The Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 is an all-in-one photo printer with refillable ink storage tanks. Along with the typical cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks, it uses grey and photo-black inks; it's compatible with Epson 552 inks. It's a wide-format printer that supports approximately 13" x 19" paper size, and its flatbed scanner supports up to Legal-size paper, yet it lacks an ADF and fax capability.
Connectivity alternatives consist of Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, USB, and Ethernet. You can additionally print straight from an SD card, and there's mobile support for Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service. This printer uses a unique version of the Epson Smart Panel app, which provides additional functionality for printing images.
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| Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 - epson.com |
The Epson EcoTank ET-8550 makes an excellent job of both, with an ink line-up that's a suitable compromise for both tasks. It's basically an upsized AA3+/13-inchversion of the cartridge-free A4/88.5-inchET-8500 and wusesthe exact same ink containers,aincluding70ml csubstitutes Taking on likes of Canon's PIXMA G650 'MegaTank' A4/8.5- inch printer, it has likewise reduced running costs y, yet the Epson printers are far more pricey to purchase, so it takes longer to obtain your refund. The
Epson EcoTank ET-8550 is different to dedicated A3+/13x19-inch inkjet photo printers, being much more of a multi-purpose, multi-function device. This all-in-one printer has a pigment-based black ink for crisp black text, plus 5 dye-based inks for photo results: cyan, magenta, yellow, photo black, and grey.
The grey ink not only enhances the range of shades but also enables higher image integrity for black & white printing. That's ok as much of a factor; however, it loses out compared to A3+ printers like the pigment-based Epson SureColor P700 and Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300, and the dye-based Canon PIXMA PRO-200, which use 10 and 8 inks, respectively.
As expert image printers, these offer a significantly larger color space than the ET-8550, along with a wider range of black and grey inks for superior black-and-white printing.
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Epson EcoTank ET-8550: attributes
As with other Epson EcoTank printers, a key feature of the ET-8550 is that it uses ink containers rather than cartridges, which are refilled with 70ml containers at a cost of around $ 17.50/£16 each. That compares extremely favorably with printers like the 6-ink, cartridge-based Epson Expression Photo XP-970 A3/11-inch version, which has only 9 ml of ink even in its 'XL' cartridges, at a comparable price of around ₤ 6/$17 each.
Epson claims that the ink price is reduced by around 80 percent overall and that, for photos, it drops from around 40c/40p to about 4c/4p per 6x4-inch print. The other side is that the ET-8500 costs virtually 3 times as much to buy to begin with.
Although 70ml looks and sounds like a lot of ink per container, it's worth remembering that Epson's large-format A3+/13-inch SureColor P700 and A2+/17-inch SureColor P900 printers use larger 5ml and 50ml cartridges. For the latter, there's not much difference between cartridges and bottles. Even so, P900 cartridges cost around $ 4.42/£38 each, so they're much more expensive than replacement ink containers.
One more variable is that the SureColor printers are marketed with low-capacity 'arrangement' cartridges, which only last for a few large-format prints, so you'd need to get an expensive full set of replacement cartridges very quickly. By plain comparison, the ET-8500 impressively includes a set of full-capacity 70ml ink containers, sufficient for publishing around 2,300 6x4-inch image prints.
As a printer that's far better suited to office work than to expert large-format image printing, the ET-8500 features multiple input cassettes for different paper types and sizes, duplex printing, and a large-format 8.5x14-inch scanner for straight scanning and copying.
Everything's brought together by a handy 10.9 cm color touchscreen with an intuitive user interface and, for remote operation using a mobile phone or tablet, there's the 'Epson Smart Panel' app. Connection options include USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet, and the printer also features an SD/HC/XC card slot and a PictBridge port.
For publishing on larger-format paper up to A3+/13x17-inch, there's an upright feeder that feeds from the rear of the printer, plus a straight feeder that enables you to print banners and scenic photos up to 2m in size, as well as professional media approximately 1.3 mm thick.
