It’s been quite some time since I’ve printed any photographs at home. My Epson 4800, affectionately referred to as Dusty Boat Anchor right now, served me well for a while, but eventually became quite a burden and expensive thing to use. I certainly was not printing enough to keep the beast’s expensive ink lines clear and flowing. The cartridges became harder to find and I wasn’t even using some of them before they expired. I was always dealing with clogs or some other issue. Printing lost some of its joy and became more of a chore and constant expense. I switched to using labs to provide client prints, and pretty much stopped printing for myself.
This left a bit of a hole in my workflow of course, depending on your own philosophies. Printer manufacturers like to state, obviously, a photo isn’t finished until it is in print. But beyond marketing, there is some truth in it. I am not so sure the younger generations agree. I began to miss the convenience and immediacy of making small prints, even if they are just for my personal use. I missed the feeling of holding a print in hand and the transition from pixels to something tangible. You are always left wondering a bit whether a photograph will look just as good in print as it does on the screen. I know from experience that what you see is not always what you get.
Being out of the printer market for a while, I needed to catch up. I have zero interest in the wide-format pro printer field anymore. I just can’t justify the ink and maintenance costs, and I don’t need to print big to fulfill that tangibility craving. A 13-inch printer would fill my needs just fine. So my decision came down to either an Epson P700 or a Canon imagePROGRAF 300. I’ve been an Epson user for more than 20 years across various models, so I have a tendency to lean that way.
After reading some reviews of the P700 vs. the Pro-300, the Canon seemed more suited to my needs and I jumped the Epson ship. (The name of the Canon might have given it a small advantage 🙂 ) I didn’t particularly like that Epson only ships a starter set of ink to charge the lines, leaving a “hidden fee” of buying a complete set of additional ink to make any significant number of prints. According to some reviews I’ve read, the overall operating costs are lower with Canon which was particularly appealing.
My first print in a long time probably should have been something more exciting than a printer test target. But I had an old box of Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta laying around and downloaded their profile for the Canon PRO-300. I remember some nightmares about printing / profiles / screen matching from back in the day. So it seemed fitting to try it out. I was quite pleased with the accuracy and match.
My only nitpick is the magenta gradient in the lower left of the target is clearly purple. But then I had a box of old test targets from my Epson 4800 and there again, the magenta printed purple. It seems strange given there is a single ink cartridge dedicated to … magenta. It is magenta on my Apple Studio Display, it is magenta when I turn on soft proofing in Photoshop, but purple on paper. So, I am quite familiar with this little game of chase and the work it may involve to discover why this is. Everything else on the printed target looks quite good – even the purple things! So I am just going to let it go.
Printing my own images has been great so far. Very accurate matches with what I see on screen using Hahnemühle’s profile. I’ve always wanted to print out all of my yearly favorites – which I’ve never done. Maybe explore some new papers. It will be a good exercise to not only revisit some of those images but to bring them into the real world at last.
I hope you have fun with this printer and I also love the name! It has been years since I printed anything of my own. I have had a few printed by the professionals. Must be some technical difficulties in asking you for the promotional gigs. Ya may want to contact them before the end of year. ?
well that’s part of the reason I hesitated for a while, I wasn’t printing anything for myself, I don’t really have wall space to hang much, so it would basically sit in a box. But right now just a few prints on my desk, and at least for the moment, they provide some joy.
I am a big printing fan and I love my Canon printer. Glad you are back in ‘the game’. I’m sure you have done this already, but have you done a nozzle check in terms of the magenta/purple issue? That you have color management off in the Canon driver, though I suspect that double profiling would affect more than just magenta?
I did go through the nozzle check and alignment on initial setup. I am still getting familiar with everything that pops up after hitting print but I think it is off in the Canon driver. All of my own photos came out very accurate, which makes me think it wasn’t double profiling.
What an honor to have Canon name a printer after you, “PRO-GRAF.” ?
It’s been years since I’ve owned a color printer; I sold my last one before downsizing for RV’ing. Still, I remember printing “favorite” images can be very satisfying, and I get that urge sometimes, but it usually passes in a few days.
Enjoy!
A photoGRAF printed on a PROGRAF 😉 Sadly they haven’t called for any promotion gigs.
While this printer is a lot smaller than my 4800, I can understand not wanting to cart one around in an RV unless you are doing a traveling gallery / art show type of thing.
Speaking of namesakes – Hurricane Earl is turning out to be quite the storm!
Yeah, nothing good ever comes from naming a hurricane, Earl. ?
As someone who photographs flowers with vibrant colors… boy, magenta and purple (and violent, and blue) are all real challenge. I’m at a point where I’m certain that some photos just can’t be printed the way I have them on screen. Damn flowers. Damn nature.
Great to see you’re back in the printing game. Well, you already know it’s benefits, so I hope you’ll continue enjoying it. 🙂
I am glad I’m not the only one. We have round-lobed hepatica here, which can be magenta to blue/purple – they’ve always been tricky to print. The only perk is they still look natural color even if that particular bloom wasn’t that hue.
Monochrome 🙂
that does solve it doesn’t it lol!