[Gllug] Epson Stylus Photo 2100 && Linux?

[Mike Brodbelt]

On Fri, 2004-11-12 at 22:43 +0000, Benedikt Heinen wrote:
>    does anyone here have an Epson Stylus 2100 and used in from within 
> Linux?  I'm thinking about buying myself a photo printer, and that one was 
> recommended by the shop I went into -- unfortunately, linuxprinting.org 
> only lists the printer as "mostly supported", so I'd rather like to see an 
> actual print from it before I might go for that one...
> 
> Or - in lieu of that particular printer - does anyone here have another 
> (A3) photo printer and successfully used it under linux?

While I don't have a photo printer, I have set up numerous printers in
the past. FWIW, I'd start by making a list of everything that is listed
as working perfectly, and then choose the ones that fit your needs. If
you're buying a printer new for use with Linux, don't touch anything
that doesn't work 100%.

For photo printing, you'll want to use the gimp print drivers to get
maximum quality. The printers supported by gimp print are listed at
http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/p_Supported_Printers.php3, and that
page lists the Epson Stylus 2100 as fully operational, so I suspect
you'll have no trouble with it. The information on linuxprinting.org
refers to version 4.2.6 of the gimp-print drivers, whereas the gimp
print site lists support in the beta for version 5.

I'm also going to play devil's advocate for a moment here, and suggest
that the best photo printing available for linux, both in terms of
quality and price per print may well be something like
http://www.photobox.co.uk. They use Frontier printers:-

http://www.fujifilm.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/proPhotoProductFrontier.jsp

At roughly 100k usd a pop, running on crystal archive paper, they're
likely to produce better output than you can :-). There's some more info
at http://tartamillo.altervista.org/foto/frontier.eng.php, which you
might find interesting. You could also look at Fotango, though I haven't
personally used them, as they seem to offer only gloss prints, and I 
prefer matt.

The Epson 2100 will cost about 450ukp up front, and about 100ukp per set
of replacement ink cartridges (if you use genuine ones), plus approx 33
ukp per 100 sheets paper cost. Looking at the quoted specs, the ink
certainly won't do 100 A3 pages at top quality. I suspect you'll end up
with a top quality A3 print costing somewhere between 3-5 ukp/page, and
at that price good online services look pretty competitive, especially
considering you don't have to lay out 450ukp for the printer, never get
a paper jam, and setting up the printer only involves typing "ftp".

My 2p worth.

Mike.

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