Wide format inkjet printers?

[pitabread]

I've been thinking of getting a wide-formet printer for awhile now (about 2 years). Mostly for photos, but possibly for digital arts as well.

I've mostly narrowed it down to the Epson 1400 or the Epson R1900. From what I've read, the latter uses 8 ink cartridges and higher quality pigment ink, whereas the 1400 doesn't. The R1900 is also supposedly faster (although that's not a huge deal) and supports roll printing. So I suppose if I ever wanted to print something longer than 19 inches, I'd be set.

Anyone here use either printer or have comparable recommendations from other manufacturers?

[DavePalumbo]

I'd stick with Epson, best home printer quality in my opinion.

from what I can tell, the 1400 uses dye based ink and the r1900 uses pigment based, which basically means that the r1900 inks are going to be much better when it comes to archival qualities, and in my opinion, higher quality in general

[H.Evans]

I've used both at work. I'm still getting used to the pigment system of the 1900. (cyan, yellow, magenta, matte black, photo black, red, orange, gloss optimizer) I used CcMmyk for so long.

Something interesting to note is that I only print on matte media and pick the correct setting and the gloss optimizer still runs out slowly. Otherwise 1900 is a great printer. The 1400 is meant to replace the 1280 i guess.

[pitabread]

Thank you both for the responses. It sounds like the R1900 is a good contender. I also took a look at the R2880, although it's bit pricier than I'd like to go and from what I can tell, the only significant advantage would be better B&W prints.

[Bill]

I've had a 1400 for about six weeks. It'll print up to 13x19 and the inks are rated at 80 years for archival considerations. It's my first printer so I can't make comparisons but that said I think this thing is awesome. At $180 I think it's a really great deal. The included version of Elements 3 wouldn't work with my Vista, but it's a nice bonus if there's a place it will serve some purpose to you. The prints themselves, I don't know what else you could ask for for quality. I'd say that they're perfect. So far I love it.

[pitabread]

Got the R1900 today. Some initial impressions:

1) Holy frig, this sucker is big. I guess I should have expected it, being a wide-format printer, but it's something else when it's sitting on your desk. I'll have to figure out where exactly I'm going to put it...

2) Initial prints are very nice. I ran some 5x7 glossy's and the colours were rich and saturated. It's nice to finally have a printer that can print out photos that look like photos.

3) Epson is too cheap to include a USB cable. Bastards.

I bought a couple different brand sample packs of media, so now I'm going to experiment and see what it can produce.

I'm also curious to see how quickly this thing chews through ink. One common complaint I read was that the ink cartridges are on the small size. On the other hand, at least they can be replaced individually...

Pic of the new toy with some sample prints. It looks deceptively small in this shot:

http://www.animecritic.com/_temp/photos/printer.jpg