INKJET PRINTERS, AN UPDATE

Bill Popejoy, Aug. 2005

When color printers first came upon the scene they printed text and color photos, but not very well. Since then we have come a long, long way. Historically Hewlett Packard has sold over half of all inkjet printers. Today there are 3 types of printers available: (1) Inexpensive, “All Purpose Printers” which sell for less than $100. They print text and color photos but not extremely well. (2) “Business Printers” are designed to produce large numbers of documents, very fast. Their text quality is excellent and they print color photos quite well, but not great. HP leads the way in producing these printers. (3) “Photo Printers” are optimized for printing color photos which they do very well, some better than others. Their text quality is good but not great. They are much slower than the “Business Printers”.

Most people will be satisfied with the results obtained from the “All Purpose Printers”, mainly because they don’t know any better. These printers have 2 print cartridges, one for black ink and the other has 3 tanks, one each for Cyan, Magenta and Yellow, ink. Now you may see where CMYK came from. These colors are the complements of the “primary” colors Red, Blue and Green. Serious photographers and others wanting the best color photographs possible opt for a “Photo Printer”. Several years ago 2 extra tanks were introduce to the Color Cartridge, Light Cyan and Light Magenta giving better gradation of tone and greatly improved results. These printers had 6 tanks in all. More recently they have broken up the color cartridge into separate cartridges. Canon was the first to do this. What it meant was if the Light Magenta tank became empty, one had only to replace it, not the entire color cartridge. These 6 cartridge printers gave outstanding results. Look before you buy as there are still some 2-cartridge “Photo Printers” out there. Most “Photo Printers” today have from 6 to 9 separate cartridges. Grey, Light Grey, Green and Red have been introduced very recently. For many years, Epson was far ahead of the other companies in producing “Photo Printers”. Now the playing field has been leveled with HP and Canon pushing Epson for producing the “Best in the World”.

The fineness of detail in a print depends partly on the size of the “Print Head”. Ink Jet printers spray ink on paper through very small nozzles. The smaller the nozzle, the smaller is the droplet of ink and the finer the detail.

THE VERY BEST PHOTO PRINTERS IN THE WORLD:

HP:Look for the word “Photosmart”. The very new Photosmart 8750 has 9 ink tanks including grey and light grey and may be the best photo printer available today. Time will tell. It prints on paper up to 13 inches wide and sells for about $500. It uses the new HP Vivera inks which should last well over 100 years.

Epson: Epson has led the world in using pigmented inks which don’t fade. In the standard size the Epson Stylus Photo R800 is the best. In the 13 inch wide printers the Stylus Photo 1800 is identical to the R800 except for size. The R800 sells for about $400 and the R1800 for about $550. Very recently they have introduced their new “K 3” inks in the 13 inch wide R2400 which sells for about $850. It may be a better printer than the HP 8750. Time will tell. If you want a 13 inch wide printer that give stunning prints, at a very reasonable price, get the Epson Stylus Photo 1280 at about $350. It only has 2 ink tanks but uses 5 colors.

Canon: The i9900 has led the field for the last 3 years. It prints 13 inches wide and I have it and love it. Canon has recently introduced a new ink, “Chroma Life 100” which is expected to last over 100 years. Look at the very new (July 11, 2005) PIXMA iP4200, price to be determined. Prior to its introduction the PIXMA iP8500 was the top of the line Canon 8.5 inch wide printer.

INK: PC Photo in its September, 2005 issue, pp60 – 63, reviews inks. The good news is that most printers sold today should give prints that will not fade for at least 50 years with many going as long as 100 years. Until recently fading could occur in as little as 10 years. Consumer Reports in their September, 2005 issue also report on inks. MY RECOMMENDATION FOR MAKING COLOR PRINTS: USE THE SAME BRAND INK AND PAPER AS THE PRINTER YOU ARE USING.