Epson Stylus Pro 4880 Printer :: Education by Design Store

Editorial Review
The Epson Stylus Pro 4880 incorporates a unique and 17" wide printer design with a breakthrough, new ink technology. Epson UltraChrome K3 is now enhanced with breakthrough Vivid Magenta pigments. This technology requires only eight colors, including a three-level black technology, to significantly raise the quality levels for professional color and black & white prints. Imagine producing professional neutral and toned black-and-white prints with even higher density levels, with virtually no metamerism or bronzing. With an even higher level of ink droplet accuracy, MicroPiezo AMC print head, along with an ink-repelling coating technology that dramatically reduces nozzle clogging. When combined with Epson AccuPhoto HD screening technology, the level of image quality is at an astonishing 2880 x 1440 dpi resolution. Handling virtually any media type in roll or cut-sheet, up to 17" wide, the Epson Stylus Pro 4880 incorporates a high-capacity paper tray capable of handling cut-sheet media up to 17"x 22". Color and Monochrome 180 nozzles x 9 Droplet Technology Smallest droplet size 3.5 picoliters Variable Droplet Technology can produce up to three different droplet sizes per print line Acoustic Noise Level - 50 dBA Includes as standard one hi-speed USB 2.0 (1.1 compatible) and one Ethernet port (10/100Base-T) Complete borderless printing - 8.25, 8.5, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 17 Maximum paper width - 17 Left and right margins - 0 to 3 mm each (0.24 total) Top and bottom margins - 0 to 25 mm each Maximum printable width - 17.16 (full bleed 17 width) Roll media size - Single roll up to 17 width Roll media length - Up to 132' Cut-sheet input tray size - Up to 17 x 22 Cut-sheet media input - Up to 250-sheet tray, top and rear manual feed slots Built-in media cutter - Automatic and manual cutting Operating Systems - Macintosh Tiger 10.4.9 or higher, Leopard 10.5 or higher (16-bit), Window
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Customer Reviews

Sturdy and Reliable

2008-08-22
I chose the Epson 4880 for several reasons: past experience with Epson products, my estimate of the printing cost and the quality of the samples I've seen. I have not been disappointed.

Let's start with the pros:
Epson quality. After nearly a thousand 8 x 10" (and equivalent) prints over the past three months, this printer looks and acts as good as new. No breakdowns, no degradation of print quality, nada.

Economy. I keep a close watch on consumables. I'd estimate that my per-print cost is around USD 0.75 - 0.85 per 8 x 10" page, excluding paper. This is considerably less than cheaper inkjet printers and with few notable exceptions, is unrivaled by same-class inkjets or most labs for that matter. My notable exception is the "minilab" class of device, which for an up-front investment of tens of thousands of dollars, can product 4 x 6" prints for under a dime.

Quality. This printer produces professional quality prints. I've had many compliments and never a complaint about the print quality.

Now, the cons.
Matte vs. Photo Black. If you want to switch between them, you'll burn about USD 40-50 worth of ink each time you do this. As such, I started with the more versatile Photo Black cartridge and intend to stay with it through the life of this printer.

Bulk. At 90 pounds, it's difficult to take to events. A custom Pelican case for this printer will run several hundred dollars.

All told, I'm very satisfied with my choice. Next time I'm in the market for a printer, I expect to purchase a descendant of this printer, perhaps one or two generations down the line.

Great Printer! Watch out for borders on Cut Sheets!

2008-05-16
I have been using this printer for about 3 weeks and it has worked wonderfully. The color profiles I've gotten from Epson and Ilford are close enough that I will not bother with custom profiling until I find a lot of spare time.

Ink usage is pretty moderate. The instructions warn that the first time the printer is "Charged" there will be less ink available for use, but that it will be better when the next cartridge is inserted. I printed about 250 color 8x10 photos on 8.5x11 cut sheets plus a few 16x20 on roll before my black ink ran out.

I really like this printer with 3 exceptions.
1. It's extremely large and heavy. It came on a pallet, large.
2. Photo black and Matte black use the same slot so you'll have to swap and waste a ton of ink to switch back and forth. I do little matte (for now) so it's no big deal for me, but I think I will prob NEVER do anymore Matte until I get a big job that can cover my ink loss!
3. The bottom print margin on cut sheet is .55 inches!
So it cannot do borderless prints on cut sheet and most of the templates I used had to be modified to work around this huge bottom print margin!

This caused a huge headache for me. However, once I rebuild my own scripts and templates, I believe I can work around this.

Overall I really like the printer and one of the reasons I chose this printer over the 3800 is one that few people know about. The 4880 has this suction thing that will prevent the paper from curling up and hitting the print head. I had issues with this from time to time on my Canon i9900.

So far the printer has been relatively fast for me and I am so confident in the prints that I just let it print and print. If there is an issue, with my print, it's usually been a poor setup on my part (forgot to set proper profile, forgot about unusually LARGE print margin).

I won't give it 5 stars because I still want more for the price I paid for this printer. The .55in bottom print margin and swapping ink cartridges should be addressed before I can say that I would freely recommend this printer to anybody.

However my prints look great and come out pretty quick!

Great !! Printer!!

2008-04-29
The Epson Stylus Pro 4880 is a Fantastic Printer. It make beautiful large relatively quick prints. One thing to keep in mind is that it's more expensive to operate. It takes 8 ink cartridges at an average low price of around $40/$45 dollars a cartridge. So between that and the larger papers your expenses add up quickly. If you buy it from Amazon be aware to specify Fed Ex and not the free UPS shipping they offer. I took the free shipping and the one I received was opened up, damaged, parts missing with gaping holes in the box and only taped back together and USED. Make sure you specify Brand New.Which is what I finally received from Amazon. FedEx didn't honor the 2 Day express that Amazon paid for. (they claimed bad weather) but the box was not damaged and the unit was perfect. I strongly recommend the Epson 4880.

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