The Epson 11880 printer represents Epson’s most advanced printing technologies to date, including features that are not present in the just introduced 48/78/9880 series printers.  Those printers are an upgrade to the 48/78/9800 printers, and include improvements in head technology to reduce clogging, consume less ink when switching from photo to matte black, and incorporate the new vivid magenta inks. The 11880 goes even further, and introduces a complete new 9 channel head with both matte and photo blacks, double the nozzles, and reportedly has the most accurate dot placement in any current inkjet printer.    The 11880 shares the same inkset as it’s smaller cousins, and overall shares the same basic design and look, but goes far beyond those printers with the new head technology.

I ordered one as soon as I read the specifications - I don’t really need a 64” printer, but I wanted everything else the printer offered, including both matte and photo black simultaneously.   It arrived about 3 weeks ago, and I have spent quite a bit of time setting up the printer as well as printing.

The printer was delivered to my warehouse while I was on vacation, and on the way home from the airport I stopped by to arrange to take it to my house. The crate is big, and the only way I could get it to my workroom was out of the box.  6 of our warehouse hands helped load it up in a trailer, and we all headed to my home.  Getting it into the workroom required some creative thinking, as it is difficult to turn corners because of it’s length.  If you are thinking of buying one, you may want to make sure you can actually get the printer into the location you want to set it up in.

It fits very nicely in the space I planned when I set up my workroom (see Ikea workroom makeover )... in fact it’s a perfect fit.  I won’t bother you with all of the un-boxing and setup photos ... I’m sure someone will have an official review on the net soon with the obligatory opening and setup shots.

CUT TO THE CHASE...

Rather than discussing the printer itself first, I felt most reading this would probably be more interested in the quality of the output.  Since I’ve been testing the Canon ipf6100, several have ask for comparisons with that printer specifically.

So far I have profiled 5 papers - Epson Premium Lustre and Glossy, Kodak Lustre and Glossy, and Hahnemuhle Museum Etching, as well as Epson Premier Art Water Resistant Canvas.  All photo paper profiles are measured using an EyeOne device on an EyeOne i0 table and Bill Atkinson’s 5202 patch target. For canvas and matte papers I use the 1728 patch target.  Profiles are generated with ProfileMaker 5.08.  Profiles are checked by using ColorThink Pro to graph the full gamut as well as the neutrality, and lately I also have been using Color Pursuit, which evaluates and scores the profile.  I’m not real familiar with what those scores mean, but I feel it will help catch anything out of the ordinary which would invalidate a profile and require re-profiling.

After creating each profile,  I then print several test prints for evaluation. One test page I have found very useful was from Bill Atkinson’s download folder. It has several images that push the gamut of the printer, as well as having many types of subtle gradations.

Lab Test Page from Bill Atkinson’s download section.  I normally print this at 11x14.

The large number of images, many which contain areas that push printer gamut, is helpful

in seeing how printers compare with each other.

A dMax measured with ColorThink Pro of L 3 using Epson Premium Lustre on the 11880 exceeds both the 9800 at L 6, and the 3800 at L 5.  The same paper has a gamut volume of 822,038 on the 11880, vs 731, 273 on the 3800, and 674,684 on the 9800.  The visual difference on prints between the 11880 and the 9800 is readily apparent in side by side test print comparisons. The dark reds are deeper, detail in all dark areas appears better, many colors are “richer” for lack of a better term.

This 3-d plot from ColorThink indicates how much larger the 11880 gamut (wireframe)  is compared to the 9800 (solid) in everything from greens through the blues and magentas.

I’m not sure what has improved the greens, since the only ink change was supposedly the magentas, but I am assuming better screening and dot placements have allowed Epson to lay down more ink.  The test charts are visibly darker when compared to previous printers.

Compared to the ipf6100 the differences are not as readily apparent.  To me you can still find areas where the Epson has some advantages, but the difference isn’t enough to discount the ipf6100 as an option.  I do believe there is enough of a difference that some images may benefit from the larger gamut of the 11880, especially because I feel most of the gamut increases are in colors that will benefit the output. 

Operational observations...

I have always liked Epson’s paper feed system, and they have maintained this with the 11880.  The straight through paper path design means that even heavy art papers on rolls should have no problem in this printer.  The roll take-up is included, and those that use the printer for large output will most likely find it very helpful.  40x60 is as large as I’ve printed so far, so I’ve just been letting it fall to the floor.

Feeding a single sheet in an Epson is a straight forward process, simply align it with the right mark on the ruler guide, let it rest there, push pause, and the printer pulls it in.  I was a little disappointed that the printer would not feed the Hahnemuhle Museum Etching paper in standard sheet feed mode - it wouldn’t pull it in, so I had to use the manual “poster board” method to load it.  Since I was pretty critical of Canon’s manual feed loading system, and associated documentation, I can’t let Epson off the hook here.  For very heavy papers such as the museum etching you must use the method described in the manual as loading poster board.   The Epson documentation says to lower the printers front cover, using a flange on it as a lip.  Pull the paper lever forward, insert the heavy material through until it rests on this lip, then engage the paper lever and close the front cover.  First, this won’t work with anything very small ... it’s a long way to that flange.  Second, the picture showing how to do this is completely whacked (that’s a new high tech word), showing the paper coming out in FRONT of the front door, rather than sliding down behind it where this lip is.  To get the paper to rest on the lip is challenging, and to sum it up, this entire process, especially the documentation is on the same level as Canon’s.

A little experimentation shows that for small sheets it’s actually much easier, just pull the paper lever, insert the paper a few inches and align and square it with the right paper mark, re-engage the paper lever, and the printer will pull in the paper, double check alignment, and you’re ready to go.  I’m not sure why their isn’t a way to set up the printer to take the thicker paper like any sheet paper ... maybe there is and I’ll stumble across it later.

Ink...

The starter cartridges supplied with the printer only contains 110ml of ink, and about 50% of that is consumed in the initial setup. (Of note, Canon also supplies “starter” cartridges that are less than full capacity).  It doesn’t take long to go through the other 50ml or so, especially if you throw some big paper on.  The replacement cartridges are 700ml each, which I purchased for $279 each. (ouch!)

From front to back, Canon ipf5000 130ml cartridge, Epson 9800 220ml cartridge

Epson 11880 700ml cartridge.  At the back is a boxed 11880 cartridge.

This puts the price at $0.39 per ml, as compared to Epson 9880 inks from the same supplier for $0.51 per ml, or about 23% less.  The challenge is if you don’t print a lot, the ink may settle out and  “expire”.  I’m planning on removing each cartridge every 2 weeks or so and agitating gently to try and avoid a problem with this.  The same vendor sells the Lucia inks for the Canons at $0.58 per ml.  I’ve checked two major vendors, including InkjetArt.com, and this seems to be the going price.  As to overall ink costs, this is hardly conclusive, since the Canon may require less ink when printing due to the additional primary colors.  The Canon may require less ink to remain unclogged, however,  Canon’s require far more ink than most think to keep clog free (see this thread about Canon ink consumption ). Over time clogs will eventually “consume’ the head, requiring a replacement.  Personally all this means is no one knows for sure which printer is more efficient with ink, but since the Epson no longer needs an ink swap for photo to matte black, and clogs seemed to be improved, at this time it is probably not a factor if deciding between the two printers.  It may very well be Epson 11880 is the more efficient printer with inks ... eventually some data will come out.

Bar Code...

You can enable an option to track the paper on the 11880.  When you load a new roll, it asks for paper type and length.  As long as you “eject” the paper, rather than just remove it, it will print a bar code on the bottom of the roll.  It also prints this barcode when you turn the printer off.  Upon reloading the roll, it will read the paper type and remaining length from the bar code.  This waste’s a little bit of paper, but I like knowing how much is on the roll.

A few other things ...

The 11880 does not seem to have the “auto-nozzle” check function of the smaller printers ... at least one you can enable manually.  You can set it to check nozzles automatically at various times, but how that works I’m not sure .

(Update:  The auto nozzle check feature is actually very cool, and I now use it.  Before it prints each print, it fires a couple of drops of ink out of each nozzle, and verifies the nozzle is clear.  The amount of ink consumed for this is miniscule.  If a nozzle is clogged, it proceeds with a nozzle cleaning cycle, and then checks again before it prints your print.  So far, after 2.5 months I have had one very minor clog early on.  After having the printer off for over three weeks, when I started it up, a nozzle check showed 0 clogs.  It seems the new head does indeed clog less.)

For a manual nozzle check it prints a pattern you examine for gaps (I first saw these on the 9600). If you have a clog, you manually set the printer to clean the head.  Rather than cleaning the entire head, however, you can choose to clean any of 5 channels, 4 containing 2 of the colors, and one with 1 color.  Cleaning a channel takes quite a bit of time, and to this point I don’t know how much ink it consumes.  But it must help to only use 1 or 2 inks instead of all of them when clearing nozzles.  I had a small clog early on, but now have been clog free for almost 4 weeks.  ( I know, it’s way to early to draw any conclusions.  I’ll let you know when I get my first clog).

The design of the printer allows the area where paper is loaded to function as  a “shelf”.  This has been quite useful when loading papers or working with the printer..  Above the control panel is also another “shelf” which makes a nice spot for a tape dispenser or the manual.

One other thing I’ve noticed is power-up time.  Unlike Canon’s printers which they recommend leaving powered up, Epson suggests turning the printer off when not in use, as this seals the head, and should result in fewer clogs and less ink consumption.  The downside to this - it takes nearly 4 minutes for the printer to power up.  I’m not hearing a lot of pump grinding like I have in the past when powering up an Epson, so I really don’t know what it’s doing all this time when you start it up.

Paper support ...

One thing that irks me about both the Canon and Epson printers is they have no method to easily support other papers.  In today’s world of paper choices it’s a little arrogant and presumptuous to assume a buyer should stay with only their papers.  If you want them to buy your paper, then make a paper worth buying.  But why I can’t setup and create a special paper type, complete with name and ink density settings is just stupid.  It can’t be that hard, and if the dithering patterns are so advanced, why should I have to give that up and use a RIP to get control of those things?  Come on ...

No Regrets ...

This is an expensive printer, but to me represents the highest output quality currently available.  I have no regrets purchasing it.  I would assume Epson is very busy trying to drive the manufacturing cost of this head down so they can incorporate much of this technology into the smaller xx80 series printers.  At this point in time it is the best printer I have ever used.

If you would like more information about this printer, check out this article of Joseph Holmes, and I know Michael Reichmann of Luminuous Landscape will be posting an article very soon, so you may want to watch for that.