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By Russell Hart / American Photo

Epson Stylus Pro 4880

This model's biggest brother -- the Epson Stylus Pro 11880, our Printer of the Year -- has the longed-for ninth cartridge slot lacking in the -880 series's smaller models. That difference allows SP11880 users (few though they may be) to switch at will from glossy to matte paper and back rather than having to go through time-consuming, expensive cartridge-swapping. But just like that huge, 64-inch machine, the Stylus Pro 4880 uses Epson's UltraChrome K3 inkset with its new "Vivid Magenta," which in our experience -- both with this model and the Stylus Photo R1900 (see Fine-Art Printers) -- really does seem to improve color gamut and, in particular, the rendition of skin tones.

We were blown away, however, by the smoothness the SP4880 imparts to color gradation, from a hue's palest to its deepest values. The new model's dot-distribution algorithms are said to be similar to, but even better than, the impressive Stylus Pro 3800, 2007's Editor's Choice Best Buy in the Fine-Art Printer of the Year category (a model that shares the SP11880's extra slot). We can't claim to see the difference, but both models produced some of the best inkjet prints we've ever made, in color or black and white.

The SP4880 carries on with Epson's trio of black inks, black, light black, and light light black, which makes for beautifully long-toned black-and-white output. (Wonder if either of the light blacks is actually 18 percent gray...) That plus the ease of the dedicated black-and-white mode in the printer's driver, which lets you "tone" an image with virtually any color and to any degree without messing up your original file, makes this a super black-and-white printer too. Yes, you will have to manually swap photo black for matte black, as mentioned. But for us this wasn't a big deal, since we generally favor (in contrast to our silver halide days) matte-surfaced papers. Under $2,000.

Epson Stylus Photo R2880

Successor to the esteemed but ink-hungry Stylus Photo R2400, this 13-inch pigment-based model takes its name from the -880 series "Pro" line because it shares many assets with those larger printers. Not least of these is the "Vivid Magenta" feature of their shared UltraChrome K3 inkset, which gives the R2880 smoother, more faithful color and even deeper blacks. It inherits the bigger models' printhead, too, incorporating automatic checking for both clogs and correct alignment.

Like all the -880 models except the top-of-the-line SP11880, photo black and matte black must be manually swapped when you want to change paper surfaces, but Epson says the R2880 is less wasteful of ink in the process -- and of course its cartridges have lower volume and a lower price. We confess we haven't tested this model ourselves, but include it here on the basis of examples we've seen of its output, which look at least as good as what we're used to getting from the Stylus Photo R2400. When you add that superb quality to the ink-related advantages of the Stylus Photo R2880, you have a worthy if incrementally improved successor. About $800.

Green Photo Product of the Year: HP Deskjet D2545

You can't really use this letter-sized inkjet model to make exhibition-quality photographic prints. That said, on decent paper its four inks (in one black and one tricolor cartridge) produce surprisingly good image quality. This is the result, says HP, of a dual-dot ink distribution system that makes up for the lack of light cyan and light magenta (typically found in photo-quality printers) by means of pointillism -- simply by using smaller dots of the full-blown colors. What's more, the archival life of the new printer's output, though dye-based, has been rated at 60-plus years by permanence guru Henry Wilhelm. But frankly, those aren't really the reasons we've included the HP Deskjet D2545 in this sidebar to the models in our Fine-Art Printers category. It's here because it represents an impressive green-mindedness on its maker's part: Its plastic body is made of 83 percent (by weight) recycled plastic. This isn't entirely new for HP, which has been climbing the curve of eco-responsibility more aggressively than most manufacturers. HP's recycling program allows you to call in to get an unwanted printer picked up, whereupon it is either donated to charities if it still works or ground up to make more printers, a process that even separates pure plastic from circuit boards. HP cartridges come with a postage paid?? return envelope, and are also ground up for recycling; HP60 black cartridges are three-quarters recycled plastic. Whatever you return for recycling, you get points for credit toward future purchases of HP products. As for the D2545, it has a remarkably small footprint; uses way less energy than its predecessors when not in use or in sleep mode; and outputs color at 20 pages-per-minute, text at 26 pages-per-minute -- not too shabby for a sub-$50 printer. And it comes in recyclable packaging, no hateful styrofoam. Under $50.

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