Epson 3800 Printer Getting Started With Inkjet Printing PDF Manual

Inkjet printers have made significant progress over the last few years: contrast is higher, colors are more saturated, and print longevity is better than ever. On the other hand, finding all the right settings to make a great print can be an exercise in frustration. At times, the world of inkjet printing seems like alchemy: if you twist this knob, flip that switch, and check the phase of the moon before feeding the paper to the printer, then you might – just might – get a print that matches what you saw on your display!

Luckily, there is some method to the madness. That’s what this article is about: a primer on inkjet printing with an emphasis on practical and tried-and-true methods. It’s intended for newcomers thinking about making their own inkjet prints, but I hope that even experienced users may pick up a nugget or two of new information.
Here’s an overview of the topics covered:
1. How to choose an inkjet printer and paper
2. Color management basics (calibrating and profiling your display and printer)
3. Setting up your RGB working space in Photoshop
4. Soft-proofing
5. Resizing and sharpening your images for output
6. Printing with printer profiles
My aim is to provide you with just enough practical information on each of these topics to help get you going. While some topics may be covered in greater depth in future articles, the new printing discussion forum at NatureScapes.Net is a great place to ask questions if you want more details in the interim. To keep this article from turning into a book, it’s necessary to leave out some topics and also to make some assumptions. Let’s concentrate on color images (as opposed to neutral or toned black and white images) and assume that you’ll be printing from a recent version of Photoshop (CS, CS2, or CS3). Some of my illustrative images are from Photoshop CS2, since that’s what I currently use.

How to Choose an Inkjet Printer
Choosing a printer is like choosing a camera: there are too many choices! Since everybody’s needs are different, I can’t tell you exactly which printer is best for you, but I can offer an overview and rough guide. The NatureScapes.Net printing discussion forum is a good place to ask about specific printer models. The big three players today in the photographic inkjet printing world are Epson, Canon, and Hewlett Packard (HP). Epson has long been the king but now Canon and HP have very competitive offerings that in many areas exceed Epson’s own offerings. That’s good news for us photographers – competition ultimately gives us better options at lower prices! Current inkjet systems fall broadly into two categories: dye-based inks and pigment-based inks. The traditional view is that dyes are more vivid and have higher contrast but aren’t stable (fading quickly within a few years or even a few months), whereas pigments are less vivid and have lower contrast but are significantly more stable (typically lasting for decades or even hundreds of years before noticeable fading). Consequently, the pigment ink printer market has really picked up recently and pigment printers have become the de facto choice for both amateurs and professionals alike, based on longevity considerations alone.

Just like in the camera market, the inkjet market is continually making improvements: the newer dyes are more stable and the newer pigments have larger color gamuts and higher densities. Again, this is great news for photographers. As of today, I still recommend pigment printers for most photographers, because the current dye inks offer improved longevity only with a very limited selection of papers. Carriage width. The carriage width determines the maximum width of the paper the printer can accept. Most of the popular printers fall into the 13″, 17″, 24″, or 44″ category. For example, the HP B9180 and Epson R2400 are 13″ printers, whereas the Canon iPF5000 and Epson 3800 are 17″ printers. Note that bigger printers also tend to use larger ink carts, which means replacing inks less often. Roll paper support. Some printers (such as the Epson R2400 and the Canon iPF5000) support roll paper, whereas other printers (such as the HP B9180 and the Epson 3800) don’t. Roll paper support is very handy for printing panoramas and for unattended batch printing (especially with thick matte papers, which would otherwise need to be fed one sheet at a time with most printers). Matte vs. glossy. Matte and glossy papers use different types of black ink, Matte Black and Photo Black, respectively.
Some printers, such as the models from Canon and HP, can hold both of these inks at the same time and print from either one on demand, whereas the current printers from Epson require switching between the two black inks (whether doing so manually or via the printer), wasting ink and time. This isn’t a big deal if you print primarily using just one type of paper (e.g., all matte paper), but it’s worth considering if you like to switch often between paper types. Price. This one is obvious: your wallet knows when it’s taking a beating. A less obvious aspect of price is the amount of ink that comes with the printer. This should be taken into consideration when comparing prices of different printer models. There are other considerations, but I think I’ll leave it here for now. I’m sure you’ve noticed a seemingly glaring omission – a discussion of print quality! Why is that? In my opinion, all of the current offerings from Epson, Canon, and HP can produce extremely high quality prints in both color and B&W when used properly, so I feel that the major distinguishing factors boil down to other features such as the ones listed above.

Download Epson 3800 Printer Getting Started With Inkjet Printing PDF Manual


June 29, 2010 | Posted in Epson Manual, Printer Manual

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