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deliver a wider gamut than Canon’s
fi ve-ink printers, although you can often
be hard-pressed to spot the diff erence. The
fl ipside is that, with only a dye-based black
ink, you’d expect the Epson printers to
muster only faint grey text in document
output. In fact though, they tend to do a
pretty good job.
While many HP and Lexmark ‘photo’
printers used a pair of tri-colour
cartridges in the past, pretty much every
photo-friendly printer on the market
these days has individually replaceable
cartridges. It makes much better sense, as
you’ll only have to replace ink that’s
actually run out, rather than throwing ink
away as part of a multi-colour cartridge.
Inks galore
Recent developments in the A4-photo-
printer market include a growing or
diff erent range of ink colours. Canon
added a grey cartridge to its fi ve-ink
technology, bringing the total to six and
extending the gamut in the process, as
well as enabling more convincing quality
for black & white photo prints. The
company’s very latest high-end Pixma
TS8050 and TS9050 series printers
assume a diff erent tack, adding ‘photo
blue’ instead of grey ink, going all out for
extended gamut and reducing the
occasional grainy look in bright blues.
There wasn’t really any need for Epson
to add extra colours to its six-ink models,
as all the inks were dedicated to photo
printing anyway. Epson bucked the trend
in a diff erent way, with ‘EcoTank’ photo-friendly printers like the ET-7700. These
come with fi xed ink tanks and bottles of
ink for easy replenishment. Indeed, the
ET-7700 is sold with nearly a pint of ink,
enough for 3,400 6x4in or 800 A4 photos.
There’s a catch, however, in that it’s about
fi ve times more expensive to buy than the
competing Canon Pixma TS6150, with a
similar fi ve-ink line-up delivered in more
conventional, replaceable cartridges.
Ultimately, taking own-brand quality
photo paper into account, the Epson
ET-7700 won’t save you any money
compared with the Canon, even if you
create all 800 A4 photo prints over
the printer’s lifetime. And while youCanon’s TS9050
series A4 printers are
the best compromise for
document and photo printing;
they also have a built-in scanner