Testing the Epson SC-P700 Printer

The Epson SC-P700 replaces the famous Epson SC-P600 printer by bringing real advances but the main one of which was at least expected of all shooters: it is no longer necessary to purge the blacks to pass black ink black ink photo matte photo. At last ! It also takes the opportunity to increase its gamut thanks to a new purple cartridge and therefore become Pantone Certified at 99%, the DMax of its blacks and the lifespan of the prints. All this in a 30% smaller footprint on the desktop. A good omen ...

This Epson SC-P700 printer belongs to a complete family of photo printers renewed in 2020 that use new pigment inks, Ultrachrome Pro10 ink, further improved over the well-known Ultrachrome HD. This range starts at the end of this test in A3 + format with this Epson SC-P700 and continues with the great classic A2, that is to say the Epson SC-P900.

There is no doubt that the entire range will adopt the latest refinements of this 2020 generation. This Epson SC-P700 model therefore gives access to the very beautiful and "serious" A3 + format. Its new inks increase, according to the manufacturer, the gamut by 6% thanks to a new purple ink cartridge but also the DMax (therefore the depth of blacks) by about 10%.

Getting to know the Epson SC-P700 printer

The Epson SC-P700 is therefore an A3 + format photo printer that uses new generation pigment inks, UltraChrome Pro10. These new inks guarantee very long print runs (Epson speaks of 200 years in color and 400 years in black and white, obviously in the best storage conditions) for author photographers who want to sell limited series, possibly to institutions. Its gamut is also slightly increased (by 6% according to Epson) thanks to a new purple ink cartridge which makes it possible to reach 99% of Pantone colors but above all its DMax is still significantly improved, on matte papers (+ 10%) or layers. One of the outstanding qualities of Epson photo printers is thus further reinforced. Like the generation it replaces, the Epson SC-P700 uses two different black ink cartridges depending on whether you print on a rather "glossy, Glossy" or rather "mat, Smooth" paper but unlike previous generations, this change no longer requires purging the black inks . FINALLY ! The print head now has both print channels.

As for the exterior finish of the printer, it is within current standards, nothing more. The "envelope" is still a bit plastic. The interior is solid but the trim, buttons, paper supports, hatches are a little light. The impression left by the first contact is therefore not particularly pleasant. Too bad but nothing serious either and in no way worse than the competition.

Main characteristics :

To begin with, here are the main features and some views of this Epson SC-P700 printer:

Photo printing in A3 +, 10x15 cm, CD and roll format (panoramic photo on a 32.9 cm roll) with vertical loading from the rear or flat from the front for use with thick papers (1.5 mm),
New : it is no longer necessary to purge black inks to switch from glossy black ink to matte black ink,
New : new generation pigment inks (UltraChrome Pro 10) + new purple ink for a 6% wider gamut according to Epson,
New black ink for a DMax on Glossy (3.0) and matt record paper,
New 10 cartridges of 25 ml ...
New 10.9 cm color touchscreen,
including two gray ink cartridges for quality black and white printing,
Control from a PC by cable or WiFi, Ethernet, smartphone or tablet from Google Cloud Print, Apple AirPrint ( Full specifications )

Installing the Epson SC-P700 Printer

The use of this printer begins as always with its installation, really very simple if you have a recent Mac or PC system, even if you have to respect a certain order all the same to use it optimally.

1 - Where to install the Epson SC-P700 printer?

While this new Epson SC-P700 is much less cumbersome than the Epson SC-P600 it replaces, especially in width, but it will still be necessary to leave enough room at the back either to load the roll paper for panoramic prints (photo below) or for the circulation of thick papers which will be loaded from the front of the printer but will have to slide backwards, always flat, during printing.

Note on using the roll / thick paper support : As can be seen in the photo above, the paper roll is not suspended by jaws on the sides of the roll but is placed directly on its plastic support therefore be careful to keep it clean!
In addition, if you want to alternate prints on thick paper then on a roll, you will have to remove the paper roll because it obstructs the thick paper passage slot.

2 - Install the ink cartridges

We will start by installing the ink cartridges, first WITHOUT plugging in the printer, by lifting the top cover. Since the cartridges are always in the same place and not attached to the print head rail, their replacement is immediate. Very pleasant, especially since there is virtually no risk of the wrong cartridge location.

New! This new Epson SC-P700 printer now contains ten cartridges including a brand new purple cartridge (right above) which increases its gamut and reaches 99% of the Pantone catalog.

3 - Download and install the Epson driver for this Epson SC-P700

Always before connecting your printer, absolutely download the latest driver for the Epson SC-P700, otherwise some printing options will be absent from the driver menus, in particular the quality options and obviously the deactivation of color management.

Important note! You must absolutely download the latest driver for the Epson SC-Pxxx printer from the Epson website and install it BEFORE connecting your printer, especially on Mac

Install it and only then you will be able to connect your printer like me in USB 2.0 or in Wifi to continue the installation.

Just in case ... on MacOS ! Be sure to install the drivers on Mac or PC before connecting your printer, otherwise the driver used will be a simplified version where all the options necessary for good color management will not be present. If this has happened to you then you must first uninstall the printer from the menu " System Preferences> Choose your printer on the left> click on the - (minus) button at the bottom" then you must install the latest driver and reinstall the printer with the + button this time! Everything is back to normal on my Mac.

Note! Installing the "correct" driver also installs all Epson generic ICC profiles at the same time.

4 - How much ink remains available after the first start?

When you have installed the first set of ink cartridges that came with your printer, you will surely be surprised to see that there is very little ink left in them:

This is "normal" because it is a set of ink cartridges called "Setup". These cartridges are therefore less heavy than the cartridges you will buy later. They will only be used once, during the installation of your printer so if you recover others, they will no longer work after the first installation. Is it petty? I leave you to judge ...

My advice ! You will be able to print about twenty A4s with the amount of ink remaining so plan to purchase a complete set of cartridges with the purchase of your printer, especially if you plan to shoot your future exhibition on a Sunday !!!

5 - Black ink: Photo Black or Matte Black?

The Epson SC-P700 printer therefore has two black cartridges with different properties:

A cartridge known as Photo Black : it will be suitable for printing all "glossy, Glossy, baryte" papers, therefore papers having a surface treatment preventing the ink from penetrating into its fibers - we are talking about coated papers,

A so-called Matte Black cartridge : it will be suitable for all matte papers such as Aquarelle Mat, Smooth, Canvas, etc. These papers "drink" more inks.
But there the comparison with the previous Epson SC-P600 ends because on this Epson SC-P700 it is no longer necessary to purge the system to switch from one to the other. The print head has the two kinds of nozzles directly. You just have to choose the "right" paper profile and the printer will choose the correct black ink automatically. What a change from the previous generation! Just for this new feature, if you regularly switch from a Gloss paper to a Smooth paper, the purchase of this new Epson SC-P700 is justified!

6 - How to load the papers and where?

Epson SC-P700 Touch Screen Home MenuThere are three ways to load sheets of photo paper into this Epson SC-P700 but this printer also comes with a charger for printing CDs. In order :

Vertical rear loading for all not too thick papers that come out from the front, flat,
Roll paper (media included on the back of the SC-P700 printer),
Thick papers are loaded from the front, flat and will go back and forth to come out from the front, always flat.
The special CD loader is placed from the front.

In addition to the classic vertical loading rear tray (20 sheets maximum), there is the possibility of loading from the front and flat - in a somewhat laborious and slow operation - thick but perfectly flat sheets.

Practical note! Loading sheets is still quite laborious in that it doesn't always work the first time ... like on the older Epson SC-P600. Too bad because it seems that it comes from the depth of the plastic slides that guide the paper and do not seem long enough.

Finally and unlike Canon, (which remains an enigma for me in 2020), it is possible to load rolls of paper in 13 '' (32.9cm) format and most often 10 m long thanks to the integrated support on the back of the printer (photo below). To access it, just pull the support.

Look carefully at the illustration of the touch screen in order to place the printer in the correct configuration for printing thick paper: you MUST close the vertical paper loading cover on the top of the printer and leave the loading cover of tightly closed roll papers. It has a slit so that the loaded sheet of paper flows flat. Leave plenty of room at the back of your printer.

Leave room at the back of your printer if you are using thick sheet feed.

Finally and unlike Canon, (which remains an enigma for me in 2020), it is possible to load rolls of paper in 13 '' (32.9cm) format and most often 10 m long thanks to the integrated support on the back of the printer (photo below). To access it, just pull the support.

Epson SC-P700 paper roll holder

The paper roll is placed on the support so be careful of scratches on the edges of the sheet.

Paradoxically, the roll paper support on the Epson SC-P900 is sold as an option but works on the same principle where the roll is placed on the support and not suspended between two jaws.

7 - What photo papers should I load in this printer?

This printer accepts all kinds of photo papers , from the Epson brand of course, but also from all other brands. The advantage of using Epson paper is that the best-known references are already present in the printer's firmware, therefore accessible from the touch menu or from the printer driver.

Use of non-Epson papers! The choice of the "good" paper, I remind you, only affects the ink rate so if you use photo paper from another brand, it will suffice to choose from the drop-down list of the driver the Epson paper which is similar to the plus the technical characteristics of its Epson counterpart.

Printing with the Epson SC-P700

We're ready to print with the Epson SC-P700! Although it might sound a bit crazy (!), I first started testing this printer using the generic profiles to see if it is usable immediately, without calibration. And we will save a lot of time because the conclusion is crystal clear: the generic profiles delivered with this printer are - well - very good. Without calibration, the prints are already really good colorimetrically. Bottom line, if you use Epson photo papers, you might start to get your first prints out without shame and therefore without calibration. Having said that, I obviously calibrated it with my favorite tool, the i1 Studio .

Small practical refinement : the printing hatch is now lit by three Led lamps (photo above). We can therefore start to see his image appear in the printer ...

New! The printed photo appears on the printer's touch screen:

Color printing with and without calibration

So I calibrated this printer with my favorite spectrophotometer: the brilliant and economical i1 Studio being tested on this site and we will be able to compare the two prints.

1 - Printing of colored facades - Well against all expectations, when I look at the prints with and without calibration under my controlled lighting ( GrafiLite 2 being tested on this site) the results are not only excellent but also very close in chroma but also in brightness. This is the first time with an Epson photo printer! On the other hand, the generic Epson profile opens up a little more - a little too much - in the shadows. Oh, nothing too serious most of the time, but it is true that the calibration of this printer with the i1 Studio improves this point and makes the printout more faithful to its display on an Eizo screen calibrated "as it should be".

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Testing the Epson SC-P700 Printer