Printing

Or everything I've learned about getting consistent color with Photoshop, a PowerBook G4, and an Epson R1800.

Some time ago, I purchased an Epson R1800 printer. Shortly afterward I started learning about the differences between screen color and print color. For a little while, I was really disappointed with the output: weird color casts, bad shadow density. It took some time to cobble together the (surprisingly large amount of) information necessary to make consistent, accurate photogrphicprints. I thought I'd share it in five installments: the printer, the display, the image, the print, and viewing the print.

The Printer

I did a fair amount of research regarding printers. The ink in dye-based printers seemed to fade and discolor too quickly; in a matter of years in some cases. This narrowed the field to pigment-based printers, which mostly narrowed the field to Epson printers. I also wanted to make larger format prints, further narrowing my choices, essentially to the 1800 and 2400. Looking at the differences in price and features, I chose the 1800.

Since I bought the printer, of course, things happened.

First, I understood the differences between the 1800 and 2400 a little better. Both printers use Epson's new Ultrachrome inks, pigment-based inks with excellent permanence and color safety. Both are 8-color printers. The 1800 uses matte black and a photo (glossy) black inks. The 2400 uses three shades of matte black; a photo black cartridge can be swapped in (at the cost of some ink). Even though the 2400 is about $300 more expensive, I would now buy the 2400. The three black inks will produce better monochrome prints with deeper blacks and smoother midtones.

Second, both HP and Canon have since released some nice, pigment-based printers. Canon's 10-color 9500 and HP's 9-color 8750 look quite good. Only time will tell if they match the quality and longevity of Epson's inks and printers, but all these printers bear consideration. Also note that Epson's R800 printer, while restricted to 8 1/2 x 11 paper, is otherwise the same as the 1800. This makes it a very reasonably priced, excellent printer. Also worth consideration.

No matter which printer you choose, don't forget to budget for consumables, like paper and ink. The 1800's ink consumption seems to be quite good (hundreds of 8x10 prints), but a full set of inks runs about $100. Note that each color if ink can be replaced as it runs out; you need not replace the whole set, for example, if you run out of yellow ink. Paper, too, can get expensive. Monitor calibrating hardware is also money well spent, but more on that later.