Epson R1800 is very disappointing.

My first results are not very good. Small vertical lines and inconsistant color. My crappy HP 5650 produces better 8 1/2" x 11"s. I hope it is just me. Maybe it is too early to make judgements. I'll play around & hopefully figure it out. I have hardly spent any time with the manual.

Any sugestions, besides read the manual?

BTW it's a refurb but looks perfect.

if it's a refurb then maybe the print heads were not properly cleaned and there is some dried ink in them. I have an R1800 and have not had a single issue

To be fair, I haven't given it much of a chance. once I am a little more familiar with it I'll decide what to do.

Makes me think my $100. HP ain't so bad.

My R1800 has given me beautiful prints from 4x6 to 13x19 to 13x33. I use Epson inks and Epson paper and let the software do the rest. Do your nozzle checks look okay? That's a good place to start if you have lines in the page. Probably need to clean the heads.

Call Epson and tell them what has happened. They will most likely ship you a new unit.
They don't mess around with defective units, and is why I bought an Epson.

My R1800 is an absolute gem. Breathtaking prints.

My R1800 produces wonderful prints. Try aligning and cleaning the heads per the maintenance procedures and I think you'll fix the issue you're seeing.

I'll have to echo Ronald and Ohenry. I've had mine for about a year and half and the output has been superb, although mine was a new unit.

Are you double checking that you are selecting the proper paper in the R1800 control panel? I'll admit this sounds more like a nozzle issue, but review all your output settings. It's easy to overlook something, screw up the settings and make a lousy print - been there done that

Ah yes, I will say that. I put wal-mart photo paper (Jet Print Photo) in my i9900 and R1800, and it looked dreadful and the colors sucked. I switched to Ilford Smooth Pearl, and I was in heaven.

I have been using HP Premium with good results in my HP printer but the prints from the Epson come out dark and muddy looking.
Prior to getting this printer I have not done any PP for printing. Just load the paper and click print. I don't think I am going to want to have to set up my printer for every shot.

Tapeman - that's a valuable clue right there... dark and muddy looking. Are you printing sRGB files, or aRGB files? Typically, "muddy" prints are the result of trying to print aRGB files to devices that are not set up for it. There is no reason why you have to set up your printer for every shot - I agree with you on that one .

Tapeman wrote in post #3270416
I have been using HP Premium with good results in my HP printer but the prints from the Epson come out dark and muddy looking.......

"Small vertical lines" sounds like a print head allignment/cleaning issue. "Inconsistant color" might have something to do with color management.
There is a link in my sig, with a lot of info about colormanagement and softproofing...

Tapeman wrote in post #3267181
My first results are not very good. Small vertical lines and inconsistant color. My crappy HP 5650 produces better 8 1/2" x 11"s. I hope it is just me. Maybe it is too early to make judgements. I'll play around & hopefully figure it out. I have hardly spent any time with the manual.

Any sugestions, besides read the manual?

BTW it's a refurb but looks perfect.

The vertical lines, I presume are following the path of the printhead, right?

If so, it is a dirty print head. You can try some more cleaning cycles or take a pad of papertowel and soak it in windex and place it on the spot where the heads park. Power down the printer and park the head on that for a bit, then do another cleaning. Should be fine.

The problem with any of these printers, and the R1800 is no exception, is that it will use a lot of ink in cleaning. This happens automatically when you turn it on and when you change a cartridge. The carts are little so they run out pretty fast. For that reason, I use a CIS on my printer (which works very well).

J

Usually print head problems result in horizontal lines, not vertical. The only time I have seen vertical lines was a result of not using the correct paper. The paper rollers left lines in the ink that was not dried properly. I believe the OP stated he is using HP glossy. I have yet to find an HP glossy that will work with Epson printers. The ink does not dry and pools, leaving a muddy mess.

I agree, it all depends on the directions of the lines. If they follow the paper path, it is probably an incompatible paper if it follows the direction of travel of the print head, it is probably cleaning.

You have to carefully select papers that are compatible with pigmented inks. Give it a shot with some OEM papers before you start branching out into other stuff.

If you are doing any serious color managed printing, you MUST use printer profiles for the paper you are using. If you go and put any paper into the printer without adding the profile, you will get very strange results. In the printer driver when you select "glossy" or "luster" or whatever - you are really using the built in drivrers that Epson (or whatever) printer mfg supplies. If you haven't provided the proper printer profile when you print from your photo software you will get strange results.

The R1800 is a spectacular printer that works without a whole lot of care and feeding.

J


J.