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A3+ printers are probably overkill for most people, but they’re ideal if you need to print poster-sized photos or full-bleed A3 proofs.
The downside is that most A3+ printers are both huge and hugely expensive. Even so, an A3+ printer can be a cost-effective option if the alternative is paying £6 a pop to an online printing service.
At around £350, the Epson Stylus Photo R1900 is clearly a serious investment, but it’s also a serious inkjet printer. It’s no more difficult to set up than an A4 printer, although you’ll obviously need a large desk to accommodate it. There’s no paper cassette, and pages are instead stacked in the fold-out paper tray, which can hold 120 sheets of plain or 30 sheets of coated paper. There’s also a separate paper feed for Epson’s heavy ‘fine art’ paper, plus an attachment for printing on rolls of paper and a separate CD printing slot.
In common with many other inkjet manufacturers, Epson’s quest for photo-quality printing has led it to expand the usual four-colour print process. The R1900 has eight individual ink tanks for matt black, photo black, cyan, magenta, yellow, orange and red, with the eighth tank containing an optional clear overlay for colour-fast high-gloss prints. Which of the two black inks is used depends on the paper used for printing: matt ink is used on matt paper, gloss for glossy.
The downside of this wide array of ink tanks is the cost of refilling them. Each tanks costs £11 to replace, which works out at around £90 for a full set. Fortunately, the R1900 produces lovely photographic prints that, thanks to the gloss overlay cartridge, have a sleek, professional feel. Colours weren’t as vibrant as those from Canon’s Pixma iP4600, though, and text quality was disappointing. An A3 print took a little under five minutes.
You won’t be buying an A3 printer for printing text, but the R1900 still costs almost £100 more than HP’s Photosmart Pro B8550, which produced impressive prints in our tests and is the better-value choice.
