Best Epson ET8500-8550 driver settings and print detail

What factors affect fine print detail

Is there a ‘best’ print setting for printing?

In reviewing printers, Keith has a set of test images used to show how detail in an image is printed at different printer driver settings

This article looks at the settings for the Epson ET-8500 [A4/Letter] and ET-8550 [A3+/13″] ecoTank printers

These two printers are identical from a profiling and print quality POV.

The original version of this article for the P700/900 has more detail and explanation than here. This article looks at some experiments carried out with an ET-8500 printer and using Epson’s Premium Luster paper.

There is a video [~13 mins]
supplementing this article

The short answer:

• High Quality does show improved fine detail.
• Send more print resolution than 300ppi to the printer driver if you have it
  [there are no ‘magic numbers’ for print resolution]

Original 20 minute video covering the Epson P700/900 – lots more detail on this subject.

The balancing act: ET8500-8550 driver settings

This is very much a qualitative experiment and evaluation. It’s not about providing detailed optimal settings or the ‘best’ settings. If you disagree with what I suggest, then fine, please go and do some experiments with your own printer – I’m really happy to discuss practical tests, less so theoretical opinions on what one ‘ought’ to do… ;-)

This is about making prints that look good…Ones you are happy with

If you want just a set of settings to use and not think about what you want and what is important in your images and printing, then you will be disappointed.  In fact I’m afraid you will be disappointed with a lot of my work, since I’ve long avoided specific step by step guides or recipes. There is no ‘best’ and there is no ‘correct’ answer in printmaking.

What am I looking at?

I’m curious about two aspects of printmaking in particular.  One is how high in the printer driver ‘quality’ settings do you need to go, and secondly, does sending more image resolution to the printer driver make for more detailed prints.

I’m testing this using the Epson ET-8500 printer. This A4 printer is just a smaller version of the ET-8550. I have reviews and lots more info about the printers in articles and videos. It’s important to note that the two printers are identical from a print quality viewpoint. ICC profiles created on the 8550 work with the 8500 and vice versa

• ET8550 review
• ET8500 review

A photograph to test the best ET8500-8550 driver settings

I’m using a photo I took up in the Yorkshire Dales with my 50MP Canon 5Ds.  The actual image is one I’ve comfortably printed at A2 size, so I know it has fine detail and represents aspects of what I’ll typically print.

The image has had a little sharpening applied, but that doesn’t really matter here, since I’m interested in how the printer driver translates pixels in the image into dots of ink on the page.

Sharpening is vital to the perception of sharpness in a print, and along with many other aspects of editing a RAW camera file image, is important in producing a print that you are happy with. There are lots of techniques for processing files for print and they generally only make much of a difference when the print size becomes larger.

I’ll come back to what I feel is important in prints later, but even at this stage I have to remind those of you itching to get the hand-lens out to check over prints, that real people don’t see most of what worries some photographers about fine print detail.

Remember – the original P700/900 version of this article has much more background detail, such as the differences between ppi and dpi

300/360 nozzles per inch?

With the Epson P5000 and most desktop Epson printers, the ‘native’ print resolution and settings are multiples of 360 pixels per inch. This number comes from the physical density of nozzles in the print head. Hence you get resolutions such as 360/720/1440/2880 appearing in settings.

The print head from the Epson P5000 – a larger printer I use. Each of the dark stripes contains two rows of nozzles, giving 10 sets in all. Various nozzles can be firing or not firing 40-50,000 times a second.

If I take an image at 360ppi then ink droplet calculations are a bit less complex than if the source image was at 365ppi

It’s this limitation on complexity that helped push the idea that having your source image at a particular resolution produced better results when it came to reproducing detail in prints.

Twenty years ago, the dithering patterns (how the ink drops are distributed)  were simpler, they didn’t really look at adjacent pixels, and the maths for scaling and interpolation were simpler (for speed as much as anything).

Two areas I wanted to look at were whether sending extra detail (higher ppi) when printing made a difference, and whether the higher quality settings made much difference, apart from taking a lot longer to print. How much importance should you give to driver settings and print detail?

Making the prints: et8500-8550 driver settings

The image was resized in Photoshop to 1440, 720, 500 and 360ppi versions. These are the same size, but just with less resolution.

The 500ppi version is to give a feel as to whether changes from 360 to 720 are gradual or more of a step. If the differences suggest a more stepped response I might do some more versions, but that depends on what’s visible and how much difference I can actually see (and my patience…).  If sending more than 360ppi doesn’t make a difference then the prints from the different images will look similar – if that extra detail shows, then it does make a difference.

The files were printed directly at one of the 2 quality settings in the (Mac) driver – the names may differ in the windows version, but the variations should all be there.

There really are just two settings – quality and high quality

The second screen shot shows the Photoshop print dialog and the fact that I’m using one of my custom icc printer profiles for Epson Premium Lustre paper.

On the ET-8500 I’m using [a UK model] there is no Premium Lustre media setting, so I’m using the Premium SemiGloss one I used when I made the custom ICC profile.

Looking at the prints: ET8500-8550 driver settings

The small images fit two to a sheet of A4 Epson Premium Luster. That gives me 8 pictures on 4 sheets.

I’m photographing parts of the prints at ~1:1 with my 50MP 5Ds and the Canon MP-E65 macro lens I use for much of my commercial macro work (mostly electronic components).

Here’s the full set of pictures, from when I was processing the RAW camera files. I’m covering the full range of ET8500-8550 driver settings other than draft.

This is a big image – open in a new window to see the detail properly

The file names indicate the source resolution [300/500/720/1440] and the quality setting [q or hq]

Here’s the part of the original full resolution image at 100%

The actual ppi for this image depends on your monitor and just how you are viewing this article.

As ever, put this small bit of the whole image in context before you think it looks a bit lacking in detail…

Looking at the dots – ET8500-8550 driver settings and print detail

This section is just lots of images from the photos. The images can be double clicked and opened in a new window to see in more detail – just remember how small the areas you are seeing are on the actual prints.

BTW – try squinting a bit to blur the dots? It can help reveal more image detail.

Image at 360 ppi

Quality

High Quality

Now that surprised me – the lines of ink dots at the quality setting are very visible.

Mind you, it takes a strong hand lens to see them visually.

Image at 500 ppi

The same image but with 500 ppi of source resolution

Quality

High Quality

The wall detail is distinctly better at 500 ppi input resolution

Image at 720 ppi

Now with the same source image but at 720ppi of source resolution.

Quality

High Quality

Noticeably more detail in the HQ image at 720

Image at 1440 ppi

1440 ppi  normally makes for just larger files…

Quality

High quality

Changes from 720 to 1440 are minimal.

Important note about the fine banding

The fine banding above is really fine – no-one spotted it in prints unaided.

The key for the absolutely finest detail is to print unidrectionally

If the speed hit is not an issue, print at the higher quality setting or change the printer settings to turn off bidirectional printing

This is on my Mac [10.15] for other systems, read the manual…

How do ET8500-8550 driver settings and detail differ

OK, what practical use will I make of these tests?

My first thought at seeing the distinct lines of dots in the ‘quality’ images was that the bidirectional print head alignment might be out.

Note: These are not visible to the naked eye unless you have particularly acute fine vision and close focusing ability.

I ran another set of head alignments on the printer – no difference. I did note that you can only do the alignments on plain paper and they are actually quite fiddly to try and do well.

So, let’s ignore the difference in quality setting – I’ll now use HQ [unidirectional] for printing, even if it is a bit slower.

The difference in fine detail is really there if you send more print resolution to the driver.

So, if I have an image which prints at a native 480 ppi, then I’ll send all that detail to the printer. It also means that if I have a good quality image at say 260 ppi, then I know it will print fine, but if I use a tool like Gigapixel AI to upsample it to 520ppi I’ll get a crisper looking print. Some of my testing indicates that this upscaling is a very effective print sharpening tool.

Some context – what really matters with the et8500-8550 driver settings?

The differences in detail at the HQ settings are real, but in the real world, perhaps not that obvious. I’d note though, that with small prints like you’d get from the A4 ET-8550, people look at them closer.

However, there is much more about making a good print than poring over detail so fine that no-one is ever going to see it ;-)

What about YOUR printer/paper?

I’ve tested just the et8500-8550 driver settings in detail for this, deliberately picking a very standard Epson paper.

If in reading this you are still inclined to use highest quality settings ‘just in case’ I’d suggest you do a few small prints of a highly detailed image and actually look to see if the differences matter to you. Above all, be honest to yourself…

Don’t be unduly swayed by ‘forum experts’ and anyone who starts introducing any maths into their argument (if not backed up with actual meaningful examples). Watch out too for people extolling the virtues of any particular bit of printer driver software – demand real examples showing the benefits. Chances are they will not have carried out any real testing – not even at the cursory level I have in this article. Even if they have – is it actually relevant?

Above all – test things and learn trust your own judgment ;-)