printing cost just short of an arm and leg? When I bought the Apple LaserWriter LS in 1992, I paid approximately $1000 (US)—and it wasn’t even equipped with Postscript. If you wanted a moderate to high end color printer back then, you often had to take out a sizeable loan. Thankfully, though, those days are long gone. Today’s printers offer very high quality print at extremely reasonable prices.
One case in point is the Epson Stylus Ink Jet. The Epson Stylus Ink Jet is a color printer capable of producing near photographic quality images, realistic grayscales and clear, crisp text. All of this is made possible by Epson’s innovative design of the Stylus Ink Jet print head. The print head uses what is known as ‘Piezoelectric Technology’—much superior to standard thermal ink jet printing technology. Piezoelectric Technology is a whole new method of getting ink from the cartridge onto the paper.
Standard thermal printers work by heating ink and then ejecting it onto the paper (once the ink reaches a certain temperature). Piezoelectric Technology, on the other hand, sends an electric charge through a thin screen-like film at the tip of the print nozzle. This charge forces the film to flex a little bit and, when flexed, ink is ejected onto the paper. The big advantage of Piezoelectric Technology is that halo effects associated with ink jet printers are almost completely eliminated. The Epson Stylus Ink Jet puts ink exactly where it is supposed to go on the paper, and nowhere else. The results are near photographic quality images when printed at 720 dpi (dots per inch).
The Epson Stylus Ink Jet is a CMYK printer that incorporates two ink cartridges: one for black and a second for cyan, magenta and yellow. The black ink cartridge has a life span of approximately 1.5 million characters. Broken down, this translates to about 840 sheets of letter size paper at 5% duty with the 360 dpi printing mode. The color cartridge’s life span is about 1.2 million characters, or 670 sheets of letter size paper at 5% duty in the 360 dpi mode.
I would like to have seen separate ink cartridges for each color in this otherwise innovative printer. Currently, if you have numerous print jobs which rely heavily on one or two colors, it is possible to deplete one color ink well before the others are depleted. If such a scenario happens to the black ink, all you have to do is replace it with a fresh black ink cartridge. In the color cartridge, however, depletion of one specific ink forces you to replace the entire color cartridge—whether or not the other color ink chambers are empty. If separate cartridges were used for each color, you would just replace them individually as they became exhausted, resulting in much less waste.
The Epson Stylus Ink Jet ships with nicely designed driver software which gives the user much control and flexibility over each printing job. The software allows printing in three resolutions: 720 x 720 dpi, 360 x 360 dpi and 180 x 180 dpi. Further, all resolutions are available for both monochrome and color printing jobs.
A few months back it was reported by a number of Macintosh publications—MacSense included—that the Epson Stylus Ink Jet did not print a true 720 x 720 dpi resolution when used with the Macintosh. After a bit of investigative snooping, I have found these reports to be only partly accurate.
In a recent conversation with John Andrade of Epson America (and then confirmed among other Epson America sources), it was revealed that the Stylus Ink Jet for the Macintosh, when originally released, did not allow true 720 x 720 dpi printing for text and line art. All other printing jobs did print at true 720 x 720 dpi resolution. The problem wasn’t with the printer, but rather with the software driver. Epson did not realize a problem existed until it received a number of complaints from users. After researching and correcting the problem, Epson released version 1.20a of the Stylus Ink Jet software driver, which permitted true 720 x 720 dpi resolution for every print job. (The software driver currently shipping with the Epson Stylus Ink Jet printer is version 1.20e).
Printing options offered by the Epson Stylus Ink Jet software driver include printing in four different halftone settings, light and dark ink application, resolution adjustment, color or monochrome printing, high speed printing and Microweave printing.
The Microweave mode is a very nice feature in that it greatly enhances the quality of the printed output. With Microweave selected, the Stylus Ink Jet selectively applies ink to the paper in a very intricate pattern. This method of ink application eliminates banding effects so often associated with other ink jet type printers. Higher quality printing, unfortunately, greatly reduces the speed at which the printer prints—but once you see the results you will realize it is well worth the wait. If, however, you need quick output and super-high quality isn’t an issue, you can select the software’s ‘high speed’ mode for a much faster print rate (albeit more moderate quality output).
The key to getting near photographic quality printing with the Epson Stylus Ink Jet is to use the company’s special coated paper in conjunction with the 720 dpi resolution. For printing in the 360 and 720 dpi mode, Epson recommends using such paper, as its absorbency greatly affects the quality of print output. If the paper is too absorbent, ink has a tendency to bleed, resulting in slightly blurred edges of both text and graphics. Conversely, if the paper isn’t absorbent enough, the ink takes much too long to dry and is subject to smearing. The special coated Epson paper, while a bit expensive, offers exceptional absorbency and minimal ink bleed. I found such special coated paper to provide no noticeable ink bleed and consistently clear, crisp edges on text. Additionally, printing graphics on the special coated paper provided almost unbelievable results, no matter how intricate or detailed the original image was.
Here’s an unadvertised helpful hint for you: as astonishing as the 720 dpi output is when printed on the special coated 720 dpi paper, you can get still better results if you print on Epson’s or Hewlett-Packard’s glossy film paper. Even though these film papers cost about $1 (US) per sheet, it is a high end printing alternative you should consider when super high quality is essential—and the budget doesn’t quite allow for your own dye-sublimation printer.
In addition to the printer and its driver software, the Epson Stylus Ink Jet comes with some nifty calibration software. This software makes calibration of the printer a breeze and consistently assures the highest quality output, ensuring that lines and patterns are printed correctly and precisely time and time again.
Technical support offered by Epson is exceptional. The technicians are well versed in the product and its associated software, courteous, and almost insistent in helping the customer get maximum efficiency from their Epson Stylus Ink Jet. The printer also comes with a very reasonable two year limited warranty which covers both parts and labor.
 
The Epson Stylus Ink Jet is a high quality, solidly constructed piece of equipment. With the use of special coated paper, 720 dpi print output is simply astonishing. 360 dpi printing, too, is noticeably above average. Despite the fact the printer has a tendency to be painfully slow when printing in either the Microweave or 720 dpi mode, the results are well worth the wait—especially when you consider the low cost of the printer. With a suggested retail price of $699 (US) and a street price of around $535 (US), the Epson Stylus is a price/performance leader. If you’re looking for a reasonably priced color printer that sports excellent quality, take a serious gander and the Epson Stylus Ink Jet printer.
