Hi Luminous Landscape,
i have recently sold Epson 3880 to upgrade to Canon IPF6400 mostly due to printing from roll. I have read lots of reviews that x400 series are very capable fine art printers, but when i compare prints with my ex. Epson 3880 there are clearly more visible dots due to smaller resolution.
Hi,
There will also be a visible difference (at closer than normal viewing conditions) due to the dithering method used, but the maximum resolution should still be 600 PPI maximum on the Canon's, which is visually almost impossible to distinguish from 300 PPI except for the very finest high contrast detail. It should therefore also be pretty close to the higher 720PPI Epson setting (with 'finest detail' switched on), and virtually indistinguishable at normal viewing distances.
I have trouble to find a way to print the images at higher resolutions since all the driver offers is "highest 600x600dpi", no matter what the paper type is.
The "Highest" 600 PPI setting does offer much more data to do the output sharpening on than with 300 PPI, and maybe you just need to use different settings than you are used to with your Epson. Also make sure that the head alignment is done on the actual paper you are using.
This problem frustrates me since i expected superior quality to Epson 3880. Please help me find a way to push this printer to its maximal potential.
Well 600 PPI is its max (and 720 PPI for the Epson), but maybe the output sharpening needs to be modified, or the printer is not optimally adjusted? You also didn't mention if the image data was 600 PPI natively, or if it was resampled to that resolution and then sharpened. Maybe you processing can be improved?
To verify the native resolution capabilities (so
without resampling and output sharpening effects), and test if the printer achieves the 600 PPI resolution, you can use a
test target I created for that purpose.
If resampling is involved, then I'd recommend to review your resampling and output sharpening workflow.
Cheers,
Bart