A perfect printer for the budget-minded photo fanatic, the medium-format Epson Stylus Photo R1800 delivers long-lasting, exhibition-quality colour prints. It’s virtually identical to its A4 counterpart, the equally impressive Stylus Photo R800, but its UltraChrome Hi-Gloss ink set lacks the monochrome chops that Epson put into the new UltraChrome K3 inks, which debut in the Stylus Photo R2400.
The Hi-Gloss ink set comprises six primaries: cyan, magenta, yellow, red, and blue, plus a choice of photo black or matte black, which both reside in the printer full time — no cartridge swapping required. The eighth tank holds the gloss optimiser, which is applied when printing on glossy paper stock. This coating overcomes the tendency of the black pigment inks to become perceptibly less glossy soon after drying as well as preventing bronzing in those areas.

Like the R800, the R1800 feeds paper through an L-shaped path, loading from the top and exiting in front. This design is easy to manage, though more prone to collecting dust than are cassette or front-feed paths. It also provides a straight-through paper path for very heavy media, including CDs or DVDs. The Stylus Photo R1800 also offers roll-paper capability, which permits prints as large as 33 x 112 cm. The R1800, like the HP Photosmart 8750, handles large-size output via a series of extendable plastic trays that seem rather flimsy. To protect them, consider locating the printer in a low-traffic area. In practice, the trays do work well and have the advantage of being able to retract completely into the printer body when not in use.

You can also fit the supplied roll paper holder at the back of the printer so you can produce banners or prints of arbitrary length. Finally, there’s a CD holder, so you can print on CDs designed for ink-jet ink.

Although there are eight ink tanks in the Stylus Photo R1800, it’s only a six-colour printer. The two extra tanks are filled with matte and gloss black. These extras are used to produce the best possible results on both glossy photo paper and some of the special papers Epson can supply, which include film and watercolour paper for arty prints.
Down the right-hand end of the machine there’s a column of four buttons and these control the usual functions such as page feed and cartridge maintenance. At the back there’s a USB 2 socket and, more unusually, a Firewire socket too. This should particularly please the Apple fraternity.
Despite its size, the Stylus Photo R1800 is easy to set up. Lift the lid, plug in the eight ink tanks and wait for the priming cycle to complete. Software installation is also straightforward and comprises several Epson print utilities, for handling tasks like printing Web pages, photos and CDs.

The Epson Stylus Photo R1800 offers digital artists a wide selection of photo printing features, fast print speeds and a high level of enduring image quality up to 200 years. Based on the letter-size-format Stylus Photo R800, the Stylus Photo R1800 uses the same UltraChrome Hi-Gloss™ eight-color pigment inks and is capable of making photo quality prints up to 13 inches wide and 44 inches long. This is Epson’s fastest photo printer to date, capable of printing an 11”x14” color image in less than two minutes.

With patented, true BorderFree photo printing technology, the Stylus Photo R1800 is able to produce prints in a variety of frame-ready and portfolio-ready photo paper sizes. Customers can print their photos (without having to trim the borders or tear off perforations) in seven sizes: 4”x6”, 5”x7”, 8”x10”, 8.5” x 11” (letter), 11”x14”, 12”x12” and 13”x19”. Users can also print on 4-inch, 8.3-inch and 13-inch widths of photographic roll media.

The Stylus Photo R1800 raises the bar on long-lasting photos by supporting a wide selection of media types and sizes of borderless Epson archival media. The printer’s output can resist fading up to 200 years on Epson’s Watercolor Paper Radiant White, and up to 300 years on Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper when kept in “dark storage” environments such as in photo albums. In addition, the rating for Epson UltraChrome Hi Gloss ink on Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper has recently been updated to 104 years in normal lighting conditions.