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This six-color printer ($366, street) is loaded with Epson Claria Hi-Definition dye inks and can make borderless cut-sheet prints up to 13x19 inches, with drop sizes as small as 1.5 picoliters. While the cartridges hold more ink than earlier Epson models, they're expensive ($20 per color, street).
The Stylus Photo 1400's color accuracy earns an Excellent rating (5.7 Average Delta E). Despite its six inks, the color gamut is actually larger than that of the eight-ink Canon PIXMA Pro9000. Saturated yellows and reds fall well outside the Adobe RGB space, so we recommend using the Wide Gamut working space in Photoshop. Maximum black density is also Extremely High (3.5 L), yet shadows show plenty of detail.
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Epson Stylus Photo 1400 Test Results
Image quality: Excellent for color prints on Epson's Premium Luster. High for b&w prints. Color accuracy: Excellent (5.8 Avg. Delta E). Color gamut: Wide, with many saturated yellows and reds outside the Adobe RGB color space (transparent blue area in graph). Max. black density: Extremely High (3.5 L). Print speed: Color or b&w prints: Very fast (with High Speed setting on). 13x19-inch borderless, 4 min 38 sec; 8.5x11 borderless, 2 min 28 sec.
Epson Stylus Photo 1400 Gamut
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We found Epson's supplied paper profiles to be highly accurate as long as we used Photoshop CS3's driver to manage color. Our custom profile for Premium Luster Photo Paper improved color accuracy only slightly. Color prints on Premium Luster Photo Paper showed more accurate saturated reds and excellent skin tones, but we preferred the Canon Pro9000 prints when it came to producing gold tones, sky blue, and some darker purple-red shades.
This is one of Epson's fastest 13x19-inch printers to date, producing a 13x19-inch borderless print in 9 minutes 18 seconds at the highest quality setting. Checking the high-speed printing option reduces print time to 4 minutes 38 seconds without noticeable degradation of image quality.
While there's no special driver control for black-and-white printing, most b&w prints made using the Epson color profiles were impressive, and slightly cooler that those from the Pro9000.
The SP 1400 can print photos and text directly on coated CDs and DVDs, but not on thicker fine-art papers, unlike the Canon Pro9000 or Epson's own eight-color Stylus Photo R1800.
Want a 13x19-inch printer that's fast, produces wide-color-gamut prints that should last more than a lifetime (up to 98 years on display, based on Wilhelm Imaging Research tests)? Like to decorate your music and photo CDs and DVDs? Then this one's a deal.
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