Have you fixed your banding issue? If not, I would suggest updating the firmware, then double checking that you have installed the full printer driver and not the AirPrint driver. The latter is not appropriate for higher quality printing and can lead to all kinds of problems. Banding issues have been reported elsewhere and have not been related directly to PL, but rather conflicting settings. Too many places where signals can get crossed.
Others have referenced Keith Cooper’s YouTube channel and Northlight Images web site, a treasure trove of useful information, with much content specific to the ET-8550. To help narrow the source of the problem, I would suggest downloading his sample printing test images. Print directly using Epson Print Layout without software image processing of any kind. The printer will often alert you to setting mismatches.
Regarding optimum print quality / detail, this is much dependent on the technical quality of the specific image and the specific paper and associated paper profiles. As @Joanna has commented there is nothing magical anymore about exact input image resolutions, whether 360 ppi or 720 ppi for Epson, or 300 ppi or 600 ppi for Canon. Keith Cooper has a nice video where he discusses all this (see below). In general, just send enough pixels to the ET-8550 printer and it will do all the needed calculations. How much is enough? For larger landscape prints on glossy to luster paper, Joanna’s 240 ppi may be all that is needed. Print and test for yourself.
If pixel peeping, or for smaller cityscapes or architectural prints, you might eek out some more detail with more image resolution. Despite what I wrote above, I do find 360 ppi to be a reasonable working target. I’ve occasionally seen some more detail at 720 ppi and higher resolutions, but I’ve also seen problems develop like ink micro-pooling or smearing which degrade the print. Do try upsizing a bit in something like Topaz Photo AI if more resolution is needed. There is an added benefit with Topaz PAI in that some AI sharpening can be applied as well.
Without wanting to appear arrogant, it definitely is.
What a lot of folks get confused with is the dot resolution. If you look at Canon’s manual for their Pro-1000, it states a minimum dot density of 2400dpi.
This also means that each pixel is made up of 10x10 dots, allowing for a mixture of colours within a single pixel.
If you assumed that dpi is equivalent to ppi, then a 100% size image from my Nikon D850 would only be printable to 3.44in x 2.29in, without a lot of interpolation. But, if you let sanity prevail and output at 240ppi, then you get a print that is ten times those dimensions.(approx 34in x 23in), which is larger than A2 paper, without any resizing needed.
Generally speaking, there is nothing magic about 240 ppi either. Magic for you, perhaps, in the sense that it obviously works well for your specific printing needs. You are using full-frame and other high resolution cameras to produce large, beautiful color and B/W prints on fine art papers. You are not among Epson’s target audience for the ET-8550.
The ET-8550 is a 13 inch, A3+, primarily dye-based printer, aimed at general office use, the hobbyist photographer and, at best, the prosumer crowd. On glossy to luster paper with good paper profiles, however, it is surprisingly capable of producing color prints which are excellent by nearly any standard. This is a tank printer that is relatively expensive to buy but very cost-effective in operation.
Full frame crops, crop sensor cameras, 12 MP pixel-binned smartphone images, etc. are all examples where modest image resolution can present a printing challenge. Moreover, many who buy this printer are not photographers at all. They are graphic artists and other image creators. And I’ll only mention that that many others are adapting this printer to pigment inks or sublimation transfer printing. Little wonder, then, that it’s an Epson best-seller.
The Keith Cooper video and companion web article address two questions both specific and relevant to the Epson ET-8550 and its user base, which now includes the OP. “One is how high in the printer driver ‘quality’ settings do you need to go, and secondly, does sending more image resolution to the printer driver make for more detailed prints.” His answers, which mesh with my experience with this printer, are both useful and nuanced.
Another nice touch in Qimage. They’ve done a lot of playing with sharpening for print routines and have their own sharpening algorithm which really does produce detailed prints without any sharpening artefacts.
One can definitely get good results in either Canon PPL or the Epson equivalent.
I just found myself spending endless time clicking and checking and triple-checking settings in Canon PPL as it was too easy to have a setting go back to a default. I lost a fair number of prints that way. Qimage holds onto settings better between prints. Nothing changes unless you want it too and then it sticks until you do change it.
It annoyed me a great deal to have to pay another $100 (at that price, the license is at least lifetime) to be able to reliably and efficiently print on my Canon Pro-300. It annoyed me even more to own an €800 printer on which I could not print reliably and efficiently.
Qimage One lifetime is for all printers. If you poke around and look at the other RIP programs’ licensing it’s either for a model of printer, or even worse, for a specific printer. The price of the competition starts at €500 and climbs into the €5000 stratosphere.
