17 inch printer. Epson or Canon?

[chriscrafford]

I am considering investing in a new printer to print high quality inkjet prints, both color and black and white. Any recommendations or experiences with current offerings from Epson, Canon or others. My past experience is mostly with Epson. The big downside in the past was keeping the nozzles clean. With Canon i have had terrible paper handling issues. Any recommendations or feedback on current top line 17in printers will be helpful.

 

[Drewid]

I was once told by the Canon printer service centre the best Canon model was an Epson!!

 

[chriscrafford]

I was once told by the Canon printer service centre the best Canon model was an Epson!!

Well that is a strong vote for Epson! Thanks.

 

[Killzen]

The Best Wide-Format Printers for 2023

Need tabloid-size output in the office, or truly big photo prints at home? These top-rated wide-format printers handily produce documents and photos on paper that's 11 by 17 inches or larger—and sometimes, much larger.

www.pcmag.com

 

[chriscrafford]

The Best Wide-Format Printers for 2023

Need tabloid-size output in the office, or truly big photo prints at home? These top-rated wide-format printers handily produce documents and photos on paper that's 11 by 17 inches or larger—and sometimes, much larger.

www.pcmag.com

Excellent, thanks.

 

[AlphaArt]

I have always been a fan of Epson printers and despite not doing much printing for a year, the nozzles still clean. I do have a Canon A3 printer as well and had no issues with this either. Where you have to be careful is with the thickness of paper. On my Canon I can print on 400gsm but the Epson will struggle with more than 300gsm however every year things change so always research.

 

[chriscrafford]

I have always been a fan of Epson printers and despite not doing much printing for a year, the nozzles still clean. I do have a Canon A3 printer as well and had no issues with this either. Where you have to be careful is with the thickness of paper. On my Canon I can print on 400gsm but the Epson will struggle with more than 300gsm however every year things change so always research.

Good feedback thank you. I have been researching this and one obersvation I have made is that almost every Youtube video on Fine Art/High quality Photo printing uses or recommends the Canon P-1000. It does appear to be a very good printer with great print quality as well better paper handling. The other item at this level is that the Canon Printhead can be replaced if it fails, but the nearest Epson is basically done if the print head fails. I am leaning toward the Canon currently.

 

[SteveK]

I have the Pro-100 13x19 and it is very good. Great color, contrast, and not to bad on print cost. It is a dye based printer so not "pro" or fine art level of printing. I have been looking into adding the Pro-1000, but the cost to run it is pretty steap. A set of ink will run you about $650. Check out Jose Rodriquez...he is a print guru and has comparisons for Canon an Epson. https://www.youtube.com/user/cheo1949/featured

 

[chriscrafford]

I have the Pro-100 13x19 and it is very good. Great color, contrast, and not to bad on print cost. It is a dye based printer so not "pro" or fine art level of printing. I have been looking into adding the Pro-1000, but the cost to run it is pretty steap. A set of ink will run you about $650. Check out Jose Rodriquez...he is a print guru and has comparisons for Canon an Epson. https://www.youtube.com/user/cheo1949/featured

I took the plunge and bought the Pro-1000. The results I am getting are outstanding. It is not cheap, but using good paper and proper setup yields stunning prints. So far I have use multiple Hahnemuhle papers with excellent results.

 

[SteveK]

I took the plunge and bought the Pro-1000. The results I am getting are outstanding. It is not cheap, but using good paper and proper setup yields stunning prints. So far I have use multiple Hahnemuhle papers with excellent results.

Excellent. I think I will wait a bit since Canon has released "replacements" for the 10 (300) and 100 (200) in the last year, I suspect a 1000 replacement is right around the corner...which will make the 1000 price drop, but they are really hard to find new so I may have to do something soon.

 

[Boojum]

Anything current? I am leaning toward an Epson ET. There is a good cheap one at 5760 x 1400 for ~$250. The Epson WorkForce ST-2000. Anyone with experience?

 

[AlphaWorld]

I used an Epson 3800 for some years, then stopped printing for quite a while (several years) because I was moving around. Just got back into it, and I am using an Epson P906 (for some reason it is called a P906 in Australia - it is a P900 most other countries).

Setup is surprisingly easy. Still have to remove a heap of blue tape (Epson love their blue tape!), but they have an online setup guide which shows you videos of where to remove the tape! Then it downloads the printer driver and utilities, and initialises the printer, including telling you when to install the cartridges (how to shake them, too) and so forth - very nice! Takes a while to load all the ink, but you don’t have to do anything.

This new model is a distinct improvement on the old ones (like the 3800 and 3880; I never looked at the P800). It takes 10 cartridges, and does not need to waste ink switching between photo black and matte black (yay!). It can (and has) download its own firmware updates! Supports Ethernet, USB, or wifi connections (I like using Ethernet).

According to at least a few people who have measured it, this printer is the cheapest of the 17” models to run (nice to know, but not why I chose it), using measurably less ink per area printed.

Still getting familiar with it, so I am only printing A4 at the moment - I will get to the A2 sheets when I’m confident. High quality photo papers are not cheap in A2!

Weirdly, it seems to use light grey ink much faster (like 3x as fast!) than the others (not just me - many people report it). Not a big hassle - I just bought an extra light grey. Oh, and that is a change - the Epsons I have used before had Matte Black, Photo Black, Light Black, and Light Light Black - this one does not! Surprised me. The cartridges hold 50ml of ink and last quite a while.

One last surprise: during printing it turns on a light inside the printer and you can see it printing on a narrow strip - that is cute! OK, it’s probably so you can abort the print if the colours are wildly wrong , but it is still cute

So if someone is looking for a 17” desktop printer, here’s one vote for the Epson P900.