Inkjet printer (or settings) for best result with Affinity Photo (Mac)

[Mr Lucky]

Please excuse me if this is the wrong section to post, but as I am more or less only printing direct from Affinity photo I think it is probably relevant (if not mods please move)

I am mostly working in Affinity photo and using an old Epson WP-4535 which is giving me great results (given the cost of the printer). I hadn't realised quite how good it was until it recently died and we had to use my wife's Brother  MFC-J5335 DW. Prints from the Epson looked sharp and very close to what we are seeing on the monitor  27" Imac Radeon Pro Vega 64. On the Brother they are darker, less contrast and less sharp.

I don't know if this is just that the old Epson is (was) better, or whether there is some way to get the Brother to print with similar quality.

We cannot find any way in the Brother print settings to change anything but maybe somebody here has a solution, for which I'd be forever grateful.  If not, then any recommendations for reasonably priced (ideally< £300) printer

 

 

 

 

 

 

[v_kyr]

16 hours ago, Mr Lucky said:

I don't know if this is just that the old Epson is (was) better, or whether there is some way to get the Brother to print with similar quality.

Well usually some Canon and Epson ink printers (certain models) are known to be best for photo/image printing from the common available ink printers on the market.

16 hours ago, Mr Lucky said:

We cannot find any way in the Brother print settings to change anything ...

Your brother printer manual shows which print settings their Mac driver offers, you have to try to experiment with some settings in order to see whether they make a difference to print quality.

16 hours ago, Mr Lucky said:

...If not, then any recommendations for reasonably priced (ideally< £300) printer

First decide if you want to have a more versatile multifunction printer (scan/copy/print) or instead a plain foto printer, then look into the Canon and Epson printer lines and the offered models there. You may want to choose a model with 4-5/6 single ink color cartriges, instead of combo cartriges, so you may have slightly lower ink costs by just replacing then the specific single empty color cartidges.

If you find an actual printer model which pleases you from marketing specs in the wanted price range, search then for a bunch of online printer REVIEWS for that specific printer model, read them carefully and look for pros/cons in overall handling/print quality/paper handling/ink costs/...and so on... (.etc) before you decide which one best to buy.