DTG Reviews the latest release from Epson in their Professional Graphics line of printers, the "Epson Stylus Pro 4800" produces the finest output we’ve ever seen from any inkjet printer (Better prints & color than the EPSON 4000). The "Stylus Pro 4800" is fast (slightly faster than its predecessor the EPSON 4000), prints with incredible quality, no bronzing, and no matamerism, has expanded versatility, and is extremely reliable. The first surprise was that setting up the printer is easier then any other inkjet printer we’ve ever setup. This is due to its ability to self check its nozzles and more impressively, read its own alignment pattern (no more eyeing crazy patterns with loupes!). Our only complaint with the self alignment is that you have to tell the printer to do each of the three alignments. There should be a push button procedure to do all three automatically. The printer comes with a USB2.0 and a IEEE1394 (FireWire) interface, however we recommend considering the optional 10/100 ethernet card as a more reliable and flexible interface. Though it comes with the smaller 110ml ink cartridges, we were pleased to see that we could use the larger, more economical, 220ml cartridges as well (using the 220ml cartridges will reduce your cost per print by 25%).
The EPSON 4800 uses the same ultrachrome K3 inks and print head technology that it’s bigger brothers do, the EPSON 7800 and EPSON 9800. With an addition of a new ink the "Light Light Black" the epson 4800 no longer support both "matte & photo black" ink cartridges at the same time. The machine is shipped with both cartridges. Users decide which "BLACK" they are going to use. The additional "Light Light Black" gives prints more depth, better detail and contrast. The black and white prints are amazing! Printing straight from the driver (Photoshop CS2) and our custom ICC profiles the black and white prints were perfect, no cyan or magenta tints as with the EPSON 4000. Quality like this could once only be achieved by using RIP software. The bottom line is that this new "Light Light Black" ink produces a higher quality print at nearly twice the speed when compared with the Epson 4000 pro printer.
DTG has always offered our own custom ICC profiles for the Epson professional printers (4000, 4800 - 7600, 7800 - 9600 - 9800 and 1000 series) and a variety of medias because Epson’s profiles have always been sub-par. However, the "Stylus Pro 4800" media profiles that ship with the printer are surprisingly good. Our custom profiles we’ve created for the 4800 are better but not as dramatically better as with prior printers. Of course the "Epson 4800" only comes with profiles for Epson standard medias, but you can locate DTG profiles for Epson, Hahnemuhle, MOAB, BullDog Canvas, Fredrix, Ilford, and other medias in our profile library at www.dtgweb.com/support.
If you can live with the smaller 17” paper width and want to print to cut sheets, the Epson 4800 is a great compliment to the 76800 and 9800. The large tray can handle up to 50 sheets of 8x10 to 17x22 inch photographic paper at one time. Paper handling is the best we’ve seen from a sheet-fed Epson, however the printer will not sheet feed some papers including Epson’s own Premium Glossy Photo Paper. When we called our dealer technical rep we were told that Epson disabled that because the Premium Glossy scratched too easily. We have tested Epson’s Enhanced Matte & Premium Luster, Ilford’s Pearl & Gloss, and Fredrix Canvas with no problems whatsoever. We’ve tested a variety of Hahnemuhle’s fine-art papers and most fed properly though we did have occasional feed errors (1 out of 10) with the Smooth Photo Rag.
Roll feeding with this printer is pretty much identical to Epson’s other medium and large format printers if you are familiar with them. Put the paper on the removable spindle, lift the roller lever, feed the paper, and lower the roller level, that’s it. On roll paper, you can print borderless prints as Epson states, however only in these widths, 8", 8.5", 10", 12", 13", 14", 16", 17".
If you are in the market for a 17” or smaller color printer you will not be disappointed with the "Epson Stylus Pro 4800" printer. If you print photographs, small posters, commercial proofs, or giclee/fine art prints, you will not find a higher quality, more versatile printer anywhere. One suggestion when setting up the printer decide if the printer is going to be used for "Photography" using photo papers, glossy, semi-gloss, luster, etc. or for producing "Giclees" & "Fine Art". If the printer is only going to be used for "Fine Art" then set the printer up with the "matte black". Understand that if you want to print on "photo paper" then an ink change is necessary. This requires installing the "photo black" cartridge and using the "Ink Conversion Kit" this process cost around $65.00 of wasted ink. If your demands are for both "Photography & "Giclee" & "Fine Art" you may want to consider the ImagePrint RIP and their "Phatte Black" technology. The "Phatte Black" allows the printer to use both "photo" & "matte" black inks. More information can be found here
DTG Reviews the latest release from Epson in their Professional Graphics line of printers, the "Epson Stylus Pro 4800" produces the finest output we’ve ever seen from any inkjet printer (Better prints & color than the EPSON 4000). The "Stylus Pro 4800" is fast (slightly faster than its predecessor the EPSON 4000), prints with incredible quality, no bronzing, and no matamerism, has expanded versatility, and is extremely reliable. The first surprise was that setting up the printer is easier then any other inkjet printer we’ve ever setup. This is due to its ability to self check its nozzles and more impressively, read its own alignment pattern (no more eyeing crazy patterns with loupes!). Our only complaint with the self alignment is that you have to tell the printer to do each of the three alignments. There should be a push button procedure to do all three automatically. The printer comes with a USB2.0 and a IEEE1394 (FireWire) interface, however we recommend considering the optional 10/100 ethernet card as a more reliable and flexible interface. Though it comes with the smaller 110ml ink cartridges, we were pleased to see that we could use the larger, more economical, 220ml cartridges as well (using the 220ml cartridges will reduce your cost per print by 25%). 
