HELP! difference between PHOTO and OFFICE epson printers.

[billbone]

i'm shopping at epson.com, and was seriously thinking about the epson
stylus color
880. what i'm looking for is a printer that can print top notch
photographs, and
still be able to deliver black and white text for my school term
papers. i haven't seen
a live result from the 880, just what the Best Buy had from the epson
company. i
don't trust that - i want to see a live printing, or hear from you guys.

so, in looking at the website, i see the categories PHOTO and OFFICE.
the office
printers show a 2880 resolution printer, which sounds like it would be
better to print
my photographs, but the category PHOTO only shows it has a 1440
resolution. why
would their photo series have less of a resolution?

also, i saw the latest ad for Epson in Digital Photography magazine. it
had a print of
3 kids on a sled; this 3x5 print was attached to a page. it says in the
fine print that this
was printed at 1440. probably with a PHOTO printer. the print looked
great. shouldn't
a 2880 from the OFFICE category look better?

thanks for your help in advance!!!

[Jeff H]

In answer to your first question...yes. The 880 sounds like it would be a
good printer for you. It's positioned as a home/small office printer
meaning it's quite versatile and fairly quick, and just by merit of its
being an Epson you can expect excellent photo quality. (I don't have this
printer myself, rather an Epson 850 that preceded this)

Now, about the resolution thing....resolution is just one piece of the
quality puzzle, a piece that Epson in particular has very effectively used
in their marketing but not necessarily the most important. In the case of
their photo printers what really gives them the edge is the number of colors
it mixes to produce the output (I believe 6 as opposed to the 3 or 4 used in
their office printers).

Bottom line is that in the consumer inkjet market the epson office printers
will do photos as well as any other printer (with a couple of possible
exceptions) and still deliver good text while the epson photo printers will
outperform everything at pictures but be a little disadvantaged with text.
From what I read of your position I'd go with the 880 over a photo printer.
Take it for what it's worth.

Jeff H

[David Chien]

The office printers use 4-color inks, the photo printer use 6-color inks,
thus producing much smoother flesh tones and photo pictures.

The office printers are designed for speed; the photo printers for quality.
However, black text is the same from either type.

Thus, if photographs are most important, get a photo Epson.

No, the resolution has far less to do with quality than number of inks.
http://www.silverace.com/dottyspotty/ to see actual print samples comparing
the Epsons. You'll see that the 4-colors are just grainier than the
6-colors, and you don't want grainy faces, now, do you?

=========
Like the upcoming Epson Japan model PM-900C which has superior 7-colors and
2-picolitre dots.

That's why they're discontinuing the old 870 today - to make room for the
superior
repalcment arriving in 2-3 months.

http://www.i-love-epson.co.jp/products/printer/inkjet/pm900c/pm900c2.htm
http://www.teletranslator.com to translate.

Already topping the charts in Japan for the best Photo inkjet printer avil.
Let's only hope they've fixed the 870's horrible, orange-fading problem
(www.p-o-v-image.com/epson/).

======

If you want to save money, the epson 750 at http://www.epson.com/home.shtml
and elsewhere for $149 is a good buy, but I'd rather wait the 2-3 months for
the PM-900C model to hit US shores if I can wait -- after all, it'll blow
just about every other photo inkjet printer out of the water with superior
quality.