The Great Printer Catastrophe of 2008

On Friday, the wonderful and amazing Hubs took me to buy a new printer. Not just any printer. A photo printer.

However, believe it or not, big purchases give me anxiety. I'm afraid of the "what if" factor.

What is it's not the right printer? What if it doesn't print great pictures? What if it breaks in six months? What if I later wish I had gotten a different one? And so on.

It really does cause me a lot of stress.

I finally decided on the new Kodak 5500 AiO. I really liked the price (not just of the printer, but of future ink and paper as well) and I loved the idea of getting rid of the 2 printers and 1 scanner we currently use and replacing it with one pretty new machine that can do everything.

I took it home, set it up, and immediately printed a test picture. Remember this one?



It's one of my favorites. Unfortunately, it printed with a green tint.

So, I started reading up on calibrating my monitor and printer so that what I see on screen matches what prints on paper. What a headache. You know, for all the money I've spent (camera, equipment, books, printers, hard drives, etc.) you'd think this service would have been included. But no. Let the sucker try to figure it out for herself.

After a few tweaks, I tried printing again.



This one printed even worse. I was really getting frustrated now.

It was right about this time that my external hard drive crashed. And you might ask yourself, I wonder where she stores her photos? Take a wild guess. My weekend was nose-diving into a big pile of shit.

After all the research, reading, and crying, I finally came to the realization that I would not be able to calibrate this new printer. It's not a professional photo printer and Kodak doesn't offer ICC profiles for all-in-one printers. And I would explain what an ICC profile is, but I don't really understand it myself. I just know I need one.

So, I sat down and shed a few tears for the printer that wasn't meant to be, packed it up, and took it back to the store where we parted ways. I'm sure we'll remain friends. It was a nice printer after all.

Then I rushed over to another store and picked up the Epson Stylus Photo 1400. It's gorgeous. Or, at least it was on the shelf. I brought it home last night and haven't had a chance to take it out of the box, but I feel really freaking good about this one. It prints up to 13" by 9" photos and, even better, I already know where to download the ICC profile specific to this printer. It's all coming together, my friends.

Now, if only I could get my stupid external hard drive to quit being a jackass all would be right in the world.

And if I never hear the word "calibrate" again, it'll be too soon.

The end.