CompuServe Thread

Dan: I don't know the technicalities but the documentation certainly claims that the Epson can print at 720×720 dpi resolution as long as you use the special coated paper. Your 8.5 x 11 sheet minus the .5 border = 7.5 x 10 image area. To max out the 720 dpi you would need to render your images to a whopping 7200×5400 (720×10 by 720×7.5). You can get decent results at a much lower resolution say 2000 x 1500 which would be 200 dpi. Much above this level you start getting diminishing returns with the Stylus. On a dye-sub printer you might want to max out the resolution but not necessarily on an inkjet IMHO. The Stylus is a terrific printer and you can't beat the price. There are more photographic printers out there but not in the same price range. To get the best out of the Stylus you definitely want the Special paper. – Bob Ritger

Yes the Stylus Color will print at 720 dpi provided you use the special coated paper. I've found that it also works with the HP glossy [desk jet] paper and the results are great. The aspect ratio is square (1.0) as you have 720×720 in every square inch. The final output for your 8.5"x11" print should be: 8.5 – (.5 * 2) = 7.5 .:. 7.5" * 720 = 5400 11 – (.5 * 2) = 10 .:. 10" * 720 = 7200 Or, 7200×5400 pixels (around 230 megabytes just for the bitmap)…

The Stylus does very well, especially for the price. It will fit to page files of various sizes so 360 or 720 pixels per inch are not required. Ive even gotten pretty good results with video resolution files and 2k by 2k files print great. The color weave feature prevents banding it creates a very subtle texture sort of like a novajet. The special papers provide much better prints. It seems to print from RGB files as well as from CMYK files. Images with less saturated color may need a saturation boost which can be done in the printer driver software. Its not quite photo looking but I find it better looking than a canon color copy. Ed

One thing to remember about the ECS, it will not center your image to the page in Pshop without going through hoops. The Epson margins are 4 different widths. You can get some great info on the Epson America Forum. Although you can import your image in Corel Draw and center perfectly. It really is a fantastic product for the price. Now if we could just get 720dpi drivers for NT! Currently only Microsofts driver supports 360 dpi in NT. Here is the current poop on NT drivers: >>Epson has so far developed 2 drivers specifically for the Stylus-Color. One for Windows 3.1 / 3.11 / 95 (currently version 1.06). The other one is for Macs (68K / PPC, currently version 1.20a). We don't currently have an NT driver. Microsoft does have an NT driver but it only supports up to 360dpi. Windows and Macs were chosen because they make up around 90% of our customer base. Following those two, the personal computer GUIs with the highest market share are probably Windows NT and OS/2. My understanding is the IBM does indeed have a 720dpi driver. As far as Microsoft, they do have a 720dpi driver that will ship with Windows 95. They obviously have the know-how and resources for making the NT driver 720dpi-compatible. My guess is that they may have relocated those resources into putting finishing touches on the long-delayed Windows 95. Other users such as yourself have run across this issue before and they have made sure Microsoft knows about this. It's my also understanding the Windows NT and Windows 95 source codes extremelly similar. I'm sure it won't be long until they get around to resolving this issue.<< Remember that when in color mode in NT, Microweave is automatically set to "on" Mike