Last week I purchased what I consider my first "real" photo printer, the
Epson R280. Though I only paid $55 for it, brand-new, shipped, with 6 full Claria inks, (got it from
Fred Miranda) and I knew it was a "budget" model, I read great things about it (in particular
here at Luminous and at
DPreview). Basically what I've been told is that, if 8x10s are large enough (and for now they are), it really is a good printer.
That has been my experience so far, too. I am a hobbyist, a Nikon d-SLR user, and do a lot of landscapes.
This printer, apparently, is basically the same as the Epson 1400 only with 8x10 as the maximum size (again, ok with me).
So far, I have used the following paper. For 8x10, I have been using
Kodak Ultra Premium Photo Paper, High Gloss (cat#
1252261), got it for $16.95 from Sam's Club, 65 sheets. For 5x7 I have used
Ilford Premium Photo Glossy, 250g/m² (cat#
1146588), got it on clearance 50 sheets for $6.49 from Best Buy.
I have figured out settings for both (detailed at this
DPreview posting) that work great so far, based on suggestions from the respective paper makers and my own experimentation, therefore basically you could say "I'm all set, up and running."
However, I would like guidance and clarification, if I may.
First-off, regarding
print quality, is there any reason for me to print at
Photo RPM (Best Photo) instead of
Photo. I tried
Photo and it prints quite a bit quicker, yet it seems to look just as good to me, at least with my 5x7s anyway. In fact, the Ilford paper suggestions state to use either one, while the Kodak advises Photo RPM. (I do have high-speed and bi-directional OFF at all times.)
Secondly, I'm always hearing about
ICC profiles. Thing is, though, with the settings I have, the colors seem to come out very close. If that's the case, is there any reason to bother? And if I do need to download ICC profiles, is there somewhere that has them "en masse?" I never can seem to find any, and others always say they have to be custom-made. Why wouldn't they all be cataloged on a large site somewhere?
Regarding
ink/paper sources, someone mentioned
this site (Atlex.com) as a good site. Anyone have any other suggestions, or is that one good enough to just not even bother with anyone else?
Also, what settings in Photoshop (I guess?) do I need to make the pictures
borderless? I actually prefer them full-frame, and have been printing as-such, but in case someone wants me to do a borderless-one for them, I need to know how to do so. Thing is, I check "borderless" in the Epson printer driver and they come out full-frame--again, I prefer that, but I need to know what to do to make them borderless for those that want it.
Finally (I guess), does anyone have other
suggestions for paper that they think would work better than what I have? What I have seems great-looking, but if there is a certain paper some swear by, I'd like to know--
especially for matte printing (those papers are glossy).
LRH
My PBase site