Epson ET-8550 vs Canon PRO-310: tanks or pigment

RTINGS has both machines on its bench and splits the decision cleanly. Its reviewers put the Canon slightly ahead on print quality because its color is more accurate, while the Epson, in their words, "tends to oversaturate colors to make them more vibrant". Everything around the print goes to the Epson: it scans, it prints documents considerably faster, and its tanks yield significantly more prints.

So the Epson ET-8550 vs Canon PRO-310 question is mostly about what else the machine has to do. Both print borderless from 3.5 x 5 up to 13 x 19 inches, both hold a slot on our photo printer picks, and both are photo printers first.

Only one of them is also the household printer.

Epson ET-8550 vs Canon PRO-310: dye in bottles, pigment in cartridges

Epson fills the ET-8550 from six 70 mL bottles of Claria ET Premium ink: Black, Photo Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Gray. Its colors are dye, and the Black is a pigment ink meant for text. Canon runs nine LUCIA PRO II pigment colors plus a clear Chroma Optimizer, ten PFI-5100 cartridges of 14.4 ml each. Every one must be installed, even for a black and white print.

RTINGS explains the pigment vs dye photo printer trade on the PRO-310: pigment is less vibrant and slower to dry, but it typically lasts longer and resists fading and smudging better, which suits art and archival prints. Gloss is the catch. Digital Camera World notes that pigment can bronze on it, and the Chroma Optimizer is Canon's coat against that. Its reviewer found the glossy prints great-looking, and still felt the imagePROGRAF PRO-310 "really comes into its own on matte photo paper and fine art media". If matte and fine art paper fill most of your drawer, stop here.

PCMag, which made the Epson an Editors' Choice, still says its six-color palette is less nuanced than a professional machine's, with a smaller gamut that can lose subtleties between hues. One owner who also runs a nine-ink Epson P600 says the P600 still produces higher quality output. Another, an art seller who moved to the ET-8550 from a Canon PIXMA PRO-100, found their prints dull after six months of trying profiles and plans to bring the Canon back out of retirement.

Paper: card through the back, or a curved path

Heavy card is where the EcoTank Photo ET-8550 pulls ahead. Its rear straight path takes media up to 1.3 mm thick, and it prints on both sides of a sheet automatically. Canon's manual feed at the back takes one sheet at a time from 0.1 to 0.6 mm, and Northlight Images found its print path curved enough to refuse board or stiff media, less so through that rear feed. Both print on discs.

The Epson complaint that recurs is marks from the paper transport. Of about 60 people we counted saying they own an ET-8550 in YouTube comment threads, five report marks from the paper transport, mostly from the output rollers: lines from the rollers on fine art paper over 280gsm, faint output roller lines under a bright lamp, scratches on every print, damage from the small "pizza wheels", and indentation from the rear feeder on card as thin as 200gsm.

Two of those five parted with the printer over it.

Speed, scanning and documents

Epson rates the ET-8550 at 16.0 ISO ppm for black, and PCMag timed its text document at 15.9 ppm and its 4 x 6 snapshots at 38 seconds each. RTINGS gets one document page per minute out of the Canon, and Digital Camera World timed an A3+ borderless glossy print on it at 6m 30s in standard quality.

A scanner settles it for many homes. Epson's flatbed takes originals up to 8.5 x 14 inches, with no document feeder. Canon builds in no scanner at all, and RTINGS notes the PRO-310 reads no USB stick or SD card either, where the Epson has slots for both.

Running them

Epson quotes its 552 bottles at 6700 pages for Black, 7300 for Photo Black, 6200 for each color and 46,600 for Gray. Those are ISO document pages, and Epson's own footnote says photo yields are significantly lower. RTINGS expects a few hundred pages from the Canon's cartridges before replacements, and says its recurring costs can be very high if you print a lot. Five ET-8550 owners describe long ink life in their own terms, including one still on the first set after nearly 2,000 greeting cards, and another still on the original bottles except the Gray.

No maintenance tank on the PRO-310 is yours to change. Northlight says waste ink collects inside in a part the owner cannot service, and that this is "not a printer for commercial levels of use", though it expects many tens of thousands of prints before the pads become an issue. RTINGS warns it can clog if left unused, with replaceable printheads as the last resort. Canon's warranty is one year. Epson's is two, if you register it and stay on genuine Epson ink.

What owners of each report

Of 17 PRO-310 owners in our Canon PRO-310 review, eight praise the prints and four are unhappy, each about something different, from a slow first print to running costs. On the ET-8550 side sit a photography club member who has won competitions with theirs, a sticker business running two, and the five with transport marks above. Our ET-8550 review covers its specs in full.

When neither is right

If nothing you print is bigger than legal paper and your scans fit on letter, the ET-8500 does the Epson's job in a smaller body, as our ET-8500 vs ET-8550 comparison shows. For 4 x 6 prints from a phone, the Canon SELPHY CP1500 is the whole answer. For 17 inch prints, Canon's own step up is the imagePROGRAF PRO-1100.

Measure the desk before either arrives

By the makers' figures the Epson prints in a footprint of 20.6 x 29.8 inches and weighs 24.5 lb. Canon lists the PRO-310 at 25.2 inches long closed and 31.6 lbs. Both take a 13 x 19 sheet in at the back, so leave room behind whichever one you buy.