Construction

Now we have set up the printer and created the first print, I will take a look at the printer build quality and other features. Although, as already stated, the printer is larger than I expected, there seems to be no sacrifice in detail. The printer is an overall black with a chrome finish trim on the top. This may not suit everyone's taste but it looks professional. The rear paper support has a single telescopic extension and the front surface has two strips of cork which I presume are to add a small amount of friction to stop the paper slipping. The paper support slots into a rear groove and sits securely in place. I would suspect if any weight or pressure was put on it, it could easily break.

The front paper output tray is of the telescopic type with four sections. With the tray fully extended, the printer looks vulnerable to all sorts of accidental mishaps - this could be the first victim in an office/studio environment. Once collapsed the tray folds upwards and clicks safely home. The cover is black semi-transparent, although it's so dark you can't see through it, nevertheless it looks stylish. Opening the cover reveals the works which are minimal but fully functional. On the right hand side is the ink cartridge holder, the inks are easy to access when they need to be replaced. The ink holder also has a plastic lid/cover which doesn't fully cover the inks, I was puzzled as to what function this served. When the printer is turned off, the ink holder travels all the way to the right and the cover stops you from removing the ink cartridges.

At the rear is a sturdy looking lever, this is for adjusting the distance between the print head and paper. The four settings are Plain Paper (0.08mm to 0.3mm), Envelope (0.4mm to 1.3mm), CD-R tray (sorry to you all in the US and North America), and an Open setting. I thought about the envelope setting for some time, in fact I have often wondered why manufacturers bother putting this feature on a Photo printer. I can understand the need for it on an business machine - but not on a quality A3 printer. The more I thought about it, the more ideas sprung to mind. So here is a new feature for photo-i.

photo-idea Instead of sending invoices in plain envelopes, incorporate your own Logo. Setting up a template is not that hard, or for personal letters print a picture of a family member next to the stamp (don't try to print the postage stamp. Even the 2100 wont fool the postmaster!)

Looking at the top plate of the printer is the control panel. This consists of four buttons: Power, this turns the printer on and off - press the button twice whilst the printer is on and it clears the printer's memory; Paper, this loads, or ejects paper; Ink, press this and the ink head moves to the ink replacement position or hold it down for approx three seconds and it performs a head cleaning routine; Roll paper (without cutter), prints a cutting guideline and feeds roll paper to a position where it can be easily removed from the sheet feeder if pressed after printing. Feeds roll paper to the printing position if pressed after cutting the paper. Feeds roll paper in reverse to a position where it can be easily removed from the roll paper feeder, if pressed for 3 seconds; Roll paper (with cutter), with driver setting Single Cut or Double Cut cuts roll paper at the position that is selected and ejects it if pressed after printing, then feeds roll paper to the printing position automatically. With driver setting Not Cut cuts roll paper with a margin and ejects it if pressed after printing, then feeds roll paper to the printing position automatically - I will test this in due course.

At the rear of the printer are three ports, USB, Firewire (IEEE 1394) and a Parallel interface.

I am going to move on to some printing tests on the next page, but will return and look at the accessories later.

www.photo.i.co.uk