Photo Printer

Date: Mar 18, 2005
Contributor: Tanisha Wagnon

First Look: Epson's Big, Beautiful Photo Printer

Just as digital cameras have become viable alternatives to film cameras, home-printed digital photos now rival the quality of the traditional silver-halide prints that commercial photo labs offer--that is, if you're using a top-quality printer such as the new Epson Stylus Photo R1800.

The $549 large-format inkjet model offers several outstanding features, including very high resolution and enhanced fade resistance, which make it a good choice for photography buffs or anyone who wants to produce high-quality archival prints. I tested a shipping version of the R1800 and found it capable of producing beautiful color prints from a variety of images.

Like its smaller cousin, the Epson Stylus Photo R800 ($399 street), the R1800 uses the Epson UltraChrome Hi-Gloss pigment ink set, which includes eight individual cartridges: In addition to the traditional cyan, magenta and yellow inks, the set uses red and blue inks, Photo Black and Matte Black inks, and a Gloss Optimizer that applies extra gloss and produces prints that look as if they were developed in a standard photo lab.

Both printers can issue tiny 1.5-picoliter ink droplets--for smoother, continuous-tone prints with crisp details--and both can print at a high resolution of up to 5760 by 1440 dpi (as well as lower-resolution modes).

But what separates the R1800 from the smaller R800 (and many other regular photo printers) is its media-handling flexibility. In addition to small (4-by-6-inch and 5-by-7-inch) prints and standard-size paper, the R1800 supports larger paper sizes up to 13 inches wide. It can also use wide panoramic roll paper (a roll-holder accessory is provided) with a maximum 13-by-44-inch printable area. You can even print directly onto inkjet-printable CDs and DVDs using a special tray (also included).




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