I just got another large format printer, which, if you are keeping count (and looking closely at the photograph) means we now have 4 printers in our very small office space - 2 large format ink jets, a laser printer, and a combo copier/printer.
When I went back to school the best piece of advice I got from other students was to invest in a really good large format printer, so we got the Epson 1280. And I LOVED it. It always gave me the most beautiful and saturated colors, and the richest blacks. That printer took me through my 2.5 years at RISD and was still going strong when I had to sell it because we couldn't fit it into our car for the cross country move.
So, when we were setting up my home office space, we decided to invest in another great large format printer. We had been at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas and loved the prints that came out of this guy. So I saved up and bought the Canon...and was pretty immediately disappointed. The colors were so so, the blacks were more dark grays. After having it for a couple of months, I was talking to another graphic designer and told him I'd just bought the Canon and he sort of winced. Turns out he's an Epson guy too. I was definitely starting to regret my decision.
Then Herman found the Epson 1400 (the new version of the one I had in school) for a really good deal that we couldn't pass up. Thus the new printer.
And can I tell you something? I LOVE it. I have my beautiful saturated colors and my rich blacks back.
And, in all fairness to the Canon, I probably wasn't ready to take the step up to a real professional printer that needs to be constantly calibrated and where I'd have to download all sorts of color profiles and tweak it just so until I got what I want out of it. I'm sure if I spent the hours that is needed to do all that I'd have been...fine. Maybe. But I still don't think it can give me the blacks that the Epson does.
So now I have a bit of a decision to make. Do I keep the Canon? Or do I sell it?
