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The capability of any printer can only be judged on the quality of prints it produces. The 1400 uses Epson's new Claria inks which were introduced in 2006. It will be interesting to see how these inks perform especially when compared next to Canon and HP printers. I will cover the inks in detail later in the review, so let's produce our first print and see what the Epson Stylus Photo 1400 is made of.
Please feel free to use the photo-i test print for your own tests, just click on the first picture below and save the file to your hard drive
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The Original test file |
First print |
Second print |
For the first and second prints I used Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper (PGPP) and selected the Photo setting and just let the printer produce the prints. As you can see they have an overall Magenta cast, in short a total disaster. Regular readers of these reviews will know that I always try to improve on the output, fortunately all that was needed was a head clean, the inks hadn't circulated properly. This is the first time this has happened on any review unit I have had. This should reassure you that reviewers don't get a specially selected printer, we get an off the shelf review unit.
After the inks were circulated I produced my fourth print using the same settings. This print displayed excellent colours throughout - the Claria inks are now showing their true colours. Please note that this is a scan of the original print and as such it will have lost some quality.
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Fourth print - quality set to Photo |
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Settings used |
The fourth print is displaying a good broad range of colours, although perhaps the print is a bit too vivid for my own personal taste. I am going to try the same test again, this time I will use the Best Photo setting.
Printing times for an A4 print
- Photo setting - 1min 55 seconds
- Photo RPM (Best Photo) - 4min 19 seconds
Printing times for an A3+ print
- Photo setting - 4min 16 seconds
- Photo RPM (Best photo) - 11min 12 seconds
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Fifth print using the Best Photo setting |
The fifth print produced seems to have had a de saturation applied. I am feeling uneasy about the way this printer is behaving. I will run a few more test prints using various settings before I compare this printer with other printers.
For the next print I have by-passed the printers driver and let Photoshop manage the colours. For this you will have to select Print with Preview and select Let Photoshop Determine Colours. Make sure you also select ICM and check the OFF (No Colour Adjustment) box. Failure to do this will result in a print with a double profile applied.
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Let Photoshop take care of things |
Make sure you turn off Color Adjustment |
Result on the next page
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