Digital Printmaking using the Epson Stylus Pro 3800
I originally became interested in Digital printmaking around 2004. What interested me was the way it could be used to print large flat areas of vivid colour, which I saw as an extension of work I had done in screenprinting. I tried outputting some prints from Illustrator eps files using a commercial print bureau but it soon became obvious that working this way would be expensive as far as proofing goes, and ideally I needed access to a printer whenever it was necessary, and that the only way to do that was by getting hold of one.
Lyn and Pedro had both done a course in digital art and were also interested in experimenting with large format digital prints, so we decided to look at buying a printer as a group. The Epson 3800 is the second large format printer we have owned, the original which we bought in January 2006 was a Hewlett Packard Designjet 130.
Problems with our original printer
We were initially very happy with the Designjet which produced very vivid colour until we noticed that, for our purposes, the printer had a serious drawback. The problem was that the prints were starting to fade after a couple of months, with reddish colours being the worst affected.
At first we thought it was a problem with the paper we use (Somerset Enhanced 225gsm). I phoned St Cuthbert’s Mill, the manufacturer, and spoke to someone in their technical department who explained that there are 2 different ink types used in large format inkjet printers - dye based and pigment based - and that dye based inks are much less stable and prone to fading than pigment based ink. It turned out that the HP Designjet 130 uses dye based ink.
I looked around the web for information and especially at the Wilhelm Imaging Research website (wilhelm-research.com) which has a lot of data about the lightfastness of the different types of ink used in digital printers. I tried some experimenting with different papers; I printed test strips on various art papers developed for digital print (mostly from Hahnemuhle) and placed them in a window facing the light for a couple of months. The results were variable and the colour on some papers were more stable than others, but it became obvious that if we wanted to sell our prints and for them to last any reasonable amount of time we would have to bite the bullet and change the HP printer for one which uses the more stable pigment type inks.
We were lucky because, at the time, the Epson 3800 had not long come onto the market and was more affordable than other similar printers. So, after checking out reviews etc we bought the Epson in January 2007.
Setting up the Epson 3800
The first thing to say about the Epson 3800 is that it is very small and light for a large format printer - taking up not much more desktop space than an average A3 printer and easy to set up, which took us less than an hour.
The first part of the set-up, once the printer has been placed on the table, consists of removing the large amount of tape designed to keep everything in place while the printer is in transport.
Aside from the printer itself, the box contains a CD with the printer drivers and pdf user manual, a quickstart guide and a set of 9 vacuum sealed inks.
Before installing the Ultrachrome K3 inks, the printer needs to be switched on and left for a couple of minutes until it is ready. There are nine colours in the ink set which are: photo black, light black, light light black, matte black, magenta, light magenta, cyan, light cyan and yellow.
The inks have to be shaken before installation which is an easy process of simply clipping them into the correct compartments; then it takes 10 minutes or so for the printer to get the inks ready. (circulating the ink and priming the heads, apparently).
Once the printer has been through this you turn the printer off and connect your cable which is done either through an ethernet or a usb port. We use the usb port (you can’t use both at the same time). Put the supplied cd into your computer and follow the instructions to install the printer driver.
Then the printer is ready to use.
In Practice
I’ve developed a way of working which goes from sketchbook to iIlustrator, working on vector graphic eps files, then, when I’m ready to output, converting the vector artwork to a high resolution photoshop file for proofing and eventual final output. I generally print from rgb photoshop files saved at the right print dimensions and at 225 ppi, which gives me a file of around 50mb in size.
I find that the main part of print proofing involves adjusting colour in the photoshop file until I get the print output I want. I proof on A4 sheets of the same paper I use for final output (Somerset Enhanced Velvet 225 gsm) and generally find it takes 4 or 5 proofs before I get the result I’m after.
Basically I’m translating what I see on the screen (backlit screen colour) into a printer output I’m happy with, taking into account the bias of the printer and the software. After a while and with practice you become familiar with the way the printer will output certain colours - I find that blues tend to be too dark and that reds tend towards pinky/magenta hues.
The first thing I had to become familiar with is the print dialogue box in Photoshop, and it’s worth spending some time experimenting and noting the settings which can give very different results.
Overall, I’ve found the printer gives extremely good and consistent results and, so far, there have been no problems with fading colours.
Ian Scaife
Epson 3800 Stylus Pro
The ink cartridges installed in the ink compartment
Part of the print dialogue in Photoshop