Most notably, the ink system has been redesigned and now is comprised of 6 Claria ET Premium ink system that features Pigment Black + photo dyes (CMYK + Grey) which result in a higher yield and superior black and white photo printing. This printer is meant for amateur photographers or hobbyists because it uses only five ink colors (cyan, yellow, magenta, photo black, and gray). Finally, Brother says that it puts enough ink in the box to last you for an entire year (6,000 monochrome pages and 5,000 color pages). Overall both printers seem to deliver excellent printing quality while also being more economical than their competitors with the Canon having the edge in print quality by using pigment-based ink and the Epson being cheaper and more convenient to maintain. Just tap on the “Print Photos” button (shown in the first screenshot above), select the file location of the photo you would like to print (from Camera, Screenshots, Downloads, images from your texting apps, etc.

But, as is the case with the glossy output, unless you’re a fine-art photographer, you’re not going to feel that the ET-8500 is holding you back, at least with respect to the quality of the prints. Whether you're working from home or getting creative in your spare time, the advanced state of the art print, copy and scan capabilities are guaranteed to impress.

com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Paper handling consists of a 100-sheet plain paper drawer and, inside of that, a 20-sheet insert for snapshot-size (4-by-6 inch or 5-by-7-inch) photo paper. I asked Alexa to print a “design paper” (which it did) but since I couldn’t select which design to print, I really don’t see this as being practical or something that I will use in the future.

However, if you are a professional photographer looking for a professional photo printer, this is probably not the printer for you. Android and iOS smartphones and tablets can connect via Wi-Fi Direct or over a network with Epson’s Smart Panel mobile app. How close is the print quality of the ET-8500 to pricier dye-based inkjets, like the Canon Pro-200 or pigment printers like Epson’s own SureColor P700 or Canon’s imagePROGRAF Pro-300? The wide-format ET-8550’s running costs are about the same as the ET-8500’s, as are those of the Pixma G7020 and G6020, though keep in mind that those Pixma machines use only four inks. These were the first EcoTank printers to offer a six-color print engine tuned for printing photos, while also offering high-quality document printing and scan/copy support.Epson includes six ink bottles: one pigment ink which was Black and five other dye inks: Photo Black, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and Gray that are individually vacuum sealed. I read a review of this printer in which the person stated that they print something weekly to avoid having these problems. I was able to invert the Black ink bottle without spilling any ink because of the rubber valve on the tip.

To think that I could get to between 650 and 700 prints before having to replace a single ink color 12 I added additional Gray ink from a new bottle at 750 prints. I am an amateur photographer but I would like the prints to look like what’s been calibrated on my screen. A company PR spokesperson explained it to me like this: “The EcoTank Photo ET-8500 prints up to two years with each included and replacement ink bottle set (based on average monthly document print volumes of about 200 pages). You can use your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to easily print via Airprint without the need to install drivers or configure the printer queue.The flatbed document scanner/copier is quite useful, albeit without a feed mechanism for copying or scanning a stack of pages. To my eye, there wasn’t a lot of difference between Fine and Best Quality, especially with regard to black-and-white documents—Best Quality often took four times longer than Fine to print. The copied version of the document was the one I used to test how the copy ink handles drops of water, which as you can see, bled. Not only do you go through more of them if you print with any regularity, but they’re also wasteful. Epson's Claria ET Premium inks produce high-quality, long-lasting photos up to A4 size, as well as outstanding black and white photos with an individual grey ink.