsp; It is easier to store, access and manipulate.&nbsp; However, I can see how some people might want hard copies of things, especially photographs of precious moments.&nbsp; And for those, we turn to inkjet printers, now with more ink tanks!&nbsp; It has been a while since I've used printers, but they still appear to be quite popular, and ink prices are still high enough to make me cringe.&nbsp; I imagine that the print quality has gone up though, especially if they have more colour tanks than I can count on one hand.&nbsp; Anyone has experience with the prosumer level printers and the photos they produce?</p>

[Bob12]

I have an HP Photosmart Pro B9180 which uses eight ink cartridges. Yes, they're fairly steep to replace but the photos they produce are excellent. It'll print up to 13x19 inches on a variety of surfaces including several which HP produces specifically for this printer, including canvas. My standard photo paper is HP Premium Glossy. I've also tried the canvas and another one called Aquarella which resembles water color paper.

[NeilE]

The Epson K3 inks are great, as are the comparable inks from Canon and HP. If you take the time to get a properly colour-managed workflow setup you can get absolutely stunning prints from these style of printers. I own a Canon iPF 5100 (a professional-grade pigment printer similar to this, only bigger) and it produces images that you can easily sell as fine art pieces. Oh, and I don't think 8 ink tanks qualifies as "mammoth". My printer has 12 inks :)

The ink looks expensive but you'd be surprised at how little gets used even on large prints. The paper, on the other hand, is very expensive, easily making up half the price of each print.

Keeping everything digital is certainly nice for convenience, but in my opinion nothing compares to a printed photograph.

Oh, and if you do own a printer like this, I maintain a list of paper options for pigment-based inkjet printers at http://www.danecreekfolios.com/inkjet-paper-list/. Very useful if you need to find the perfect paper for that one awesome image.

Neil