A versatile inkjet printer does both photo prints
and blank discs
By Rob Sheppard
Printing
on CDs with the Epson Stylus Photo R300 was quite
satisfying. I enjoyed creating CDs for slide-shows
or a DVD of video footage and then printing a professional-looking
label directly on the disc. The photo prints looked
great, too, but the R300 was limited in size of
prints to 8.5x11 inches. Thankfully, the Epson Stylus
Photo R1800 came along. It offers quality printing
up to 13x19 inches (13x44-inch panoramas), a new
set of inks and even disc printing.
What
a combination! This overachieving device prints
images quickly, with the prints rated for lightfastness
as long as 100 to 200 years. It’s a higher-priced
printer ($549 street price), but its excellent features
make it well worth the investment for the digital
photographer.
Three things stand out for me: its ability to make
large prints plus print on CDs and DVDs, its speed
and its superb print quality.
I’ve already mentioned the versatility of making
photo prints and disc printing. I use CDs in varied
ways, like sending CD slideshows to friends and
family and using them for my workshops and books.
Printing an attractive image on the CD is a classy
way to go, and the R1800 does a beautiful job of
it.
I love this unit’s speed. I timed an 11x14-inch
photo at one minute, 55 seconds, which is close
to Epson’s claim of one minute, 51 seconds.
It’s hard to believe that such a print once
took 15 minutes with early photo printers! Under
two minutes is a time you can deal with (smaller
prints are obviously faster). The unit connects
to the computer with USB 2.0 or FireWire, so the
transfer of data from computer to printer isn’t
slowed.
You can expect great prints from an Epson printer.
When using the profiles that came with the unit
and printing through Photoshop, I got prints that
represented the monitor image beautifully. You can
print true borderless prints at 8x10, 11x14 and
12x12 inches (the last is scrapbooking size). The
printer uses eight ink cartridges: seven inks, plus
a gloss optimizer (for the best results on glossy
paper). The seven inks include the standard cyan,
magenta, yellow, photo black and matte black, plus
two new colors—red and blue—to offer a
wider gamut of printing colors. Ink droplet size
(a better indicator of photo quality than resolution)
is a very small 1.5 picoliters.
For a printer capable of making 13x19-inch prints,
it’s average in size and weight at 24.2x12.6x9.1
inches and 33 pounds.
