Epson - EcoTank Photo ET-8550 All-in-One Wide-format Supertank Printer

At the moment for double sided printing I am going with Canon 63lb Double-sided Matte Photo. Then I coat with finishes. I am still experimenting, but its close enough that I was willing to print out a full commander deck for play/stress testing. I was using canon 45lb single sided matte photo then gluing the back side with the same paper to it. Too much of a pain in my rear for me to continue. Some of the prints that I glued are having a reaction 2 weeks later to the oil based finishes and yellowing (I half expected that to happen or that the glue would fail due to the oil base). That combo makes a card that is a bit too thick/heavy once you put a finish on it.

Most of the pics came from my phone so they are lower quality but there are a fair amount of pictures on different papers in this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicproxies/comments/1ij7pip/paper_test_summary_list_with_links_epson_8550/) from an 85xx series. This [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicproxies/comments/1koejgz/epson_8550_13x19_moab_juniper_baryta_commander/) has the final image taken with my friends iphone so its a lot better quality of a picture. That being said its also printed on expensive paper so keep that in mind. This [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicproxies/comments/1ir5wr9/opinions_on_proxy_sheen/) has some up close angled shots for checking sheen, please note these were polyurethane treated so the image quality really changes from that treatment. Please note the 8500 is identical to the 8550 except the 8550 can do prints up to 13in wide.

It costs like a dollar a print but the Fuji instax printers are the coolest ones and are easy to use and it's a real photograph, not a print. If you want cheap get an Epson eco tank printer and use photo paper. The Kodak ones will be somewhere in the middle.

I have an epson eco tank that I use for an entire line of prints that have quite dark colors. I really like it! That said, I have to do a little bit of tweaking pre-print so they don't turn out *too* dark and lose their contrast. I usually raise the brightness by anywhere from 20-50% and they do just fine.

I have an ET-8550 and print lots of photos from 4x5 to 11x14. Not sure how it compares. How do you plan to digitize is negatives?

Epson EcoTank (ET) printers are the way to go. The teacher will really, really, really appreciate the very inexpensive cost per page because the ink is so inexpensive.

OK, so you have digital files on your PC, or Mac and want to print them. Now we're on the same page. 😊 The 4800 uses 4 ink colors. Black, yellow, cyan, and magenta. Depending on your standards, it's OK. The 8550 uses Black, photo black, Grey, yellow, agents, and cyan. So it can do a better job with color rendition. Six colors vs. 4. Depending on subject matter, you may not notice a big difference. I did not see what size paper it can use. But it should have no issues with up to 8x10.

I've also noticed my canon g7020 prints better pictures then Epson ECOTANK I also noticed the canon G7020 sits better not printing for 1 week at a time vs the Epson I also noticed my canon has no expiration on the ink. But the Epson is like 2-3 years.

Print lots of photos on my Epson ET-8550. Six ink colors.

Ecotank is garbage for photo prints

I have Epson eco tank, but it doesn't print in "high quality " as you describe. I'd suggest printing your things somewhere like FedEx, they have great prices for their quality

No, I bought the moab from b&h photo though, decent prices and good shipping. Glad you asked, I did actually do a different color adjustment then my standard one, this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicproxies/comments/1ko59o6/moab_305gsm_baryta_epson_8550_epson_vivid_custom/) covers that. Be aware its really thick paper, .37mm so it may very well not work well or at all in most printers. Its a good printer series, my cost per single faced card is $0.015 in ink. That's averaged over a years worth of printing, its probably off a bit but comes close enough for my budgeting. I use epson brand ink and have no intention of thinking about off brand ink till my extended warranty runs out. Honestly though at that price per card, I don't see a reason to mess around. I print onto the paper then either cut and sleeve for deck testing and refinement, using the Koala double matte from my post. If I have a deck I love and want to play unsleeved I print on canon double matte and then polyurethane treat it. Something to note the "rear" feed, the one that you have to remove the rear panel for will cut off something like 1.5inches from the end. Small price to pay for a home consumer I suppose for the ability to print on 1.3mm or 1.5mm? foamboard, can't remember the exact number from the tech spec. I use the rear "top" feed for all my paper including the .37mm moab baryta. There is a guy on youtube named Keith Cooper, he does a bunch of videos on the 85xx series. They are geared towards photographers but I took a fair amount away from them. His videos are what finally convinced me to buy the 8550.

I have the Epson ET-8550 13" x 19" 6 color printer. It uses ink very economically and you can get ICC color profiles from various sources on the web. I create my own color profiles using DATACOLOR SPYDER PRINT calibration software. I don't go to outside printers unless I need something I can't print here. There was a commercial study done (can be found on the YouTube channel below) on the longevity of ink types used for printing on non-archival methods and results indicated that expectations were 50 years and higher from the inks used on the Epson ET-8550. This, of course, is when exhibited in a proper location without constant harsh sunlight without strong UV. I figure given my use cases and since I don't sell my prints (do give as gifts, etc) they'll outlast me by a long time. Take a look at this YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/VEab3AhuIV4?si=DuHR_mPGz_aeb76u Kieth Cooper of Northlight Images. He's really in tune with all aspects of home printing and has a lot of interest videos and data. Might be worth a look if you're interested in printing your own stuff.

I have one and it's great, makes beautiful prints that people at cons often mistake for the original paintings because the print quality is so high

Canon 63lb double-sided matte photo

I'm currently using an Epson ET8550 all in one printer. Does great photos and uses ink tanks, so no cartridges to dry up. I do lots of 4x6 and some 8x10. Occasional 11x14 as well. Theres a program Qimage Ultimate that lets you print multiple copies or mixed sizes on one sheet of paper. So 2 wallets and 2 4x6 on one sheet.

The 8550/8500 are exactly the same except the 8550 can print up to 13in wide. I have enough trouble with cuts on a standard 8.5 width let alone the two sheets I attempted at 13in wide. That being said being able to run out photos and posters for people at 13in wide is pretty handy. I have done a few 13in by 19in wall posters of real cards for gifts. Also something to note, the 8550/8500 is also capable of user defined paper length up to 70in or so. Can't remember the exact number but its in the tech specs if your curious. This is a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicproxies/comments/1ij7pip/paper_test_summary_list_with_links_epson_8550/) with a bunch of papers I tested on the 8550 if you want to see what it can do. If you have already seen it then my apologies. Edit: Checked the specs max user defined paper length is 78.7 inches.

I love my epson ecotank printer. There's lots of sticker makers that use it and you can find reviews on YouTube. Ink is cheaper too than buying cartridges. Comes in bottles.

Just a heads up if you are in the United States, Best Buy currently has the 8550 at this same price of $499 -BUT- they have a program called "Recycle & Save" that lets you recycle any working/non-working printer for an extra $100 off. Find a dead printer at your relative/neighbor/charity shop. You have to do it in-store because you give them the old printer to get the coupon they print, but if its out of stock in-store you can order it at the register and it takes the coupon off. Links allowed? [https://www.bestbuy.com/site/promo/epson-recycle-and-save-printers](https://www.bestbuy.com/site/promo/epson-recycle-and-save-printers) $399 is pretty rock solid for what this printer is even with its limitations.

I personally am an inkjet guy, but if you go with a thermal type laser you get access to Koehler black cored paper that replicates a real card snap. I can't help on a best recommendation for laser though. If your family will occasionally do photo prints as well you might consider an epson 8500 or its larger brother the 8550. I use the 8550 for my proxies but my gf uses it for her photography as well. Its a very capable printer, and having the black document ink in addition to pigment black really helps on refills if you are doing a fair amount of plain document prints. Ink is very affordable and my proxies run $0.015USD per single face cards or roughly $0.135 per page of epson brand ink. It may matter or it may not to you but the 8500/8550 is also capable of printing on 1.3mm foam board from the rear slot. Here is a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicproxies/comments/1ij7pip/paper_test_summary_list_with_links_epson_8550/) with various papers I have tested with my 8550 in addition to several links to other posts by fellow proxy makers. Edit: For the record I was unable to get successful prints on my 8550 using an inkjet on black core card stock to justify the price, furthermore what is widely sold as "cardstock" from most manufacturers is not a true cored playing card stock. I have been told that swapping over to a full pigment based ink on my 8550 would allow me to print, or alternatively if I prepped with a product called "inkaid" I could get reasonable prints. However I have never seen a post with photos about either of them in use.

I have an ecotank for printing documents. They are not well suited for making photographic prints

Yes your right it's not an art priner and the 8xxx series is better quality. But Epson is literally disposable Well, to give a bit of an update I guess if I haven't already, my second Epson ET 8550 that I got after my first one also died at 13,200 pages. The same way, the same issue, and I took way better care of this one in the sense of making sure that the print heads never got a chance to dry out at all. I've been using HP 32lb premium for the vast majority of my prints. Other than that, for stickers, online labels weatherproof matte sticker paper. Seldomly 110lb staples card stock, and then I'll also print on a6 white envelopes. I made a post in the /commercialprinting group about trying to find a printer that can handle what I'm doing, several people say to outsource which I don't want to do, and a couple people think maybe the wf-5890 will work well but I can't seem to find too much feedback on it for what I plan to use it for. Which is lots of color heavy printing. I've never really had an issue with the colors not being good enough, I think at most I've had to just slightly edit my files to have heavier saturation via photoshop. I have to use the 32lb paper because when I was using 24 and 28lb, the paper was warping from the amount of ink. https://www.reddit.com/r/magicproxies/s/lbjZoIO0W8 They are pizzo electric and expensive as all hell.

Wow did not expect so many responses and questions. Let me say that I am still in the middle of experimenting with many different things, not to mention I am only just now getting to the stage of playtesting a full deck of my proxies. I will pull some of the general questions and answers into this comment. **Paper/Print:** At the moment after testing paper and print settings on an Epson 8550 I have settled on using Canon double sided matte photo paper with the print quality setting at standard. The eventual hopeful goal is to be able to play straight paper cards, I do not know if that will be possible with an inkjet printer due to the way the ink and paper interact. I choose to print backs as well purely out of personal preference with an eye towards unsleeved play. **Finish:** For spray finish I am balanced between Minwax oil based polyurethane warm satin two light coats, rotating the paper 90° between coats, then Minwax water based polycrylic matte for a final coat has the best feel/shuffle of a card. The reverse order and coat numbers for the best look of a card. I wish to try the polycrylic in satin but I can't budget that yet. If the above commander deck tests well with wear/play I will print out another deck for testing of the opposite combo. **Cutting:** I am going to cut them after finishing with a guillotine style cutter with the blade sharpened at a roughly 24/25° single bevel edge. Depending on how they cut I might double bevel the edge to a roughly 30° angle. **Corners:** I haven't even touched on rounding the corners yet. I will see how much of a pain it is to use scissors to manually round the corners, if its too much of a pain I will try one of those corner rounders. **Cut edge:** After that I plan to use a sharpie to blacken the cut, in the future I might use an ink pad instead. Then I will stack, compress and hit the edges with a light coat of finish to seal them. **Thickness:** A basic swamp from onslaught measures .28 mm on my calipers. The same printing on my double sided canon matte photo with a spray finish measures at .25 mm. There is a variance of +/- .02 mm or so, since too much force will start to compress the paper itself. Also I might accidently go heavier or lighter on the spray finish due to human error

he's talking about the 8550 which is an eco-tank that can only be refilled. And there are all sorts of inks (non-com) available though I can't confirm their quality.

My Epson ET-8550 does a fine job on photos. I commonly do 11x14.

Yeah thermal heads fail but the sure as hell don't clog as easy I would print full color rain sheets 2x a week and it would still clog I just came back from Europe after 1 months trip no print zero clog. Also the print head for canon is the part numbers for black and color are qy6-8026-010 and qy6-8035-010, respectively. And are 100x easier to replace But sure let me just ya know drop 2-15k on a xerox or rioch or Kyocera and a consumables/maintenance plan for a 500 page print volume a month.oh wait I don't even have room for that I've Experienced artist here: My ET-8550 has been nothing but pure hell since the day I bought it, a year ago. I regret it immensely. I'm not a beginner with this stuff - previously I was using an HP Photosmart, making handmade vinyl stickers, iron on transfers, art prints, the works. When I decided to upgrade after my Photosmart finally died....god do I regret dropping $600 on the ET-8550. I read so many reviews praising it, but I have actually cried real tears, and lost hours of my valuable time trying to get this printer to do even the most basic of tasks. It will not use the entire scanner glass for photo quality scans. Color handling is abysmal, and requires hours of careful calibration to get anything right. Did I mention the print heads clog regularly? I feel ashamed that I spent a lot of money on a tool that, in the end, has not allowed me to advance my art goals. It was a massive mistake, and now I have what is essentially a $600 paperweight. seen more issues and complaints with Epson then Canon. Thermal heads fail but they don't clog as easy Experienced artist here: My ET-8550 has been nothing but pure hell since the day I bought it, a year ago. I regret it immensely. I'm not a beginner with this stuff - previously I was using an HP Photosmart, making handmade vinyl stickers, iron on transfers, art prints, the works. When I decided to upgrade after my Photosmart finally died....god do I regret dropping $600 on the ET-8550. I read so many reviews praising it, but I have actually cried real tears, and lost hours of my valuable time trying to get this printer to do even the most basic of tasks. It will not use the entire scanner glass for photo quality scans. Color handling is abysmal, and requires hours of careful calibration to get anything right. Did I mention the print heads clog regularly? I feel ashamed that I spent a lot of money on a tool that, in the end, has not allowed me to advance my art goals. It was a massive mistake, and now I have what is essentially a $600 paperweight.

I use an epson 8550 with decent results. This [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicproxies/comments/1ij7pip/paper_test_summary_list_with_links_epson_8550/) has a few links to different paper test posts with photos. I should note the epson 8500 is functionally identical to the 8550 but limited to max width of 8.5in u/UnguIate has a canon pro-1100, here is a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicproxies/comments/1lgg18e/comment/mz28fs4/?context=3) with some of his results.

You're asking about price per print, *including* the amortized cost of the printer. In the long run, ink and paper costs always dominate. Short term however, the price of the printer dominates. A more expensive printer, such as the Epson ET8550, will have very good long term cost, but the initial investment is steep. A less expensive printer, such as a Canon SELPHY, will have a modest initial price, but price per picture adds up much faster. The least expensive printer is Walgreen's, with no up-front cost, but high ongoing cost. A second consideration is quality. The more expensive the printer, the higher the print quality. The ET8550 will outperform Walgreens, producing richer colors and more detail. A professional printer such as the Canon Pro 1200, will be even better. The SELPHY does not match Walgreens. And then there's effort. Walgreens takes your JPEGs and prints them. SELPHY does, too. But a dedicated printer will require some fiddling with a computer to get good results. On the flip side, you get to play with various paper types and sizes. But make no mistake, this is extra effort. Personally, I went with a Canon Pro 200, which is roughly equivalent to the Epson ET8550, but cheaper to buy and more expensive to operate. It's all a matter of how much do you intend to print. I also have a much cheaper Epson XP8500, which prints better photos than the SELPHY, for less money, but can't match the Pro 200. I also have a SELPHY, which is nice for what it is, but can't match Walgreen. And I have an INSTAX printer, which fits in my pocket and prints adorable little polaroids. But quality can't match even the SELPHY. Depending on your needs, all of the mentioned printers are a good purchase. In your case, I'd probably recommend the Epson XP8800 as a cheap, good quality photo printer. You'll be able to buy six full ink replacements before you'll reach the cost of the ET8550, which should take several years. If you'd like to splurge, the ET8550 is definitely the better printer, with lower ink costs. And keep in mind that ink is only one part of the running costs. It's easy to get swept up in the marketing that an ecotank printer makes printing "free". But that's ignoring paper costs, which in my experience dominate printing costs in the long run. First party paper is reliable and good, but offers only limited variations. Third party paper requires matching printer profiles, which can be hard to come by for non-professional printers such as the XP8800 (but some paper manufacturers (Photospeed) profile for free, and there are cheap services for creating bespoke profiles).

I've been using a EcoTank for about a year for 4x6 and 8x10s. A four color printer like that will be limited in what it can resolve from the original file, but it's fine if it's going to end up in an album or frame. It's been fun to experiment with different papers and settings, and they hold an absurd amount of ink.