too have an epson 890 and am running OSX 10.2.8 and have NEVER been able to print borderless. i just print on 8.5×11 paper (matte or glossy) and cut the pics out with a rotary paper cutter. i "thought" i was going to get a 1280 for x-mas as i am pretty sure this will print borderless in OSX but allais i guess i wasn’t very good this past year. since i just bought a new set of studio lights to go along with my new camera i shouldn’t push it and get myself that 1280 just yet. BTW, i am using a MIS continueos ink system with my 890 and absolutly love it.
George,
Glad to hear you’re using the MIS CFS system . I just got one for Christmas and am using it on my Epson 890 with Windows 2000 . I had quite a time setting it up ( didn’t follow directions ) , since mine was an empty system, but now that its working I’m pleased . It should take the sting out of ink prices. I’m using the Generation ProPhoto Inkset from Mediastreet. Are you using the MIS inks? or some other inkset ?
🙂
Brent
I’ve been using MIS ink and have been very pleased with the results. i could not imagine doing as much printing as i do without the MIS system, the ink costs would be incrediable. i had no trouble seting up my system, then again i read the directions several times before attempting to install it. within a couple of months i hope to get myself an Epson 1280 and first thing i will do is give MIS a call and order a CFS. good luck with your MIS CFS, i know you will enjoy it.
George,
I installed the system and then decided to fill it with ink. Its a lot more difficult once you’ve perforated the cartridges. I ended up sucking ink through the system using the bottom fill adaptors ( made quite a mess, too ), but it worked fine since. I wish the 1280’s would come down in price . I have a 1520 wide format printer, but it’s no match for the 980 on photos.
🙂
Brent
Richard,
I’m a little puzzled why all the responses to your question have nothing to do with your with inquiry. Hmmm?
Anyway, I have a Mac with the Epson 890 and I just recently began printing borderless 4×6. There are two options for 4×6. 5×7’s only have one option. No perforations.I can’t give you detailed explanations but I can tell you where I found the solutions.
Page Set up. Select the 890. You will then have a list of the all the printing options for the 890. If you are printing 4×6 with perforations make sure that you make that specific selection. It’s different from 4×6 without perforations. You’ll also want to get your page orientation selected.
The second piece of the puzzle is in print preview. It will show if the orientation and size is correct. If not, you may have to go back to page set up.
The third step is, when you select print, you will get the print dialague box. Select ‘print settings’, then select the kind of paper you are printing on. It should be good to go.
If you need more detail let me know. It’s difficult to write this out entirely step by step but I will give more detail if you run into problems. Others may have something to add.
Sorry to be off topic, Mark
I have no problems printing borderless on my 890 under Windows 2000, but then again, Richard has no problem under Elements 1, only problem is Elements 2. I doubt the problem is with Elements, but in the driver , where you’re focussing. I’m MAC illiterate, for sure.
🙂
I’m a little in the dark regarding what the changes were from PE 1 to 2. I just know that I can print from PE just fine. I just needed to know where to look to make my adjustments. Richard didn’t give any details about how he did it before and what seems to be missing now.
And yes, it should be with the driver for 890, included in the Mac OS operating system. However, we don’t have any info on how current the Mac OS is. (Sorry, I read post again and see that he’s in 10.2. Drivers should be there)
Joe Henry is also running an 890 with his Mac and may have some additional input.
There have been several people that have posted in the past who didn’t realize that borderless printing needed to be set through the Epson software. Could this be where the problem is coming in? I think they’d been setting up 4 X 6 images on the Print Preview page and expecting everything to just "come together". I believe you need to go to Print Preview>Page Setup and access the photo print area of the Epson print software. I may be off base, because I’m relying on my memory, and it isn’t helped by the fact I don’t have an Epson printer!
I wish the 1280’s would come down in price
Brent,
I never heard you mention before that you are interested in getting a 1280. They’re about $400 now, I think. The 2200 is about $700, and is a much newer design. Why not the 2200? I’m curious because I want to upgrade to a wide-platen printer, and I have been trying to decide between a 1280 and a 2200.
Bert
So Mark, you’re actually getting borderless prints from your 890? I’d pretty much given up trying about a year ago and just assumed my 890 would never have a driver capable of this (it did borderless in OS 9 perfectly). I’ll have to give it another go now that I know it can be done. Have you tried printing to non perforated photo paper?
Joe
Brent,
What’s this "MIS CFS system" you and George are talking about? I’m assuming it’s a refillable ink cartridge system. I’ve always been scared to use a system like this as I didn’t want to damage my printer (I’ve seen this happen on other Epson’s). Now that my 890 is a few years old, I might be interested in trying a refillable system.
Joe
Joe,
Brent posted links to a couple of pix that showed his system installed. DUH…can’t remember where it was, and I can’t find it right now…do a search.
Bert
EDIT: Found it
brent bertram "Note to Susan S -Color management and Calibration" 1/3/04 12:10pm </cgi-bin/webx?14/6>
Joe,
I haven’t tried the non perforated 4×6’s yet. Now, I do have some 5×7 sheets I should try out. Perhaps the driver was included with Panther. I never tried it in 10.1.
Bert, re;1280 Epson printer…yes i would like to have that one as well. 13 X 19 inch prints appeal to me a great deal. Something to keep in mind though…the R800 is Epson’s newest baby ( not on shelf yet )….could open doors to a higher end wider format. You can gat the 1280 under 400 just about anywhere other than the epson store. Bizrate.com had a seller of $200 a week or so ago. If I had the money I’d snatch it up and enjoy it.
Looks like a hit and run. Ask a question and don’t return. It’s a little frustrating to put time into helping someone with a question then two days later, no response.
Jodi,
That’s a great price…$200. Does anyone know if the 1280 has a paper roll adapter? I want to do panoramas, and I need a printer that can handle REAL wide paper.
Bert
Mark,
I’m back. I’m sorry you thought I was a hit and run – it’s just that I don’t have a lot of spare time I can devote to this hobby and being a complete newcomer to this forum I had no idea how quick the responses would be.
To make it clear, I am aiming to produce full-sized borderless prints on A4 paper.
The problem definitely seems to be with the printer drivers but unfortunately as a comparatively new and self taught convert to Macs I find the way they handle printer drivers very difficult to fathom.
When I use Elements 1.0 this runs under OS X’s classic environment, simulating the old OS9. In this case When I use page set up I get an Epson dialogue box which enables me to check "No margins" then under the options I can set the paper type to "photo quality ink jet". I set the Enlarge/Reduce to 100% having previously set the image size exactly to the paper dimensions ‘et voila’ a photo quality borderless A4 print. (Incidentally, print preview shows correctly the final result.)
When I use Elements 2.0, this is OS X native and I get completely different dialoge boxes which look like Apple’s own. The page set up gives no control of the actual settings; if I select summary the list shows margins that correspond to the printed results but I can find no way of changing them – also there is no provision for setting the paper quality.
I guess, given the response from some of the guys, I should count myself lucky that I can do borderless at all! But if anyone knows how I can force OS 10.2.eight to use the old Epson print drivers it would save a lot of time.
(PS – I know this now sounds like a Mac issue but previous posts to the Apple forum on printer related matters have met with deafening silence)
Richard, I don’t use Epsons, so I can’t help, but I know a lot of the regulars on the dealmac forum use them. I understand the Apple forum has had a shift in some of its regulars/helpers, so it could be the ones who are left aren’t up to date on this problem. The address is just dealmac.com, and then go to Forums. They’re kind of a strange crew in some ways, but everytime I post with a problem I get an answer. (Usually some smart a– shows up, too, but I just ignore them!) This is a little strange, though, because Epson has a reputation of being much more OS X friendly than others.
Or, you could just install PSE 2 in Classic and move your images over there to print. It’s a clumsy workaround, but…
Hi Richard,
I wish I could sit down at your computer and see what’s going on. I tried selecting A4 in Page Setup and then switching to Print Preview. I was able to size it within the window of Print Preview but I haven’t actually tried to print the A4. Have you tried this?
You’d have to select the print quality when you select ‘Print’. The 890 should be within your OS software. And yes, it does seem that they take over the Epson native software. Kind of a sometimes unwelcome ‘takeover’.
Glad you aren’t ‘hit and run’
Hi Mark & Beth
Yes I I have selected A4 in Page setup, I have even tried defining a custom paper size to get rid of the default borders. However, even this doesn’t work because as soon as you come out of page set up it loses the size you selected and reverts to its standard A4 setting with margins! So still when you print it comes out with the default borders. Very frustrating!! Also the print dialogue has no options for setting print quality. I’m getting through an awful lot of ink and paper trying all this out!
Beth, thanks for the info about the dealmac forum, I’ll post something there over the weekend.
If I get an answer, I’ll let you guys know. Otherwise, thanks for all your help and I’ll just have to stick with my clumsy work-around running Elements 1.0 under Classic to print.
Richard.
Borderless printing with Epson printers under OS X has been a long standing problem and has been covered at length in Apple’s discussion pages. I too have an Epson Stylus Photo 890 and have not been able to print a borderless print under OS X using the latest drivers for this printer from Epson. I’m currently running OS X 10.3 (Panther) and the using the Epson Drivers included in the install disk. The printer still won’t print borderless, and I have a hard time even printing centered prints on 4X6 paper. Panther includes Gimp Print drivers which might support borderless printing on the SP 890, but I haven’t tried this yet. If one were to use these Gimp Print drivers, I don’t think you’d have access to Epsons Print Utility for doing nozzle checks and cleaning etc. I tried an earlier version of Gimp print and did not care for the color reproduction I obtained and haven’t revisited Gimp print since. I find it interesting that Epson released new drivers for just about all of their ink jet printers in 2003, except for the SP 890.
Hi Edward,
Your experiences are like mine with the 890. In OS 9 borderless worked great but since 10.1 (no driver at all for 10.0) no borderless printing. I haven’t tried Gimp drivers at all so I couldn’t say one way or the other.
The thing to remember about new drivers for this printer is that it is getting pretty old. If I remember right, I bought my 890 back in May of 2001 and it had been out for a while prior to that. It’d be great if Epson would update our driver and fix the borderless printing problems but I don’t think it’ll happen.
Joe
Hi Joe,
I do believe you’re right about Epson releasing new drivers for the SP 890. I’m not holding my breath waiting. It is an older printer. Have you ever had the printer stop in the middle of the print? I have this problem a lot and don’t know how to solve it. It might print a number of prints fine, then all of a sudden one print will print half way, and then the paper is ejected. This is very frustrating, and can be expensive.
Ed
Hi, Edward. I’m not an Epson user myself, but if you search the apple forums when they come back up (they are down till the 15th) you will find a lot of posts about this problem and some suggested solutions, although there doesn’t seem to be one thing that works for everyone.
Have to say that Epson problems in X are why I went with Canon instead, myself.
It is possible to start Elements 2 in Classic, if you want to get rid of Elements 1, and access the OS9 print drivers from there. Go to the app in the finder and use the file-info command and tick the box to tell Elements 2 to open in classic. I do this when I need to use OS9 only filters. But it’s still a kludge. Luckily my Epson printer doesn’t do borderless at any time so I don’t need to worry!
SusanS
Thanks for all the advice. I’m a regular reader of the Apple Discussion boards and have been following the problems and suggested solutions for printing with Epson printers under OS X. I know I can run Elements 2 under OS 9.2 and then the printer works great. I had the printer before OS X, but now I’m cosidering a new one, but I’m still debating on if it will be an Epson or a Canon.
Ed
Ed, for quality and mac osx compatibility…here’s a Canon that will rock you world;
Edit,,,i cut the link…it was screwy !
Anyways, it’s the Canon s9000 althouth it appears Canon has replaced this model with the ‘upgraded’ version.
Jodi,
I followed that link and saw a price of $862.00, a Google search on the Canon s9000 revealed sources as low as $170.
Is that a model not available in the U.S.?
Just Curious.
Geeze Dick, i guess that is totally screwy ! Amazon has it for $239…did i post a UK site ?? Sorry, i’m an idiot.
Well, I don’t know if it was UK or not, but it had a European style phone number. Don’t worry about it, I just got confused when I looked at other retailers. And I think that the S9000 has been superced by the i9100, cuz I don’t see the s9000 on the Canon site.
Probably why the prices are all over the place, get rid of the inventory, eh?
Yes, I have the i9100 and it works quite well in panther. You can find it for around $450 if you shop around, but you should be satisfied with one of the 800 series if you don’t need 13×19 full bleed printing, which is the main advantage of the i9100. I think the s9000 was replaced several months ago, actually.
If you are in the market for a medium format printer like that, one thing to keep in mind is that while Epson drivers are a big headache in X, Epson paper is much more readily available and much, much cheaper in the large sizes than Canon paper, unfortunately.
Barbara, Jodi,
I’ve had my eye on the Canon printers you both mention. I just might have to take the plunge. Thanks for the advice.
Ed
Ed, one thing I should mention about the i9100–I was surprised at how noisy the paper feed is. The printer has a "quiet mode" option in the driver, but it’s the one thing that doesn’t work for me in panther. It’s pretty loud compared to my HP.
