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Don’t have the budget or the desire to invest in a big printer? Trevern Dawes finds out what an inexpensive A4 inkjet printer can achieve.
You may be among the many photographers who are keen to become involved in inkjet printing, but not willing to splurge on an A3+ format printer. Yet you may also be wary of budget- priced A4 printers. Confusion about technical matters is also likely to be a deterrent.
There are a number of A4 printers on the market, but for the sake of this exercise (and with all due respect to other models) I decided to work with the Epson Stylus Photo R290. A prime reason is the six-colour Claria dye-based inkset which is also used in Epson’s A3+ R1410 model. After reviewing the R1410 some time ago, I was aware that these inks are capable of bright and cheerful results on just about any paper and they come with a Wilhelm Research archival rating of 98 years display life under glass and around 200 years in book form.
Prints on A4 size paper (210x297 mm) may not be regarded as suitable for gallery framing, but be assured that prints of this size in a standard 508x406 mm frame (20x16 inches) can look very effective. Additionally, prints prepared for albums or on dual-sided paper for making photo books can all be facilitated with an A4 printer. The Stylus Photo R290 may be designated as being A4 format, but as it is actually letter size, the maximum paper width is 215 mm, while the ‘User Defined’ length goes all the way to 1176 mm. A print made on paper of those proportions can look rather stunning and when you consider it all comes from a basic A4 printer, it’s all the more impressive.
Cost Factors
The Stylus Photo R290 has a suggested retail price of $169. Allowing for the typical ‘street price’ reductions it doesn’t represent a major outlay at all. The six cartridges supplied are the standard type (at $19.99 each) rather than the high-yield variety (which sell for $26.99 each). The amount of ink in these cartridges is small and the cost per millilitre is high. Alas, the cost of ink is the bane of all small format inkjet printing. The Stylus Photo R290 actually measures 450x282x187mm and weights 5.4 kilograms. It has reasonably attractive styling, a good build quality for such a relatively inexpensive printer and, usefully, also handles CD/DVD label printing.
Set-up is straightforward and takes about 15 minutes. A basic reference manual is installed on the computer and should be read thoroughly. Help on any aspect in the printer panels may be obtained by placing the cursor on the text and clicking the right button on the mouse.
Perhaps the quest to keep the printer’s cost down comes with some shortcomings and unfortunately the manual doesn’t actually explain just how to go about print making (a common oversight for many printers). Manufacturers should not assume buyers know all about colour management and printing techniques and ought to include instructions covering these topics.
After two sets of inks were expended I hadn’t encountered any problems with the printer, including the paper take-up on everything from panoramic prints to a run of greeting cards on a stack of A4 paper. There was no evidence of banding. As it is a budget-priced printer, some reliability problems could be encountered down the track, but there are two comforting factors to consider here. Epson printers have a reputation for reliability (I worked with a 1270 for years without any trouble) and, if anything does go wrong after the warranty expires, you might just as well replace it. After all, a replacement set of inks is almost equal to the cost of a new printer. This is typical of all low-cost printers and, unfortunately, is hardly helpful in reducing landfill problems.
Basic Guidelines
Colour management principals may forever remain a mystery to the many people who are content to follow a recommended printing routine without really knowing how it all works. If only one point need be stressed, it’s the importance of being able to accurately print what is viewed on screen. This is achieved by calibration of the monitor.
Adobe Gamma comes with Photoshop and is a perfectly adequate method of screen calibration. To make the process all the easier, have a downloaded colour chart as screen saver and when it comes to adjustment of those three colour rectangles, swap to the screen saver and work with the full chart of colour. Because monitors lose their brightness and colour after a few years, it is critical to have one that is relatively new.
In order to attain the very best results it’s essential to follow some simple guidelines. As a general rule stay with the Epson branded inks and papers because the printer profiles provided are intended to function accurately with Epson consumables.
The choice of paper surface is very much a personal one but, once again, dyes are suitable for all surfaces. Gloss prints will have a flawless surface because dyes penetrate and do not exhibit gloss differential or bronzing problems. If you decide to use cheap third-party gloss papers then you’ll need to accept that those with a greasy surface are going to look second rate against the recommended papers.
One of the aspects to be appreciated with any inkjet printer is that digital camera files are generally ‘flat’ in appearance. They all need a little work in image editing software to add ‘punch’. This is achieved by dragging in the shadow and highlight sliders in Photoshop’s Levels to match the ‘toes’ of the histogram. Check the Preview box so that you can see the before and after results.
Always run small test strips for those critical display prints. A little extra ink for testing can save a lot more on a wasted full-sized print. As dyes do have an initial red colour shift in the ‘dry down’ stage, be patient enough to make assessments after a reasonable period, even if it means a set of tests one day and the full prints the next. Try to view prints in the lighting conditions in which they will be displayed most of the time. Under no circumstances should inkjet prints be forced dried with a hair dryer.
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