Epson 1430 printers

[rmolson]

After trying VueScan I can now actually use my scanner and get decent results so now I want to upgrade to a decent printer for Black and White prints I keep seeing the Epson 1430 for what seem to be too good to be true prices. Whats the catch?

 

[John_M_King]

If the 1430 is anything like the 1400 or the later 1500 you will not be able to obtain a pure B&W image. It will be either slightly magenta or slightly green. With earlier printers such as the 1200 or 1290 you could get a reasonable B&W image although they looked a little bit grainy. This was obtained by shutting off all the coloured ink channels and allowing the black channel only to make the image.

The 1400/1500 do not close off the coloured ink channels and the software does not allow a pure B&W image without a slight hint of colour. Take my word for it, the results are at best unpleasant.

Later printers such as the R2900, R3000 (both discontinued) would give a reasonable B&W with a bit of juggling with the advanced tools. The current P600 has 3 B&W ink channels and will give a good, smooth toned B&W image almost straight out of the box. The downside is the cost - something well over £550 ish. These printers R2900/R3000 and the P600 are all A3 and I don't know if Epson make an A4 printer that will work to give a good B&W.

 

[pschwart]

The 14xx is a fine printer for b&w only if you are willing to replace the OEM ink with a dedicated monochrome ink set. This requires creating your own printer profiles, so it's not a trivial exercise. An Epson printer that supports Advanced B&W (ABW) is the simplest solution, but you will pay for that functionality. I am not familiar with Canon printers, but I suspect they have something equivalent.