It will probably be a difficult printer to find profiles for, too. No major paper manufacturer other than Epson is supplying any profiles yet… What might eventually arrive? I’d put at least some Red River papers in the “probably” category – they already have profiles for a few other EcoTank models and many other dye-based Epsons. Will they include the more interesting papers? Both Hahnemuhle and Moab are at least possibilities – they offer profiles for a few Epson dye inkjets, and this is one of the more photo- oriented models to come out in some time. Canson Infinity seems unlikely, since every Epson printer they support so far is a pigment model. It should be possible to make custom profiles, but that seems like a lot of effort for this type of printer. Profiling hardware is expensive, and it is somewhat difficult and time-consuming to use. Easier to use profiling hardware exists, but is several times the price of this printer. In general, art papers print well with the 8550 ink set, especially with the VFA media setting. That said, experimentation is necessary. The Epson EcoTank ET-8550 A3+ Colour Multifunction Inkjet Printer is an innovative and reliable printer that is ideal for home or office use. With a range of options including printing, scanning, photo printing, CD & DVD printing and copying, this multifunctional printer offers exceptional print quality, with convenient tools and increased connectivity features. Perfect for creatives, this printer also accepts a range of media types for photo or craft printing and it can print professional quality photos with up to 5,760 x 1,440 dpi print resolution. It is well connected too with both Ethernet and Wi-Fi, including Wi-Fi Direct and Apple AirPrint compatibility. There’s no Bluetooth or NFC, but there is an SD Card slot alongside a front USB Host port behind that front flap. There are three separate paper trays, which is great for loading up both plain and photo paper and switching between them automatically. Each tray is rather limited in its capacity, however, with the main tray only holding only 80 to 100 sheets of A4. The generous 10.9cm touchscreen provides an intuitive user interface while also allowing you to preview your print at a useful size before printing.

Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 All-in-One Wide-Format - PCMag Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 All-in-One Wide-Format - PCMag

The top feed can also take custom sheet sizes, such as this 1 metre length cut from a 13″ roll of matte art paper. You fill ink tanks from bottles. I’ll look at this below, but essentially the ink from the bottles is used to fill the tanks from above, Hybrid ink set I’m going to suggest installing all of the options, since some of the software many be more useful that you’d thought. It’s something that is of more benefit if you plan on printing at higher quality settings and with lots of detail in your images. The printer worked just fine before it, but I always carry out such adjustments if offered, with any printer I test. Media handling I can't print from my Mac with a wireless connection since I received an exchange product from Epson. What should I do?

Popular Categories

Using the spare ink left over, it was time to top up the tanks (remember ink is used during setup – filling the various tubes and printhead. Noise Level: 5 B (A) with Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper / Photo RPM mode – 37 dB (A) with Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper / Photo RPM mode Hence the width set at 329mm above rather than 330mm. I’ve heard of people having problems setting widths for custom papers. If your 13″ x30″ custom size wont work, try 12.95″ width in the custom size setting

ET-8550 A3+ Colour Multifunction Inkjet Printer Epson EcoTank ET-8550 A3+ Colour Multifunction Inkjet Printer

Be careful with the width set for custom papers – there seems to be limits for what can be fed through a particular slot. Epson also quotes yields in terms of 6 x 4in photos. A full set of colour inks will print 2,300 photos, which works out to 3.4p per print, based on the presumption that all the inks are used up at the same rate. Canon’s Pixma PRO-200 inks yield an average of 550 photos for a full set of inks, which works out to around 27p per print. The ET-8550’s prints might not be quite as good, but they’re a lot cheaper. I can print with a wireless connection on my home network, but not on a VPN (virtual private network). What should I do?

Most Popular

No, where I’ve made full ICC profiles of both the papers, the results are obviously different even from the profiling targets.

ET-8550 | Consumer | Inkjet Printers | Printers EcoTank ET-8550 | Consumer | Inkjet Printers | Printers

The Epson Smart Panel App enables you to control your printer from your smart phone or tablet1. Print photos, copy documents, set up and troubleshoot your printer, and let your creativity flow with a wide range of artistic templates! Remember me? The famous old Stylus Pro 3880 isn’t a bad image quality comparison – more inks, but the ET-8550’s more modern inks and tiny droplets help compensate.

To get round the size limitation I scanned the image twice and then flat stitched the images in Photoshop. No, you can print with the EpsonMatte media setting for B&W and it’s passable, but doesn’t really get the look I’m seeing on the other rag papers (such as cold press natural). Once it’s set up, it’s mostly a simple printer to use. It defaults to a wi-fi connection, which is easy to set up – the big, high resolution screen really helps, after years of trying to set up wi-fi on printers with tiny screens. Both USB and Ethernet are also provided, along with a USB device port for a memory key and an SD card slot. I didn’t try connecting a card reader for a non-SD format to the device port, but it might well provide direct printing from CFExpress or XQD. Since it supports both Apple and Google versions of direct printing from phones, it seems to have just about every interface possibility known to photographers. I will look at use of mobile devices later, but not in any great detail, since the main aim of this review is to look at high end print making, and that isn’t yet something I associate (yet) with printing from mobile devices.

Epson EcoTank ET-8550 A4/3 All-In-One WiFi Photo Printer

The tilting 10.9cm touchscreen is particularly useful for standalone scanning and copying tasks, as well as for printing photos via the SD/HC/XC card slot or PictBridge port. (Image credit: Epson) The built in scanner can be used as a basic copier onto plain paper. It has no document feed, but to be fair if I want document feeding I’ll buy a full time office printer. For myself, the ‘office functions’ of this printer are a distant second in my concerns compared with art/photo printing.It’s a nice paper, and I’ve used it as a generic cotton art paper for testing with many printers and printer profiling set-ups. The EcoTank range is known for being versatile in its capacity for creativity. The ET-8500 and ET-8550 EcoTank Printers develop from the media features from their predecessors and offer five different paper feeds to best suit you and your workflow including a new rear straight pass for larger media types, as well as the addition of a touchscreen controlled motorised output tray to safely handle your prints. Printed using the VFA media setting and the ABW print mode. Take care with feeding and margins. Similar papers – very different results