In my review of Epson ’s Stylus Photo R800 pressman (; January 2005 ) , my only complaint was that it would n’t impress on theme large than 8.5 - by-11 inches . Voila ! The R1800 is here and it will produce borderless prints up to 13 - by-19 inches and bird’s-eye prints up to 13 - by-44 inches , which is very telling for a background pressman . feature the same eight - groove ink solidification and individual replacement cartridges as the R800 , the R1800 is a buy at $ 549 .
Tiny but Mighty
Thanks to its 1.5 - picoliter mark head , which fork up narrow droplets of ink , the R1800 has a maximal result of 5760 - by-1440 dpi , offer up professional picture - lab quality . The R1800 uses Epson ’s UltraChrome inks , but in a different conformation than its Stylus Photo 2200 (; October 2002 ) .
Whereas the Stylus Photo 2200 employ a CMYKlclm ( CMYK plus light cyan , light Battle of Magenta ) ink set , the R1800 uses red and blue alternatively of the two light colors , declare oneself a broader gamut stove and a fleck more saturation of extremely bright colour . Thanks to Epson ’s exact color visibility and well-off apparatus , you should making expectant prints within about 10 minute of open up the box .
Versatile Print Options
The R1800 has both the Photo Black and Matte Black cartridges and switches between them automatically depending on the type of paper you choose . The eighth cartridge is a burnish enhancer ( which you’re able to choose in the Print dialogue ) that adds a semi - matte coating on glossy prints , giving them a bit more enduringness . The glossary foil increase print dry out time by about three minutes .
For added versatility , the R1800 will print on 4.3 - inch , 8 - inch , and 13 - inch paper drum roll and , with the enclose adaptor tray , on printable CDs and videodisc . The CD image caliber is very honorable , and you wo n’t have to wait long ; it takes one minute to print a CD on the high-pitched - character stage setting and three bit to dry out .
Swift Operation
The R1800 is one fast printer . It took 4 mo and 5 seconds to make out a 13 - by-19 - inch borderless mark on the Photo mise en scene ( secondly - best quality mode ) , using a 1.42GHz Mac Mini . It took about 10 minute to print the same image in Photo RPM mode , the highest quality setting . Macworld ’s 22 MB , 8.5 - by-11 - inch examination print took one instant to print in Photo fashion and three minute in Photo RPM mode , the same as the R800 . I used Epson ’s Premium Glossy and Enhanced Matte newspaper to produce the test prints .
The back panel of the R1800 has a USB 2.0 port and a FireWire port , which make it easy to deal the printer with another electronic computer , even a Windows system . Unlike the R800 , which print slightly faster with the FireWire interface , the R1800 has selfsame photographic print speeds with both larboard .
Macworld’s Buying Advice
The Epson Stylus Photo R1800 sets the standard for versatile , high - performance , enceinte - format screen background photo printing . It ’s rapid and it produces beautiful prints . It does n’t get any full than this , and certainly not for this Mary Leontyne Price .
[ Jeff Dorgay is a professional photographer who survive in the Pacific Northwest . ]
