Before I purchased my Epson 2200, I did a lot of research on the Internet to determine if this was the right printer for me. One thing that really disturbed me was the number of people reporting problems with color management. Many were not happy with the color/contrast and some reported smudgy/blocky results.

So I took an image down to my local Comp USA and printed it out on an Epson 2200 and was pleased results. But as I was getting ready to leave, a Canon Printer representative asked if he could print my image on the new i9900. I was floored by the results. The colors were more vibrant and the overall image looked sharper. Compared to the Canon i9900, the image printed on the Epson 2200 looked flat and dull. And to make my buying decision harder, the Canon i9900 was less expensive and much faster. The Epson rep said that the Canon's profiles jacked up the colors and sharpened the image. He added that if I wanted the same results on the Epson 2200, I needed to make the adjustments in Photoshop before printing. Now I was back to square one.

I would have bought the Canon i9900 in a heartbeat if it printed 44 inches long like the Epson 2200. After I did some more research on color management, I went back to Comp USA and found that they did not have the color management set properly. I set up the color management based on what I learned on various sites and forums and printed the same image. This time, it came out much better, very close to the results I got from the Canon i9900. But I still gave the Canon i990 the nod.

I knew from my research that the Epson 2200 was the number one choice for photographers printing fine art images, so I was pretty sure I could get the results I wanted. I visited a local photographer who owns an Epson 7600 that uses the same Ultachrome Inks that the Epson 2200 does. His prints looked fantastic and he assured me that I could get the same results with the Epson 2200. In addition, I really wanted to print panoramic prints longer than 19 inches. So I decided to purchased the Epson 2200.

When the first image I printed came out smudgy/blocky, I panicked. I jumped on the Internet and went back to forums, looking for a solution. Someone wrote that you need to check the "Use Black Point Compensation" option to get rid of this problem. I thought for sure that I had already done this, but when I checked my settings, I was relieved to find it was unchecked.

After I got everything set properly, I'm happy to report that I'm very pleased with the results I get. You can find out how I set up the Epson 2200 color management in my article Epson 2200 Color Management.