eric from Maine now Washington State wrote:
I have an Epson 8550 eco-tank printer and an Epson P700 with "archival" pigment inks. Each printer is connected to my computer which outputs to a calibrated monitor. The output from each printer is closely matched to each other and to the monitor. I often can't discern any difference between prints from the two printers, but when I do see a slight difference I prefer the print from the 8550 which costs about 1/2 as much as the D700 print. Do I care that the 8550 print will only last 30 years as opposed to 110 years for the D700 print? For 99.9% of my prints, I absolutely do not care. Only those prints that I want to sell need to be "archival." For all the other prints I'm very happy to save large amounts of money fo make prints that often look a little better. It is true that I need to print from the P700 often enough to keep the pigment inks running freely, but aside from that there seems to be no value in spending the extra money.
I have an Epson 8550 eco-tank printer and an Epson... (
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I use the 8550 for printing greeting cards that I sell at the craft shows. Cards don't have to last 100 years as a rule. I don't sell prints, but I make some for myself. The 8550 is an excellent printer for my purposes.