The maintenance cartridge is already in place. This collects inks discharged by cleaning pro- cesses and by purging when the Photo Black and Matte Black inks are swapped. The status of the cartridge is continually monitored to give adequate warning for replacement, an event not likely to eventuate unless many hundreds of prints are produced.
First Prints
With any new printer I usually start out by making some small prints and with the expectation that several trials will need to be run before a good result is achieved. The Stylus Pro 3880 merely follows through on its easy set-up routine and,
if all the settings are correct, those first prints will be spot-on.
high contrast edgings did have gloss differential, but it was evident only at an acute angle.
Quality And Speed
The level of print quality can be established and high-speed printing may be set to ‘on’ or ‘off’. With all the variables available it’s up to the individual to assess the difference in print quality, note print times and measure ink usage.
At 2800 dpi (unidirectional print head movement) the printer uses only small droplets compared to some large and mostly small drop- lets at 1440 dpi (bi-directional). Printing times almost double at the higher resolution and about ten percent more ink is used. I found no real dif- ference in the prints, but I’m inclined to believe anyone using expensive fine-art papers would
I started out with Epson gloss, semi-gloss and Traditional Fibre (Premium Gloss profile), used the ‘canned’ profiles and allowed the printer to manage colour. No problems whatsoever.
Media choice is a very personal matter and although semi-gloss or lustre are popular choices, it’s with the more expensive fine-art papers that the Stylus Pro 3880 really shows its potential.
Printing on papers such as Epson Fine Art Velvet and Epson Fine Art UltraSmooth is a real pleasure. Simply lock in the Epson profile and select the high quality mode. Excellent results were obtained every time without any need for test strips, even on the A2 prints.
In the main dialogue panel of the printer the defaults are for the Premium Lustre Photo Paper and the sRGB colour space. However, most of us work with Adobe RGB 1998 colour space and prefer either a matte or fine-art media, but once your favourite routines are established then
all settings can be saved to convenient names (e.g. “My Glossy Premium”) and dialed up for prompt usage.
Borderless prints are a welcome feature, but the facility only applies to six standard paper sizes and doesn’t function on custom settings. The auto sheet feeder can handle papers from 150x100 mm (postcard) to A2+ while the front feed prints on paper or board up to 1.5 mm in thickness. Custom or ‘user defined’ sizing varies from 89 mm to 431.8 mm in width and from 127 mm to 950 mm in length.
There are nine profiles built-in for popular Epson media types and settings for proofing paper, plain paper and “others”. ICC profiles for other papers or any custom profiles can be intro- duced. Gloss differential and bronzing on gloss and semi-gloss media are problems generally as- sociated with pigment printers, but the Stylus Pro 3880 test prints in colour didn’t exhibit these dis- tractions and most of the black and white prints were satisfactory. One black and white print with
prefer to go for the maximum quality settings. The following results were achieved with a 370x272 mm image on A3 Epson Premium Gloss paper.
•Level 5, high speed off – 8:05 minutes,
1.5millilitres of ink
•Level 5, high speed on – 4:55 minutes,
1.4millilitres of ink
•Level 4, high speed off – 5:35 minutes,
1.4millilitres of ink
•Level 4, high speed on – 2:24 minutes,
1.4millilitres of ink.
Printing on fine-art papers like Epson Velvet at maximum quality is decidedly slow, but the end results are a joy to hold… and to behold. Few users will be concerned about the speed and will savour the paper’s journey through the printer. For the record a 370x210 mm image on A3 Velvet took 9:35 minutes, while a 540x305 mm image on A2 size paper took 17:40 minutes.
Black And White
When it comes to black and white prints the Stylus Pro 3880 leaves little to be desired. The three-level technology – photo or matte black plus two greys labeled as ‘Light Black’ and ‘Light Light Black’ – allow all those subtle tones to be revealed. In the ‘Advanced Black And White Mode’ the default setting is “Neutral”, but “Cool”, “Warm” or “Sepia” (or, indeed, any custom toning) can be established along with variations in tonal brightness. Metamerism is virtually eliminated.
Changing over from the Matte Black to the Photo Black ink takes 3:30 minutes and purges
4.6millilitres of ink while switching from Photo Black to Matte Black takes 2:30 minutes with a loss of 1.6 millilitres. This happens because the two blacks share a common line to the print head and one must be cleared. It’s all part and parcel
A monochrome LCD read-out is provided on the 3880’s top deck and includes a set of ink level indicators.
Straight out of the box – printer, ink cartridges, rear tray feeder, the “Start Here” sheet, software CD and mains power cable.
of the cheaper printer price and will enforce efficient printing sessions with mixed media.
The front feed for fine-art media requires a platform to be first lowered. The ‘Down’ button on the menu panel is pressed to open the gate and paper is fed through to a guide position.
The button is pressed to pull the paper through (hence space is needed at the printer’s rear) and the gate to close. When printing is complete press again to release the paper and the process can continue for the next print. This involves a few steps more than the standard rear sheet feeder but it does make for a perfectly flat and straight paper path and hence the very best rela- tionship with the print head. Papers or board up to 1.5 mm can be accommodated.
Maximum Size
The maximum paper size that can be established in the User Defined panel is 950x431.8 mm. It’s
A print made on the maximum paper size of 431.8x950 mm shown