PHOTO QUALITY PRINTING: 
The Epson Stylus Photo 1200

by Michael Fulks

With advances in digital cameras and the accessibility of photo imaging programs to size, modify, and store photographs, the home computer user has-- until recently--had to rely on other people to print out his or her photographic quality images. While earlier inkjet printers had been good enough for a "proof," artists and photographers were hard pressed to consider such output adequate for use. And, because of non-archival inks and a paucity of media available, the serious artist was reluctant to use these printers for final artwork, relying instead on other alternatives such as Iris printers. 

Epson is changing all of this with the introduction of the Epson Stylus Photo 1200. Using a six-color ink scheme and micro-dot technology, this 1440X720 dpi printer will amaze even the most jaded inkjet user.  Skin tones, in particular, are beautiful, and the apparent resolution of the printer is much higher than 1440dpi. Even with a loupe, dots are hard to find.

Setting the printer up is a breeze. Windows users will find the familiar parallel port cabling, while both MAC and iMac users will discover that connecting the printer is as easy as connecting an eight-pin mini-din serial or USB connector. We did encounter a problem at this point, which prompted our first call to Tech Support. There was no waiting, and we learned that the Epson printer did not like our Multishare printing network system. Connecting the printer directly to our computer solved its erratic behavior problems, and we were off and printing.

We began by printing out a document from Word to check speed and type quality. We chose a page that was as full of text as possible, and we compared the plain paper mode with the photo quality mode and output from a laser printer. The results appear below:

Laser Printer: 12pt. type printed on plain paper. (600dpi) Output time: 16 pages per minute.	Epson Stylus Photo 1200: 12pt. type on plain paper Output time: 45 sec/page	Epson Stylus Photo 1200: 12pt. type on special coated paper Output time: 3 min 38 sec/page

The Perfect Printer: Our idea of a perfect printer would:

• have type rendering properties equal to a laser printer printing at 1200dpi or better.
• have the ability to produce photographic quality true-color images.
• have the ability to produce rich toned, photo quality black-and-white images.
• have the ability to produce pages of mixed graphics and text quickly with rich black-and-white tones and crisp, sharp, true color rendition of color graphics.
  

Next, we tried color photographs. This is where the printer shines. When printing from Photoshop 5.0, we learned several important lessons that are worth passing on here. First, Photoshop 5.0 has a default printer color space. This does not work well with the Epson 1200. Instead, we found that loading the Epson software had added an Epson Stylus Photo 1200 printer color profile that Photoshop 5.0 could access. While the default Photoshop "driver" produced supersaturated, posterized colors, the Epson color profile nearly matched the screen for color output and "gamma." We also found that it was possible to have the Epson color profile selected along with the the default Photoshop profile. This choice should be avoided. 

I let the image complete and then resized it to 300dpi and printed it again. This time it printed out in about thirteen minutes. I compared the original (sized at 720dpi) and this print (sized at 300dpi) and couldn't tell the difference in quality.  Thus, I learned that you don't need large file sizes for great image quality!

The printer produces smooth, natural transitions from shadow to highlights in the skin tones. The gray of the background is rendered neutral in color with no banding and no colored artifacts. (Image supplied on disc by Epson.)	This is an extreme close-up of the image on the right, scanned from the actual print. Notice you can see the texture of the fabric but no dot patterns!

I was unable to figure the economics of running the printer. The best results are obtained when text and text/graphics are printed onto a coated paper such as Epson's own Ink Jet paper or Great White's Imaging and Photo paper. Both are priced considerably higher than plain paper, but are worth the price for the exceptional appearance. For photographic images that truly look like photographs, Epson Photo Paper is the way to go. The 8.5X11 sheets run about $1.00 per sheet. (It's available in sizes up to 11X17 inches.)

There are two cartridges for the Epson Stylus Photo 1200. One black and a five-color cartridge for the remaining colors. As with many other inkjet printers, when one color runs dry, you must replace the whole cartridge. I printed out about twenty-five 8X10's and four 11X17 images before my color cartridge ran out of yellow.  (Of course, your results may differ.) 

I also found two additional sources for paper that you may want to try: Luminos (www.luminos.com) and Pictorico Inkjet media (www.pictorico.com). I tried the Luminos and found the variety of paper surfaces fun to work with. (We'll have a review of Luminos Ink Jet papers shortly.) Luminos also makes archival inks for other Epson printers and will likely have archival inks for the Stylus Photo 1200 soon.  Prices for the inks are reasonable, but, because archival inks tend to have a smaller color range than normal inkjet inks, some tweaking on the user's part is necessary to find settings which are acceptable. In the meantime, Epson says its inks may last six months to one year unprotected, several years if laminated with a UV filtering plastic available at many photo labs.

Our Conclusion: The Epson Photo 1200 offers virtually dye-sub quality inkjet output at sizes up to 13X44 inches.  It is easy to set up and use, and supplies are readily available and affordable. And, because of the variety of papers and textures supplied by both Epson and other vendors, with  archival inks to come, this printer is a valuable tool for the serious artist and photographer.

Printing Method EPSON'S exclusive Advanced Micro Piezo ink jet technology

Color Configuration Six-color with separate black ink cartridge (CMYKcm)

Maximum Resolution 1440 x 720 dpi black and color, on plain and premium papers

Dot Size Six picoliters ink droplet, with variable drop technology

Print Speed 4" x 6" photo: 1 minute, (720 fine mode)
8" x 10" photo: 2 minutes (720 fine mode)

Compatibility Windows, Macintosh and iMac

Interfaces Bi-directional IEEE-1284 parallel (nibble mode); Macintosh compatible 8-pin mini-din serial interface (up to 1.8 Mbps), USB

Paper Capacity 100 sheets/10 envelopes

Paper Sizes Letter, legal, Photo Paper (4" x 6"), panoramic sizes up to 13" x 44", A3, A4, B (11" x 17"), Super B (13" x 19"), B4, B5, statement, executive, user definable

Maximum Printable Area 12.76" x 43.34"

Fonts 1 LQ built-in font, Compatible with all Windows and Macintosh fonts (TrueType, Adobe)

Printer Dimensions 22.8" x 11.3" x 6.9" (L x W x H)
15.4 lb.

Software Driver Windows 95 and Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Macintosh System 7.5 or later, USB requires Mac System 8.1 or later, or Windows 98,or later.

Adobe Postscript Level 3 w/ Pantone approved colors available as an option.

Warranty One-year limited in U.S. and Canada, with Epson Overnight Exchange

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* Specifications are subject to change without notice. Epson and EPSON Stylus are registered trademarks of Seiko Epson Corporation. All other product and brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.