Ink Usage for Epson P800 on different quality settings.

[mtw1]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone could tell me if the print quality settings for an Epson P800 make a difference to the ink usage, specifically the difference between the 'quality' and 'max quality' settings . I emailed Epson about this and they said:

"There is no difference in the ink usage when you change the quality of the prinout as the ink usage depends on the type of paper you select and you are using.

The only thing that changes when you change the quality of the printout is the speed, when you select max quality the printer will print super slow to guarantee a good printout. If you select low quality then is going to be quicker."

I have read some conflicting stuff elsewhere online though and I'm pretty sure there's more than just a speed difference going on. Anyone got any idea?

Thanks for reading
Mark

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Epson printheads can print different sizes of ink droplets, you can assume that the quality settings control the use of smaller droplets but printing more of those to get the same amount of ink onto the paper - but printing slower in that situation and doing more print passes of the printhead. The paper selection controls the ink usage to the ink saturation level of this paper, there is a point that more ink does not result in a better and higher level of color saturation. There may be a few % ink variation between different quality settings but those should not be relevant for the discussion. I can confirm from doing my own profiles for various papers e.g. for a P400 or Pro 7600, that different quality settings only have a small impact onto the acheivable color saturation. When using 3rd party papers you can get into the situation that you get ink puddles on the paper - too much ink or a smaller ink absorbion capability of the paper than implied by the paper selection in that case.

 

[mtw1]

Ok, thank you for that comprehensive answer. Kinda what I suspected but I'm still a relative newbie to printing.

 

[mikling]

The P800 uses a different choice of how colors are created versus older 3880. It appears Epson made a conscious decision to try and flatten the use of all colors and to generally create a "balanced" ink useage. The consequence of this is that it leans towards using more of the darker colors when producing similar tones as compared to the 3880. This immediately creates a couple of results, it tends to use smaller volumes of ink as compared to the 3880, but at the same time it will also produce a print with slightly higher gloss differential. So essentially, the same image printed with the same inks on a 3880 will appear glossier as compared to a P800. Reason, the 3880 uses more of the Light colors, producing a smoother finish. However, at the same time, another thing that is noticed is that the P800 is superior in producing better dark shadow detail. This is not easily seen unless one looks at the output of two printers side by side using the same inks and paper and using identical profiling software and measuring equipment. Indeed, these aspects have not been mentioned by reviewers simply for the reasons stated, few are capable to gathering all these resources and conditions side by side, if any so far.
However generally the high quality print mode does indeed use a slightly greater amount of ink but nothing that is dramatic as it will tend to use more of the lighter colors spaced closer, that does not mean to say it ceases to use the darker colors. No it still uses them but slightly less. What you should notice with the higher quality is not the main color of the print. It can be seen in the smoother gradations of things in the shadows and in subtle shadows. Essentially, it is in the nature of subtlety of the colors, not the standout colors itself. Indeed most viewers will hardly notice it. If you look at textures, and shadows, you will notice the smoother gradations. Unfortunately many will prefer the faster cutoff of lower and the perceived greater contrast. Well.....

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Comparing ink usage between different printers is adding another dimension, and you may go further
comparing different brands e.g. Canon with 12 colors. With more colors already available mixing inks by the driver may get reduced slightly. But a user typically does not buy a printer by its ink consumption but for other reasons - apparent print quality , paper handling, refill capabilities - just to name a few reasons.
There is another aspect to the different quality settings by the driver - the print resolution may change. This typically gets visible only with high resolution targets or sharp images with a high effective pixel count, with a high pixel camera with a sharp lens at the optimal f-stop.