Printing

Our test print was made using Epson Premium Lustre media with the Colour handling set to "Printer Manages Colour". There are plenty of options in Photoshop to use custom profiles when using third party media. When doing this you should ensure that Photoshop Manages Colour.  When using Epson media we found the canned profiles to be very accurate and produced great looking prints without much user control. The printer took 1 minute 45 seconds to produce our A4 test print, an A3+ print took 2min 10 seconds. A3+ Fine Art media using the front tray took 4min 32sec.  

Pigment ink printers generally have softer colours when compared to Dye ink prints. Our test print displays a good range of vibrant colours, clean yellows, greens and blues. The UltraChrome HD inks are a marked improvement over previous generations of UltraChrome pigment inks and deliver a print with strong dynamic colours. There was a slight bias towards magenta in the baby's skin but is well within acceptable tolerances.  

The black cotton reel produced a good solid black whilst still holding all the detail in the thread. The brown reel displays good colour saturation. The white cotton reel kept all the subtle detail in each thread, detail has not been lost here. The two red reels are also showing a good depth of colour as are the yellow and green reels.

The colour swatches display solid colours and the RGB gradients which transform from paper white to colour are smooth with no visible banding.

Black and White

B/W photography is enjoying a comeback with photographers and collectors alike. Many printers can introduce a slight colour cast, especially noticeable in mid-grey tones, this will be generally due to a poor profile. Epson use the black inks to produce neutral greys; Photo Black or Matte Black, Light Black and Light, Light Black. Most inkjet printers will use a combination of colours to produce a grey tone. Using the black and light black ink combination ensures a colour cast free monochrome print. The B/W photograph on our test print maintains good shadow and highlight detail and has the feel of a quality darkroom print.

Fine Art Media Printing

The Epson SureColor SC-P600 caters for the photographer and artist who demands the highest quality fine art printing. The printer can handle thick card as well as a variety of media types. Loading Fine art media is not that intuitive, fortunately the front LCD panel gives fully illustrated instructions on how to load the media.

First depress the front straight paper tray to open it and open the rear media support (not the Auto sheet feeder). Now load the media using the front media tray, printing surface upwards, align the media with the guide line mark on the tray and then press the OK button. The media is drawn into the printer and makes an exit at the rear. Close the front straight paper tray and pull out the bottom media catcher tray. Now you are ready to start printing. Using the printer properties panel you must ensure that you select the correct media tray, i.e. Front - Fine Art. Although Epson refers to this as a straight paper path, in reality it isn't, the paper does go through a 45 degree angle when making an exit at the rear media support. However, for thick card (up to 1.3mm) there is a straight paper path, but as mentioned  this requires sufficient clearance at the rear of the printer.

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