Epson Stylus Photo 1280

[Michele T Nelson]

Does anyone here have one of these? I just replaced my late, lamented HP Deskjet 722C. I am impressed and pleased, but also a bit overwhelmed by the myriad options in the printer driver and how to get the best results on different papers, etc.

With the old HP, I worked in Adobe RGB 1998, used that as my print colour space, chose my paper type, and that was it. With the Epson, it's not so simple. There are so many options in the print driver, and I'm not sure what to do. Yes, I've read the documentation, such as it is. And I've gotten some very nice prints. But I'd like to know more than the manual can tell me.

Any help, advice, encouragement, warnings, etc., will be greatly appreciated.

[Gary Hummell]

Check out:
<http://www.computer-darkroom.com/>
Great articles that include Epson tips.

[Bill Lamp]

Once you get through the learning curve you should be happy with it. VERY happy.

Tip-1 (I used to use a 1270 and think this will apply to the 1280 as well): Don't let it sit idle. Print a picture every few days to help keep the jets happy & clean.

Tip-2 Keep it covered. A piece of dust can get stuck on the heads and the result is NOT nice.

Tip-3 Assuming someone makes third party refilled ink carts, RUN AWAY FROM THEM FAST!!!!

Tip-4 Use the printer's power switch to turn it off.

Tip-5 ENJOY!!

[Daryl Pritchard]

Michele,

As Bill said, keep the printer covered and print a picture periodically to keep the jets clean. So as to not use too much ink, I've made up my own print strip that simply prints 1-inch square blocks of the 4 colors and try to remember to do that at least once per week. Frankly, I often forget but I think the main point here is to use the printer reasonably often.

I have an Epson 1270 which I'd expect to be largely similar to the 1280 and so offer this extra tip:

Tip-6 If printing on more fibrous media such as watercolor paper or artist canvas (the latter in particular), use a can of compressed air to blow off any loose fibers on the surface of the paper before running it through the printer.

This may again seem excessive since I can't say for certain that it helps, but I can say that I've seen my 1280 heads clogged with a mass of ink and fibers that required some aggressive cleaning (steps to clean the 1270 and maybe the 1280 are at <http://jazzdiver.com/photoshop/epson1270> ). I've not printed on artist canvas in a wuile, but I now plan to take this extra step of blowing off the print media before use. It is a minor effort that may save some trouble.

If you ever find blotches of ink being deposited on your prints, the cause is likely some very dirty print heads. In my case, that mess of ink and fiber was like a small paint brush that oddly seemed to swipe my prints with ink only once the prints exceeded 8x10-inches.

Finally, I think this still applies to a majority of ink jet printers as a tip to prevent ink evaporation and again the clogging/drying out of ink jets...

Tip-7 Turn off the printer if it isn't going to be used for a period of hours or longer.

Regards,

Daryl

[YrbkMgr]

I bought the 1280 after my Stylus 600 died this year. I love it.

One of the reasons I never liked HP was because of the "lack of control" in the printer driver, which is just what your asking about.

Above you got a link to Ian Lyons' site, Computer Darkroom. Read the section on Printing with Photoshop, specifically:

<http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7_print/ps7_print_mac.htm>

That's what I did and ONLY have problems when printing teal and aqua colors.

Here's the basic tip: if you're printing to glossy paper, and find your prints too dark, use the Glossy Film as your media. The media types are Epson's way of controlling dot gain or "spread" as the ink is laid down. Glossy film has a smaller dot gain.

Ian recommends setting Photoshop print destination to Printer Color Management, and in the printer driver set the Advanced settings to No Color Management. I have far better results just using the default "Color Controls", and making no changes.

When I have to print teal/aqua, I use the same settings, only I check the Epson Natural Color box as it is supposed to (and seems to) widen the gamut and produce better blues and greens.

That's my two nickels.

Peace,
Tony

[YrbkMgr]

While I do not disagree with Enrique's post in any way, I have not had the same experience. I've owned my 1280 since April, have never had to align the heads, and have never run a nozzle check due to the image being produced. My nozzel checks are a part of my SOP during cartridge replacement, but have YET to do a cleaning.

Further, I've never had a banding issue and never had to use a printing resolution that divides evenly with the "machine's" (by which, I presume he means the image res in ppi).

Again, not a disagreement, rather, a different experience.

So in summary, your mileage may vary.

Peace,
Tony

[Enrique Ivern]

Hi Tony.
Maybe I was not clear, but I meant run nozzle check, not cleaning. If you have a clogged black ink nozzle, for example, you probably won't notice that in certain kind of photographs but you'll do if you try to print black text.
I've never had a banding issue with my 1280.
I did with a previous EX, that drove me crazy and never quite disappeared. So maybe I'm a little overanxious about it.

As for alignment I'm sure every machine is a little different when it comes out of the factory, that's why they provide the alignment utility...this I just heard from an Epson representative in a nice lecture about how to get good prints. His advise: check alignment if you're not getting the quality you want, especially printing in BW.
About printing res:
1st number 'Print Quality' 1440 (3880, 720) as it appears in the Properties box, in dpi.
the second number refers to image size as described in the 'Image Size' box in PS:
resolution in pixels/inch.
This last information I took from this place:
<http://home.att.net/~arwomack01/#printbanding>

this site has other information on inks, papers, etc. that might be useful.

Of course if something is working correctly, better don't touch it....

Regards.

[YrbkMgr]

Enrique,

I understand totally, and just to make it clear, I wasn't disagreeing. It's good reference information in the event one has some trouble.

Peace,
Tony

[Bill Lamp]

ADD to the file LPI 360. On my 1270 that was slightly better than the "normal" 300 ind is an even division of 1440.
Bill

[Bert Bigelow]

Michelle,
What a coincidence! I have two printers...an HP 722C which I have had for several years, and an Epson Stylus Photo 780, which is very similar to the 1280. It's a six-color printer like the 1280, nnd uses the same black ink cartridge, but a slightly different color cartridge, and handles only 8x10 or smaller. I regret not buying the 1280 now, as I would have liked to be able to do larger prints.
All the comments in earlier posts are consistent with my experience. Use the printer AT LEAST once a week, or you will have clogged head problems, and you sometimes have to run the head cleaning utility several times to clear a clog, wasting ink with each cleaning. Very frustrating, as the cartridges are not cheap. I also use default color settings. I have tried using Photoshop Color Management, and I simply can't get it right,so I turned it off, even though I have been taken to task for doing so in this forum! I'm generally happy with the color output, although greens are not as intense as I would like.
Bert
EDIT: There is a guy who hangs around this forum, Brent Bertram, who is a real expert on printers in general, and Epson in particular. I hope he will contribute his knowledge to this thread.

[brent bertram]

Bert,
You give me too much credit ( of course, I love it ! <G>) . Michele, you have links to Ian Lyons' site. I am sort of an apprentice ( a little unworthy, to be true ) of his.
His tutorials on Epson printing are matchless in my opinion. You must always use the Print Preview option ( as covered in the tutorials ) . That way you can control the output space profile selection, and get effective color management. Ian covers this very well, makes it seem simple. Try it, if you have problems get back to us ( or Ian ) and we'll help you out further.

:-)

Brent

[johnny eades]

Go to the Epson site and down the ink monitor utility also. This will let
you monitor your ink levels.


"bmacx" <bmacko@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:60laivo1k03eg29oak59s2vprb93umm325@4ax.com...

> I am also looking on replacing my Epson 860 with either the 1280 (or
> the 2200 if I can afford it). I do have one question about my 860
> though. I was having some printing problems (poor, unsaturated
> output). I never installed the printer drivers (I just used the one
> that was automatically installed with Win XP). Finally I did install
> version 5.20 of the driver and my printouts did improve markedly.
> However, my ink levels don't work. Has anyone seen this problem
> before? Got any suggestions about how to fix?
> Thanks,
> Bill
>
> On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 00:07:48 -0700, "Michele T Nelson"
> <mthomas@gamepro.com> wrote:
>

> >Does anyone here have one of these? I just replaced my late, lamented HP

Deskjet 722C. I am impressed and pleased, but also a bit overwhelmed by the
myriad options in the printer driver and how to get the best results on
different papers, etc.

> >
> >With the old HP, I worked in Adobe RGB 1998, used that as my print colour

space, chose my paper type, and that was it. With the Epson, it's not so
simple. There are so many options in the print driver, and I'm not sure what
to do. Yes, I've read the documentation, such as it is. And I've gotten some
very nice prints. But I'd like to know more than the manual can tell me.

> >
> >Any help, advice, encouragement, warnings, etc., will be greatly

appreciated.

>
>
> x-- 100 Proof News - [url]http://www.100ProofNews.com[/url]
> x-- 3,500+ Binary NewsGroups, and over 90,000 other groups
> x-- Access to over 800 Gigs/Day - $8.95/Month
> x-- UNLIMITED DOWNLOAD
>

[bmacx]

Thanks! That did the trick.
Bill

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 15:09:45 GMT, "johnny eades" <jeades1@sc.rr.com>
wrote:

>Go to the Epson site and down the ink monitor utility also. This will let
>you monitor your ink levels.
>
>
>"bmacx" <bmacko@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>news:60laivo1k03eg29oak59s2vprb93umm325@4ax.com.. .

>> I am also looking on replacing my Epson 860 with either the 1280 (or
>> the 2200 if I can afford it). I do have one question about my 860
>> though. I was having some printing problems (poor, unsaturated
>> output). I never installed the printer drivers (I just used the one
>> that was automatically installed with Win XP). Finally I did install
>> version 5.20 of the driver and my printouts did improve markedly.
>> However, my ink levels don't work. Has anyone seen this problem
>> before? Got any suggestions about how to fix?
>> Thanks,
>> Bill
>>
>> On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 00:07:48 -0700, "Michele T Nelson"
>> <mthomas@gamepro.com> wrote:
>>

>> >Does anyone here have one of these? I just replaced my late, lamented HP

>Deskjet 722C. I am impressed and pleased, but also a bit overwhelmed by the
>myriad options in the printer driver and how to get the best results on
>different papers, etc.

>> >
>> >With the old HP, I worked in Adobe RGB 1998, used that as my print colour

>space, chose my paper type, and that was it. With the Epson, it's not so
>simple. There are so many options in the print driver, and I'm not sure what
>to do. Yes, I've read the documentation, such as it is. And I've gotten some
>very nice prints. But I'd like to know more than the manual can tell me.

>> >
>> >Any help, advice, encouragement, warnings, etc., will be greatly

>appreciated.

>>
>>
>> x-- 100 Proof News - [url]http://www.100ProofNews.com[/url]
>> x-- 3,500+ Binary NewsGroups, and over 90,000 other groups
>> x-- Access to over 800 Gigs/Day - $8.95/Month
>> x-- UNLIMITED DOWNLOAD
>>

>

x-- 100 Proof News - [url]http://www.100ProofNews.com[/url]
x-- 3,500+ Binary NewsGroups, and over 90,000 other groups
x-- Access to over 800 Gigs/Day - $8.95/Month
x-- UNLIMITED DOWNLOAD