burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Your results may vary. It is a known issue with certain Epsons, and has been for 20+ years. The overspray gets all over the inside of the printer. You can sometimes clean it out, but it's a royal pain... The Epson 8550 is a good value, except for those who insist on borderless prints.

I own a high quality paper trimmer...

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Quality depends on the ink set. Cost depends on whether you buy dinky little cartridges or comparatively large bottles. Cartridge ink can cost 80 times what bottled ink costs... per average square foot of printed photo.

texaseve Loc: TX, NC and NH

These days I send everything out for me and my customers. We have trouble with our Epson tank printer (ET4760) because we travel and it sits. It is not a designated photo printer.

Ruraldi Loc: Milmay, NJ

Thank you all for the suggestions - it gives me some things to ask about and look for. I'm going to the B&H expo next week - so hopefully there will be some good buys.

SummitJim Loc: Novato, CA

A follow-up question to your great answer. I have a Canon Pixma Pro 100 that has sat unused for 3 or 4 years and I want to put it back in service. I know all the inks will need to be replaced and maybe the print heads. Is this a reasonable path or would I be better buying a new Pro 200?
Thank you.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Price the cost of a complete ink set for the Pro 100 and compare it with the cost of a new Pro 200. Then call a Canon service bureau and find out what typical repairs are needed on aging Pro 100s, and what they cost.

My vote would be to replace any printer that is not supported on the current operating system you use. If you like to run old, unsecured operating systems just so you can print, keep your computer off the Internet. If you don't mind generic printer drivers that may not support all the media and profile options you need for the papers you use, keep your old computer and keep it off the Internet...

There simply comes a point where resurrecting an old machine is a foolish idea. I've tried several times, with about a 50/50 success rate, to unclog heads and keep a printer going. I've always seen them clog again when I got lazy and didn't use all the inks within a reasonable time period. So I'm more likely to just buy a new printer these days.

SummitJim Loc: Novato, CA

I was afraid you would say that. With the cost of all new inks and print heads, the 50/50 success rate, I could spend half the cost of a new machine and then be running a last generation printer that might fail again anyway. A new printer will fit my budget so I will follow your advice.
Thank you.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

This brings up a good point... The need for personal printing, vs. the use of labs or service bureaus.

No one EVER saved money by printing their own work. But there are MANY valid reasons to do so.

> Privacy
> Immediacy
> Convenience
> Precise Color Control, if you know how to use ICC color management workflow
> Use of exotic substrates (art board, canvas, cloth, archival rag papers, metal, textured papers...
> Economical production of lots of very large prints

…and more, I'm sure.

SummitJim Loc: Novato, CA

Convenience and immediacy are the most important to me. One I would add is the ability to easily experiment with variations. I used to have a wet darkroom back in the day and spent hours at a time there. Boy is digital an improvement on that!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Yep! With a properly calibrated, graphic arts-appropriate monitor and good device profiles, "what you see is what you get" color or black-and-white is mostly reality. It cuts out all the guesswork for 95% of my work. Few, if any, would care about the subtleties I worry about with the other 5%.

one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

FYI, the Pro 100 is discontinued and replacement print heads are no longer available (from reputable sources). However, I have read that the Pro 200 print heads have the same part number and will work in the Pro 100. (Learned this from the JToolman fb group). Within Jose's fb group and his You Tube videos, there are many tips/techniques for cleaning or restoring a Pro 100 that has sat unused. I urge you to check those resouces out before making a decision.

SummitJim Loc: Novato, CA

That brings me to the next subject for my education. I have never calibrated a monitor and don't know how it is done. I currently use a laptop for my computing and expect in the near future to purchase a good quality external monitor in place of the smaller laptop screen. I shoot RAW and am comfortable with Adobe Lightroom.

My 5 year old computer picked this time to die and rather than repair I will probably replace it. I've had great luck with the Dell XPS series.

SummitJim Loc: Novato, CA

Thank you for that. I will certainly take advantage of those resources. When I was actively using my Pro 100 I really liked it.

one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

JToolman also covers/discusses the need and methods of monitor calibration. His fb group has a files tab with resourses, namely downloadable files such as "Printer Evaluation Image".

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Monitor calibration involves a colorimeter OR spectrophotometer, and software written for it. Kits of these items are available from Calibrite (consumer division of X-Rite) and Datacolor. Some monitors will require a specific calibration tool, so read the manual and other documentation for your monitor.

The software is easy to use and it walks you through the process. Basically:

> Pick a monitor with at least 100% sRGB, and preferably 99% or more of Adobe RGB, or >95% of P3 color gamut. Please don't buy a gaming monitor, as they are designed for high refresh rates as a priority, NOT color accuracy.

> Locate the monitor in a dimly lit place with no bright light falling on the screen. I bounce a 60-watt, 5000K LED bulb off the ceiling in the far corner of the room, and pull the shades on the windows. The monitor faces away from the windows.

> Consider surrounding your work area with GRAY. Also choose a medium or dark gray as your computer operating system's Desktop background. The idea is to keep your personal "visual field of view" as neutral as possible. This avoids vision fatigue color bias. If you stare at a bright color for too long, then look away, you will see the opposite color, and your ability to judge color neutrality will be compromised.

> Install the software and register it as directed. The kit will tell you when to plug in the "puck" (colorimeter or spectrophotometer), and when/where to place it on the screen.

> Follow the instructions presented by the software.

> You can calibrate some laptop monitors. Certain MacBook Pro monitors are factory calibrated and require special instruments to calibrate. Others (MacBook Airs, for instance) can be calibrated with the kits I mentioned here. Generally, though, it's best to use a desktop monitor as a reference.

Be sure you download and install manufacturers' ICC profiles for any third party papers you use. When using a third party paper, you DISABLE the printer driver's color management, and ENABLE the color profile for the paper, in the software used to print on it. When using OEM paper, ENABLE printer color management, and DISABLE the software's color management. Either way, you will need to pick the paper TYPE in the printer driver (matte, glossy, etc.).