Quality Matters

Most photo quality printers are more than capable of faithfully reproducing a wide spectrum of colours. Place an inkjet photo in front of anyone and nine times out of ten they are going to be more than happy with it. Place two identical prints in front of the same person, but created on different printers and all of a sudden they become an expert in colour. They can now express a preference for one or the other. But given that the image may be the same, why should there be any variation in quality?

The answer to the above question is how the computer, printer and colour management is set up. Then we have to look at the media and ink combination. Producing a technically perfect colour print should be an easy task, given the advancements in technology. In short it is very easy to produce and excellent print, just as it’s easy to take a technically perfect photograph with any of today’s digital cameras. But, there is one caveat that most people overlook and that is photographic skill, whether it’s focus, exposure or colour balance. Digital photography is not just two clicks of a mouse, it requires a lot of expertise and a sound knowledge of the capabilities of hardware items being used. As stated earlier, most of today’s printers are more than capable of producing superb prints, but use the wrong inks and media and the results may fall far short of expectations.

Fortunately Epson printers are supplied with an excellent set of canned profiles that can be used straight out of the box, guaranteeing excellent quality prints from the outset. Like the Pro 3800 you can tailor the output of the Pro 3880 to your own preferred taste. However, unless you set up your system correctly, you are not going to achieve the best quality from any printer. This includes fitting and using the correct inks, (not third party), carefully choosing the correct media with matching profile, or create a custom profile.