EPSON R800 printer

Page 6.

Things are never simply b/w

Despite all the wonderful advancements made in colour printing, black and white or greyscale, still remains a popular choice with creative photographers. Their choice is for both aesthetic and artistic reasons. For many black and white still represents the purest form of photography. Most Inkjet printers use a combination of black and colour inks to achieve the many subtle shades of grey. A six-ink printer produces a wide variety of simulated greys (look at the print dot under high magnification and all the colours are present). Generally a black-ink cartridge is only capable of producing 17 shades of grey. By using half toning techniques a reasonable result can be achieved, but the look becomes grainy.

I was very excited when Epson introduced the 2100 with it's UltraChrome inks and the light black, at last I felt I could sell my b/w darkroom gear. Although the 2100 combined with the Gray Balancer produces excellent monochrome results, metamerism and bronzing are still a problem. The R800 UltraChrome ink set has dropped the Light black and also the Gray Balancer software, it now relies on a composite grayscale, i.e. it uses all the colours in combination with black to produce a grey.

The problem with using colour inks in greyscale printing is the introduction of colour casts, which can take on a cyan, green or magenta tint. This is far from ideal if you want neutral tones in a print. However, a good profile should be able to give a neutral print. So how does the R800 cope with b/w?

The original file

Print (A) - Premium Glossy using SPR800 Photo Paper (G) profile

Print (B) - Premium Glossy using Colour Controls set to 1.8 (Default)

Print (C) - Premium Glossy using ICM

Print (D) - Matte paper Heavyweight using SPR800 Matte profile

Print (E) - Premium Semigloss paper using SPR800 Photo Paper (G) profile

I am slightly disappointed with the b/w output of the R800. For the first print (A) I used the supplied profile and it produced a very warm toned print which could almost pass for sepia. I Chose the Print with Preview option in Photoshop CS.

The Print with Preview options in Photoshop CS

In the printer dialog palette I set the correct media and chose the Advanced settings. Here I chose ICM and then selected Off (No Colour Adjustment). This prints with the profile you have selected in the Print with Preview palette. Just for the record, this is where I was having problems, I didn't select the Off setting and a profile was being applied twice. This is the settings I will use for the rest of the review unless otherwise stated.

The Advanced options in the Print Properties used for Print (A)

The second print (B) was printed using the Print command and Colour Controls with the Default setting of 1.8. Print (C) used ICM and the printer chose the profile. The last result should have produced a similar result to print (A) but clearly it hasn't.

Print (D) using matte paper and the SPR800 has given the best result so far, although there is a slight green shift in the print. When matte paper is used the Gloss Optimizer is turned off, the matte print is just that.

Print (E) using Epson Premium Semigloss paper has given a pleasing but warm tone, very similar to Selenium toning a print in the darkroom. I don't mind this.

Settings used for print (B)	Settings used for print (C)

If you like a warm toned print then the R800 is going to give you just that, if you want a neutral grayscale print then you may want to create your own profiles. I should stress that the printer I have here is a pre-production model, drivers and profiles may be changed before launch in February 2004.

For an off the shelf b/w printer the HP 7960 still holds on to the top position. The Epson R800 is by no means a poor performer in b/w, personally I prefer a warm toned print to a cool tone, but I would prefer to chose the amount of warmth myself. I will return to b/w later in the review, for the time being I will push on with some more colour prints.