At first glimpse , Epson ’s $ 1,295 Stylus Pro 3800 Standard Model looks out of piazza in the photo printer market . There are a few very unspoiled photo printers with similar features in the $ 500-$1,000 orbit , and some excellent industrial - lastingness printers with richer sets of features jump at around $ 2,000 . However , if you are a photographer calculate to create high - timbre , magnanimous - format print for sales agreement or exhibition , the 3800 is a great printer that is deserving your consideration , even though it has a flaw that will drive some potential buyer away .

Basics

The Stylus Pro 3800 utilise nine paint - found inks design to ply long - lasting output on a spacious variety of paper type . Like most pigment ink printing machine , the 3800 switch between two black ink : photograph Negro , which is used when you print on calendered and semi - gloss paper , and flatness black , which is used for impress on still polish and fine art papers . The other seven ink — luminance disgraceful , light light dark , cyan , light cyan , Battle of Magenta , wanton magenta , and yellow — are used with all paper types .

Setup is quick and easy : the cartridge snap into billet , and the number one wood installation is simple . The 3800 can connect directly to your Mac via USB , but it also has a port for link to your Ethernet connection for group printing process . While it is a fairly expectant social unit , you may recess the newspaper trays when the pressman is not in utilisation , which significantly reduces its footmark .

When it comes time to publish , the 3800 is very whippy , tender borderless printing on paper ranging in size of it from 4 by 6 inches all the manner up to 17 by 22 inches . It has three newspaper path , include a front - loading , straight - through path for printing on inflexible media up to 1.5 mm thick , and two top - loading slots for written document of lesser thickness .

For yr , Epson ’s hallmark has been its print caliber , and the Stylus Pro 3800 is no exception . colouring are rich and vibrant , even on glossy theme , which often presents a trouble for pigment ink . The 3800 ’s pitch-black and blank prints were exceptional — and demonstrate no color shifts ( or metameric failure ) — when printed on fibre and fine art newspaper .

When compare a large pick of glossy- and mat - based photos print from the 3800 to like prints output by HP ’s $ 700 Photosmart Pro B9180 ( ) , and Canon ’s $ 850 Pixma Pro9500 ( ) pressman , viewers almost always take Epson ’s print as the good of the radical . And , when it came to ignominious - and - white prints , viewing audience on our panel unanimously chose the 3800 ’s output over any printer in its course of instruction .

The Stylus Pro 3800 does n’t just volunteer ranking photographic print quality ; it ’s also very tight . Using the standard quality setting , a 4 - by-6 - inch pic took 56 minute to publish ; an 8 - by-10 - column inch image printed in 1 arcminute and 48 second ; a 12 - by-18 - inch exposure printed in 4 minutes and 16 secondment ; and a 16 - by-20 - inch photo carry only 5 min and 44 seconds to come out of the printer . ( As a point of comparison , Canon ’s Pixma Pro9500 took approximately 6 minutes to output an 8 - by-10 - inch print at its default lineament setting . )

Dealing with ink

One of the big problems with another of Epson ’s printers , the $ 850 Stylus Photo R2400 , is that it demand you to trade cartridge when you switch between flatness and photo black inks . This process is inapt and ware a lot of worthful ink , and it can jell off acascadeeffect that enfeeble other ink cartridges in the process . The 3800 is safe in this regard , offering freestanding slots for each black ink type . When you select a newspaper case in the print driver , the printing machine mechanically opt the appropriate black ink character .

unluckily , the fateful inks share a individual channel to the printhead , which stand for that the printing machine still must purge that line of ink before switching . This two- to three - minute process wastes approximately 2 milliliters of ink when trade from photograph to matte black , and 4.5 cubic centimetre when fit the other path . While this is better than the R2400 , both HP ’s Photosmart Pro B9180 and Canon ’s Pixma Pro9500 habituate freestanding ink logical argument for matte and photo calamitous inks , a much less uneconomical approach .

Luckily , the Stylus Pro 3800 does an first-class task with ink efficiency . I printed almost 400 photos — mostly 8 - by-10 - inch and larger — before I had to replace any ink cartridge , and I choke back and forward between calamitous ink types during the examination . At 75 cents per milliliter of ink , the toll per Thomas Nelson Page will be much less with the 3800 than it will be with any comparable photo printer , which really turn into rescue if you print a fortune of pic .

Macworld’s buying advice

If you are a professional lensman or serious amateur look to reproduce your work at large size and with extremely high quality , the Epson Stylus Pro 3800 Standard Model is a corking printer . You get stop number , timbre , and efficiency at a good terms , even when you factor out in the swapping of the lusterlessness and picture black ink . While some people will view the printing machine ’s principal fault as a black one , it ’s hard to argue with the end result : big , beautiful print on almost any media character .

[ Rick LePage isMacworld ’s editor in chief at prominent and an editor program atcompletedigitalphotography.com . ]