Epson Stylus Photo 1400

I've had this printer for a year now. I have bought Epson Ink Jet printers ever since the first one came out, and the quality and amount of ink needed has gotten worse with each new generation. I would… presume greed has taken over and it is more about money than quality. I find myself using it less and less as I can barely print ten pictures before I'm looking at buying new ink jet cartridges. And even that MIGHT be OK, if the quality of the pictures were good, but they are worse than the ones I printed years ago on the first printer. And to top it all off, the absolute worst experience I've ever had with customer service was when I called to get help with the printer. I was sent to somewhere overseas and talked to people who couldn't understand my issue, couldn't communicate at all. It was ridiculous. I would rather pay less and simply not have support. This is my last Epson.

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I have been working with the Epson 1400 large format printer as part of a networked printer bank in a professional design studio for just over a year, and have been impressed with its ability to reliably… produce high-quality, accurate large format prints even under heavy use. Our office uses this printer almost every day for printing proofs of catalogs, product artwork, packaging artwork, mockups to show to product distributors, sales brochures, and other design-related purposes. During crunch times we may run as many as 50-100 large-format prints through this printer in a single day as we update designs and put together proofing documents to send to our printers. I've worked with a lot of large-format printers over the years both as a design student and a professional, and I'm not impressed easily, but this printer has won my admiration. It has reliably withstood heavy abuse and continued to work properly despite countless network configuration changes, thousands of prints, and a healthy dose of user error. If you're having trouble getting prints that look like what you see on your screen, make sure that your document is set to a "CMYK" color format and the color rendering for the printer is set to "perceptual." When my office first got our Epson 1400 we were having some trouble getting accurate color rendering until we discovered this, and it makes a huge difference in what prints look like. For the very best results make sure you use Epson brand paper. We experimented with some off-brand papers at first and weren't happy with the results. After a lot of trial and error we've found that that the Epson Presentation Paper Matte provides good results for proofing documents, and we occasionally use the stiffer Epson Premium Presentation Paper Matte when we want to cut out packaging designs so we can fold them together to make sure the sizing is accurate. Like all inkjet printers it uses ink fairly quickly and not all office supply stores carry the ink this printer uses, so it's important to keep backup ink cartridges at all times. Since this printer uses a total of 6 cartridges (Cyan, Light Cyan, Magenta, Light Magenta, Yellow, Black) this can be a fairly pricey investment, but if you ever find yourself printing with a deadline it's worth it in the long run. Because of its size and associated costs this isn't an "everyday" kind of printer that should be used for printing e-mails and MapQuest directions, but for design students and professionals who want accurate color rendering from a reasonably-priced printer that is reliable, easy to use, and has great customer support, the Epson 1400 is an excellent choice. PROS: Good value for design students & professionals Accurate color reproduction when using correct settings Good print quality Easy to use & troubleshoot Extremely reliable even under heavy use Excellent support from Epson (new drivers & other updates) A good choice for design students & professionals CONS: 13" x 19" paper can be hard to find in stores Large prints sometimes use ink quickly

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After my Epson 960 photo printer finally gave up (started printing with banding and other problems, and Epson never created a driver for Vista), I got the 1400. I print primarily 4x6 borderless photos for… family, with the occasional enlargement. But I am a fussy enthusiast who has owned 15+ cameras over 35 years. The print colors are excellent -- better than the 960, and I thought the 960 was quite good. Epson claims the new Claria dye inks will last longer than previous dye ink formulations, so I hope that turns out to be true. Time will tell. The best test is a photo on a fridge in a bright, sunny kitchen for a year or two... The one annoying thing with this printer is it drinks ink! I thought the 960 used a lot. The 1400 is at least as thirsty, and the cartridges are $16 instead of $11! Epson claims the new cartridges are "high-capacity", which is, I guess, supposed to justify the price. They don't seem to last any longer than the ones in the 960. You will spend much more on ink than on paper, so buy good paper! One more thing -- Epson printers can be fussy. If you let them sit, they will need to run through a "clean" cycle, which uses even more ink. Be careful when loading paper and making adjustments -- don't force anything or you will be getting a remanufactured printer (if printer is still under warranty) which will likely behave slightly differently than the one you got originally. Color-matching is excellent with Epson paper. I use Epson Premium Semi-Gloss. Once I Figured out how to use the right color profiles with Photoshop, the match was as good as I used to get on the 960. I think. So, overall, I am very pleased with the prints, which is what counts most. If you are looking to get a printer in the hopes of saving money relative to printing at a drug store or photo place, don't. It will cost you more to own and run your own printer. But if you want full control and convenience, and sometimes want to print big enlargements, the 1400 is a great option. If you want to print black and white, or want true archival prints, look to the R2880 and related printers.

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I've wanted a photo lab, but couldn't afford one. I was cool with Epson, because my Photo 925 was a bust, but my month old 1400 is a great printer. From 4x6 to 13x19 I have been getting nothing but… wonderful prints. In order to achieve this, I do use a screen monitor and ICC profiles, but after all of the calculations are done, the printer has to do its job and this one does splendidly. If you are a fairly serious amateur photographer (I use my printer only for photos) this is a great buy today. I couldn't be more pleased.

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I'm going to keep this short because honestly, this printer isn't worth my time (or yours). When it prints correctly, it prints well, but this is a rare event. I picked up this printer after the printhead… on my Canon i9900 went bad (after years of heavy usage). In comparison this Epson is awful. It prints at the wrong scale and in the wrong position on the page time and time again. I've worked through various settings and print from various file formats and programs and it prints correctly about 10% of the time. In addition, the paper feed is incredibly poor, requiring sheets to be repositioned for every page printed. An absolute nightmare to my workflow. Maybe my printer is a lemon, but regardless, the Epson software is nothing special either. Maybe for the discounted price this printer is worth it for some - but not me. I'd gladly pay the extra money for a new Canon if I could go back and do it over. One star for printing well when it prints correctly. Running on Mac OS X

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