The Epson 3880 is an excellent mid-sized printer. This one uses Epson Ultra-
Chrome K3 Ink with Vivid Magenta in 80 ml cartridges. These larger cartridges
save a lot of money in ink costs, but you do have to be careful when switching
between matte black and photo black ink. The printer has both, but since they
share ink lines, every time you change between the two types of black ink, you’ll
lose some ink when the printer purges the lines of the other kind.
Both of these desktop Epson printers, as well as many other brands and models,
have pizza, or star, wheels in them. These are rollers that help hold down a print as it
passes through the machine. Occasionally, as the paper or film media passes under
the wheels, the wheels can leave dot marks, especially
when using paintable precoats and some glossy media
(Figure 3.3). To avoid this problem, you can use DASS
Transfer Film (pigment inks dry faster on this film;
see Chapter 2, “Transfer Film”) and select a heavy
media type in your print dialog box. Optionally, you
can remove or raise the wheels (although this option
may void your warranty), print at a higher resolution,
increase ink drying time in your print driver, or try a
different paintable precoat.
The Epson 3880 has a slit on the back that you use to
feed rigid custom substrates through if the substrates
are 1.5 mm thick or less. Back-loading printers give you
much more flexibility than ones that curl the paper
when printing, and tend to have less feed problems. To
use a back-loading printer, you’ll need to add a platform
in the back at the same height that the media feed slot
is off the table (about 4" on most models). This raised
platform lets you slide the flat media directly into the
slot. Hand feed the media in and the printer will grab
it as if you’d used the regular media tray. Epson doesn’t
document this trick of hand-feeding flat materials into
the back slot, but it works (Figure 3.4).
FIGURE 3.3 Pizza wheels may mark your prints.
FIGURE 3.4 Hand load materials in the back slot of a printer.
HINT: Spend some time
researching your printer before
purchase. Some printers may
be cheap to purchase, but the
ink costs are high. Check the
Internet for “price per page”
figures on different printer
models.