There are printers, and then there are printers. The Epson Stylus Pro 3800 is Epson’s entry line professional printer. Featuring their top of the line UltraChrome K3 inkset, 17 inch wide paper path, and remarkable print quality, it doesn’t leave too much to be desired. Retail price is around $1300, but can be found for just over $1000.

Packing - The box containing this printer is plain at best. Made of ordinary brown cardboard, with some minor handling instructions, and the word “Epson” printed on it, it isn’t hard to see that who ever designed the packaging didn’t have a huge budget. Opening the box reveals a collection of styrofoam molds, of which buried deep inside, is the Pro 3800. Once you manage to wiggle the printer out of the styrofoam, and cut it out of its plastic bag, you’re faced with the hardest part of the setup – removing the tape. Epson went a little overboard on the tape, and applied a piece to what seems to be every inch of the printer. I lost count, but there were at least 30+ pieces holding everything closed. It is important to check over the printer a few times and make sure that all pieces are removed, as some are hidden and if left in place, can possibly damage the printer. All ink cartridges come sealed in plastic, as do the instructions, a sample of paper, and the power cord.

Construction - The printer is built like a tank, with the only relatively weak point being the front paper tray, which seems somewhat filmy in comparison to the rest of the printer. The printer features an automatic feeder, capable of holding around 25-50 sheets of fine art paper (depending on thickness), a manual feeder, capable of holding only 2 sheet at a time, as well as a straight through paper path, for media that is too stiff to bend. Both the automatic feeder and front paper tray both fold in to save space, while the manual feeder guide is fixed, but takes up only a small amount of space.

Setup - The first task at hand is finding a spot to place this printer. At 27 inches wide and around 50lbs fully loaded, this isn’t something you move around very often. The sturdier the table the better, as while printing, this printer can cause a good deal of movement. It’s also a good idea to place this printer a decent space away from any walls or objects, both in front as well as in the back, in the event that you wish to use the straight paper path.

Loading ink is relatively simple. The ink hatch is electronically locked, and requires you to press the up arrow for about 5 seconds to unlock and open the chamber. Once opened, installation of inks involves removing the plastic covering on the cartridges and pressing them in. It is important to give the cartridges a shake before installing them, as they do contain pigment inks, which can settle if remained stationary for an extended period of time. Once installed, the printer will automatically prime the lines (fill them with ink), and perform a self check and calibration. The sample of paper included with the printer is not for marketing purposes (as with most consumer printers) but instead intended to use during the priming and aligning process.

Connectivity is either by way of a USB or Ethernet, allowing both direct and network printing. Both are equally as fast, with USB being the easier of the protocols to set up. Included with the printer is a CD with driver and utilities. I recommend skipping installing directly from CD, and go to the Epson website and download the latest versions. It is more then likely that new versions have been released since the manufacturing of the CD. Firmware for this printer is also frequently updated, and should be checked as well.

Printer Controls - The printer controls consist of a monochrome LCD screen, a directional pad, a power button, and 2 function buttons. By default, the LCD will display the status of the printer, along with levels of all tanks. Menus can be accessed by use of the directional pad and other buttons. Several functions can be performed directly from the printer, including a log of previous prints (showing amount of ink used, size, etc), calibration, basic print settings, and general printer information. There should be no reason to access the menus on the printer, as most of the functions can be accessed and controlled via the computer software.

UltraChrome K3 Ink - The UltraChrome K3 inkset is a CYMK based color scheme, including the colors Cyan (C), Light Cyan (Lc), Magenta (M), Light Magenta (Lm), Yellow (Y), Light Black (Lk), Light Light Black (LLk), Photo Black (PK), and Matte Black (MK). The name “K3″ comes from the fact that there are thee different shades of black, with two different versions of the true black – one intended for glossy or coated papers (PK) and one intended for matte papers (MK). The inks are all pigment based, offering increased print life and color depth. The gamut of pigment ink is somewhat limited compared to that of dye ink, which is the reason for the increased number of colors.

Cartridges hold 80mL of ink and run $59 each, or around $530 for a set. Atlex.com has each for $47, a $13 per cartridge savings, or a set savings of $117. Whether you buy from Atlex or any other retailer, it is important to verify the authenticity of the ink. Fraudulent ink is a large market, and will usually lack the quality and characteristics of the authentic ink, and can even at times, damage your printer.

The PK and MK inks occupy the same print lines and print head, meaning that switching between the two involves having the printer flush the lines and reprime them with the other cartridge. The switch takes about 3 minutes in time, and uses about 1.5-2mL of ink (~$1.5 money wise).

Print Drivers - Using this printer isn’t for the faint of heart. Its drivers and utilities are enough to drive the average person crazy. Computer based, there are three main utilities. The first is the main printer driver, which allows you to set parameters of your particular print job and perform basic functions, such as paper type, color profiles, initiate a cleaning, etc. The second panel, which is far more confusing and less used, is the LFP Remote Panel. Here, you can make changes to the printer itself (those accessible via the direct printer controls) as well as obtain a detailed status of the printer.

The main driver utility looks as most drivers do. It is broken down into three main categories – Print Settings, Paper Configuration, and Page Layout. The category that you will be accessing the most is the Print Settings. Here, you can adjust the particular kind of paper (Exhibition Fiber, Premium Luster, etc), which will automatically prompt the printer to select the correct black ink (PK or MK). Color settings is where the ICC profile is selected. It is best to leave this setting to “Off” and select the appropriate profile from within the program you’re printing from. This will insure that the correct colors are produced. Print Quality is best left at SuperFine, and 16 bit/channel can be selected if you are printing from a file containing that amount of information. Selecting High Speed can dramatically reduce print times by laying ink in both directions, and causes no noticeable reduction in print quality.

The LRP Remote Panel is a bit more obscure. One of the nicest features however, is that which allows you to view a detailed list of previous prints. From this list, you can see the time the print was made, its size, and more importantly, the amount of ink used to produce it on a color by color basis. This allows you to track exactly where your ink went, and perhaps how to more appropriately use it.

Since each printer is individually calibrated by Epson before it leaves the factory, the profiles provided by paper manufactures (OEM and 3rd party) are usually spot on. Attempting to refine it through use of a spectrometer usually results in no noticeable difference.

Printing - Ink usage depends heavily on the paper being printed on. As a general rule of thumb, coated papers (glossy, luster, pearl) will use less ink then any uncoated paper (matte, canvas, rag). Likewise is true for print times. On average, the printer will use approximately 0.01ml/sqin. At $0.75/ml, that puts an average 4×6 print at somewhere around $0.18, and a 8×10 at $0.60. This does not take into account ink used during priming, cleaning, or general maintenance. Print times average about 1.5 minutes for a 4×6, and about 20 minutes for a 17×22, with High Speed turned off. Selecting the 2880dpi vs the standard 1440dpi increases ink usage by about 10%, while turning off High Speed usually creates a 70% speed decrease. Printer does make a fair amount of sound while printing, less then that of most consumer printers and laserjets however. Over the corse of 2 months, I have yet to have encounter an infamous clogged head or any other malfunction.

Print Quality - It used to be, that if you wanted a nice B&W image, it meant using a darkroom, enlarger, and silver halide paper. Epson, and specifically this printer, changed that. With a good image, profile, and paper, this printer can easily produce darkroom quality prints. Better then that, it can easily produce color prints light years beyond any dye-sublimitation or commercial printing facility. Not only does the quality of prints reach or exceed that of previous available methods, but the flexibility of them increase as well. You can select to print on anything from a matte paper, to a traditional luster finish, to a piece of actual canvas, to even poster board, all equally as well. Quality of the print depends a great deal on the file being printed. When printing to large sizes, great care must be taken to insure the file is of appropriate resolution, has adequate sharpening applied, and is free from all artifacts. A print that looks great at 6×4, even if its physically good enough to be printed larger, may not work well in that size.

That said, you will not be disappointed in the performance of this printer. It uses the same technology as the 2-3x expensive printers, such as the Epson 7880 (24 inch) and 9880 (44 inch), that are used to produce prints that are found in art galleries and sell the world over for thousands of dollars.

Overall Impressions - The way I personally determine the value and quality of a product is by asking myself, if given a second change, would I do it all the same. I have to say, for this, the answer would be both yes and no. Yes, if I was looking for a 17 inch printer, this would be, without a doubt, my selection. The no comes from the fact that I would most likely not buy a 17 inch printer again. Once you go big, it’s hard not to go all the way big. It’s easy to get used to the 17×22 format, and have it start feeling small and constricting, wanting to go even larger. A 7880 or 9880 allow for this expansion in size, but come at a much increased price. Whether or not this increase in price would be worth it to you (depending on what and how big you print) is a personal choice, but for me, it would be. Be as that may, this is one amazing printer, that is sure to outperform just about them all.