EPSON R800 printer

Page 4.

Day 3

A new set of UltraChrome inks

Epson first introduced UltraChrome pigment inks back in 2002 with the Stylus Photo 2100/2200. The inks promised an increased colour Gamut, which Epson claimed to be better than traditional wet chemistry photographs. "Users can get much greater colour reproduction than with ordinary printing and in fact can even get colour reproduction superior to that of a conventional silver halide photograph."

Incorporating new red and blue inks, the Stylus Photo R800 has the widest colour gamut available from an inkjet photo printer. I asked Epson why they didn't choose a Green ink, (green is a notoriously difficult colour to print) and they informed me that Red and Blue offered the greatest increase in Gamut. The UltraChrome Hi-Gloss pigment ink has also been designed for unsurpassed print permanence in an A4 photo printer, with a lightfastness estimated at over 80 years for glossy papers and over 100 years on matte media; a flexibility and durability that promises to rival silver halide.

Flowers printed on the R800 using Premium Glossy paper with UltraChrome H-Gloss inks

In the original inks Epson incorporated a light black (grey to everyone else), this was to give better reproduction for b/w printing. There was even a handy software application called Gray Balancer, which baffled most people, although I quite liked it. The new UltraChrome ink set doesn't have a light black, Photo Magenta or Photo Cyan. Instead there are three new additions, Red, Blue and Gloss Optimizer. The Gray Balancer software is not needed or included with this printer.

Left to right - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Blue, Red, Photo Black, Matte Black and Gloss Optimizer

Putting on the Gloss

The Epson 2100/2200 produces superior looking prints when compared to their previous pigment printer the 2000P. The original UltraChrome prints display excellent colours but lack punch when compared to a good quality dye inkjet printer. However, it produces outstanding prints on matte fine art paper. UltraChrome has a problem in producing good looking glossy prints, due to the resin coating on the ink which prevents the inks from penetrating into the paper pores. The pigment ink particles lay on the paper surface which dulls down the gloss on the media. The biggest advantage of UltraCrome inks is in its archival qualities, prints have an expected life of 75+ years. Compare this to a dye based print offering a lifespan of 10 years and you can soon see, the advantages pigment inks offer.

UltraChrome lays on top like a spot varnish.	The resin coating

The R800 introduces a new ink cartridge called Gloss Optimizer. This promises to resolve the gloss issue, which came to the forefront with the 2100/2200. The Gloss Optimizer is made from the same transparent resin that surrounds the colour pigment in the UltraChrome Hi-Gloss inkset. This optimizer is designed to produce glossy, long lasting images. To answer a question that has been posted on the forum, the Gloss Optimizer has the same qualities as the colour pigments and as such will also benefit from a long lasting print life.

Without Optimizer	With Optimizer

The prints above have been shot at 45' with strong backlighting to show how the Gloss Optimizer has filled in the white paper surface (shown as black). The above picture was printed on Epson Premium Glossy paper and the gloss results are as good as prints created with dye inkjet printers, with the exception of Canon's Photo Paper Pro.

Pigment Ink without Encapsulation	EPSON UltraChromeT Inks	EPSON UltraChromeT Hi-Gloss Inks

The illustration above shows how light is scattered with pigment inks, the second illustration shows how UltraChrome with its resin coating has improved the surface quality. The last picture shows the new UltraChrome Hi-Gloss inks using 1.5 picolitre drops produces a smoother looking surface. Now this is fine for evenly coloured prints, but when there is no or little detail you are left with paper surface. My shots above shows what happens if you view a print at an angle, this is extreme but it illustrates the point.

The Gloss Optimizer is only available for three media types, Premium Glossy Photo paper, Premium Lustre Photo paper and Premium Semigloss Photo paper. On the other media types the gloss option is greyed out. You can select to turn the Gloss Optimizer on or off and you have a two choices. Auto, covers the image area only and Full which covers the entire page.

No Gloss Optimizer used	Gloss Optimizer used only on image (not supported under Mac OS X)	Gloss Optimizer used on total print area
Gloss is not available for all media types

Next colour and b/w with the new UltraChrome inks