Epson SureColor P7570
After 7 years with the Stylus Pro 7900
For the past many years, I’ve been printing all of my prints on my own Epson Stylus Pro 7900 large format printer. After 7+ years, it had too many issues and needed replacement.
One of the key issues was its continuance of print head clogging. It wouldn’t be many, and it wouldn’t always be the same one. But to clear it, the printer used considerable ink to clear the clogged head.
After limping along with this issue for over a year, it was time to literally, “pull the plug”.
Out it went to the Good Will recycling center, to be complete disassembled and all parts recycled.
Perfect timing for delivery
Talk about perfect timing for delivery.
When I ordered the large format Epson SureColor P7570 in early December, it was back-ordered without a firm delivery date. As you can see from the above picture, this printer (like the 7900) is not small. To get it into my basement office requires carting it around the front yard, down a small hill, then pulling it back slightly uphill to the basement entrance.
If it goes down the hill too fast, it is easy to lose control and tip it over. Now that would be a problem. As the calendar moves through December, we start to receive accumulating snow, making the route over the lawn that much harder.
I took delivery just after Christmas 2020, and fortunate we had only an inch or so of snow on the ground. The weather window remained open just long enough for our delivery. (Later that day we were digging out from the heavy 5 inch snowfall).
With the assistance from a couple of very helpful individuals, the transportation of the printer on a cart from my minivan to the basement went quite smoothly.
Just fits in my Office
Back when I built my basement office, the amount of technology available to me today did not exist. Naturally, I built the office for my needs as that time, with a few additional feet. The size served me well through my Motorola career.
Switching to photography required rethinking my needs. Initially I used an outside printing service for my printing needs. However, I never was “quite satisfied”. After a few years, I purchased my first Epson photography printer, the 3880 desktop unit. It fit perfectly over my filing cabinets.
It didn’t take me too long to realize I was receiving requests for larger prints. Needing to maintain control of my printing process, I switched to the Epson 7900. It was then that my office arrangement changed dramatically.
Out went all the filing cabinets, along with most of the old files. With very careful movement, the 7900 fit through my small door, past the wall bookshelves, around my desk and into its position along the wall. It stayed there for seven years.
When it was time to replace the unit, I was again lucky. The P7570 outside dimensions are very close to the older P7900. Once again, it just fit! An inch wider, or four inches longer - and I would have had to do some carpentry.
It didn’t like my Paper Choice!
Once installed, I naturally read the operators manual and started printing test prints with the favorite paper I had used with my Epson Stylus Pro 7900. After hours of experimentation, I noticed the new ink in the 7570 (UltraChrome Pro 12) didn’t like the Breathing Color Pura Smooth cotton paper I had used successfully with the 7900 (with UltraChrome HDR ink).
At first I was using the Breathing Color icc profile for Pura Smooth. Having problems, I thought that might be the issue and created my own icc profile using the Color Munki spectrophotometer and software. That still didn’t change the results I was having.
Search for a new Cotton Paper
I will say that I was dumbfounded as to what the cause of the disappointing print results. Just a few days earlier I had printed very successfully a number of prints on the older 7900 using the same paper. Using the same images, the same paper, different printer (with different ink set), resulted in totally different and unacceptable prints.
I started researching again the 100% smooth cotton rag, archival paper from various manufacturers. After reading many of their websites, I committed to trying the Red River Palo Duro Smooth paper. It is 100% cotton free, OBA-free, and smooth. I ordered an 8 1/2 x 11 package to try.
Incredible Results
The first image I printed was a swirling water in a river in the fall. The water reflects the colorful reds of the shoreline. My first print was a small 5x7, just to see if it were similar to the previous unsuccessful prints.
I was amazed at the colors of this image. They just “flowed” off the paper to the viewer. After a few additional smaller prints of equal size, with same results, I printed it larger, 7 x 10 1/2. The image again looked as it should, and matched the smaller test prints.
The Experimentation Continued
Using a scene of autumn aspens in Colorado (numerous shades of yellow and greens, with smaller amounts of other colors), I printed this image at 7 x 10 1/2, both on the Pura Smooth paper and Red River’s Palo Dura paper. I chose this image, as I had a print in my office that I had created with the Epson 7900, and could use this as the control.
I should add, before I did this experiment, I had also purchase a new Xrite iStudio calibration unit. I calibrated both the monitor, and created new icc profiles for Pura Smooth.
Once again, with the image printed on the 7570, the previously favored Pura Smooth produced totally unacceptable results. The Palo Duro produced stunning results, matching and/or exceeding my comparison control print, printed on the now-replaced 7900 with Pura Smooth.
To this day, I do not know why the results were so dramatically different from prints created on the 7900 vs. the 7570 with Pura Smooth paper. I can only surmise it has to do with the new ink set of the 7570.
My new Favorite Paper
With the tests complete, I have switched over to the Red River Palo Duro 100% cotton rag, OBA-free paper exclusively. I’ll be using the remaining Pura Smooth paper that I have for “maintenance” prints only. (The weekly test prints and nozzle checks to keep the nozzles open).
Once again my prints are presented with the true colors of the scene.
Wonderful Printer
Until its nozzle clogging failure (after 7 years), I had great print results from the Epson Stylus Pro 7900.
I’ll not go into the features available, or the differences between the two printers. Many other websites cover this discussion quite adequately.
Rather, I’m now confident I will receive the same and better quality results with the new large format Epson SureColor 7570 printing on the Red River Palo Duro smooth cotton paper.
All Set for Your Print Order
My printing process is once again all set up, just in time and ready to go to print your selected print. I print all prints myself up to 24” width, to the quality that I demand.
Order today from the Print Store, and enjoy the print for years to come.