Photo output quality for the XP-980, using Epson Photo Paper Glossy, was excellent overall across all the issues I typically look for. Contrast, shadow detail, and color quality were all top-tier, and I didn’t see any hint of dithering or posterization (sudden changes in shading where it should change gradually).
(Credit: M. David Stone)
Scanning a photo and then printing it showed a slight color shift, along with a minor loss of shadow detail and a similar loss of the subtle shading that gives rounded objects a sense of three-dimensionality. But even those reprints were at the high end of drugstore quality rather than the professional photo lab quality of the originals. Copied photos—as opposed to the ones I scanned and then printed—were closer to the low end of drugstore quality. So if you want to reproduce photos on the XP-980, it’s worth taking the time to scan them first, then print them, in two steps.
Graphics output in our official tests was good, using default settings and plain paper. Thin lines held nicely, and I saw no visible dithering, posterization, or banding. However, the overall impression left by the graphics was a step down from the photo quality, primarily because the colors were closer to pastels than to vibrant, saturated hues. Some informal tests confirmed that using either presentation matte or photo paper improved the color quality of graphics to superb. However, you have to be willing to pay the extra cost for the high-quality paper.
(Credit: Epson/PCMag)
Text quality on plain paper is easily good enough for most purposes. All the fonts in our test suite that you’d use in a business document were easily readable at 6 points, and more than half were easily readable even at 4 points. However, edges were a touch less than laser-sharp, even at 10 and 12 points. In our tests, one of the two stylized fonts with heavy strokes we use was readable at 12 points but not well-formed. The one that’s easier to render well earned the same description at 8 points.
On our ink smudge tests using plain paper, black text didn’t smudge at all from a highlighter and showed only minor smudging with water, so it was still readable. Color inks in graphics on plain paper resisted smudging from water, but the pages were left with water stains, resulting in lower color saturation and, in some cases, color changes. For photos and graphics on the supplied photo paper, much the same was true, except that the water stains didn’t affect color saturation or hue.
