One of my favorites
Yesterday, at noon, it arrived. According to the shipping information, the package weighed in at a stout 64 pounds. According to Epson’s documentation, the printer itself weighs about 20 Kg, or 44 pounds. It is a nice and hefty beast, but fits nicely atop a small bookcase that I have. The other 20 pounds was for packaging! B&H did their usual great packing job and it’s a good thing, there was a rather large hole in the outer box, courtesy of UPS … “What can Brown do for you?”. Fortunately, there was outer box around the printer box, so no damage!
Unpacking and setting up took about 45 minutes. The instructions are clear and very easy to follow. I configured the printer as a network printer using an Ethernet cable rather than a USB cable, which is not included anyway. 
Before I give my impressions on my first day of usage with this printer, I have to give a big pat on the back to HP. Hmmm, didn’t he say that he got an Epson? Yes! However, the first thing that I did when I got the new printer was make a comparison print between the new and old. My HP 7760 performed flawlessly on both a B&W and color print. Mind you, the HP has a built-in densitometer to keep the colors ‘correct’. The Epson uses custom profiles, the HP does not.
I printed the HP my normal way, through Photoshop, Adobe RGB, Let printer manage colors. The Epson, through Photoshop, Epson PRO38 PLPP printer profile, Let Photoshop Manage Colors. In printing the color pictures, they looked nearly identical, with the HP having slightly more saturated yellows and greens. Eyeballing it and looking at the profiled monitor vs. the print in daylight lighting I’d have to say that the nod goes to the Epson, but only very slightly. The Black & White prints were very close as well. I can say, though, that it is much easier to print B&W with the HP than with the Epson because of the number of choices available in the Advanced B&W driver, but, in the end, they looked close. Mind you, this is comparing 8.5 x 11 inch prints since that is the largest that the HP will print.
One of my color favorites
Now, on to Super A3 size, which is 13 x 19 inches. I dug back into the archives to get my favorite pictures, one of which is pictured at the top of this post. I wanted to see how it would look when printed in Super A3 size. In a word, fantastic. I can’t wait for my next shipment of foam core board so that I can continue with my picture hanging. Naturally, I had to try a color photo or two, as well. I got the same results … fantastic!
Ink usage:
As these ink cartridges cost about $50 each for 80 ml of ink, I hope that the printer is frugal in its usage! I know that the first set of cartridges will not last as long as subsequent ones because the entire system has to be primed at the beginning, which uses a few ml of ink from each cartridge. The printer has a nice feature that tells you how much ink is remaining and the approximate number of pages that you will be able to print. I’ll need to investigate to find out what size page we are talking about, though. I don’t know if 106 pages of LLK (Light Light Black), which is what remains in my LLK cartridge means 106 8.5 x 11 pages, or 106 Super A3 pages. My guess is that it is measured in standard A4 (about 8.5 x 11) pages. A Super A3 page is about 2.6 times as big (area), so perhaps, if everything is linear, 106 A4 pages = 40 Super A3 pages. Of course, this will depend on how much of a particular color is used. My LLK cartridge, at 75 %, is by far the lowest as I’ve printed mostly B & W prints so far. I guess I’ll find out when I run out. I’ll need to anticipate, though, as I don’t think that the local stores like Office Max/Depot carry these inks. I’ll have to order online. The other inks vary in their estimated number of pages with the Cyan and Magenta inks reporting over 3000 pages available.
Anyway, it’s not much of a review, just my initial impressions. Looks like I’ll be giving prints for Christmas!
Addendum: Well, there is one thing that I could wish for on this printer: A warning that says: Hey dummy! Open the print exit door before you attempt to print!!! I was printing, the printer was behind my back and I had forgotten that I closed the ‘door’ to the exit way. I hear this ‘pop!’ and the door opened because the print applied enough force to pop open the door and, in the process, bend the print! Doh! Rookie mistakes!
Recent Comments