They are now water resistant and their fade resistance has been improved dramatically. In fact dyes from some manufacturers, including Epson, have come along in leaps and bounds in the last couple of years. I also disagree that Epson (or HP for that matter) has developed pigment inks to any detriment to their dye-based inks. Both HP and Epson understand that the market is not 100% for dyes or 100% for pigments. Your statement is actually completely wrong. These manufacturers just can't make their minds up - well, except when it comes to releasing new models for no readily apparent reason except to make more money out of the punter. It's like HP pushing dye-based Vivera for many years and are now suddenly saying that pigment-based Vivera is better. Personally, I think it's odd that Epson pushed pigment for many years to the detriment of it's dye-based printers and now suddenly they're saying dye-based printers are better. In my opiinion, HP's implementation of gloss-optimised pigment ink printing is better than the R1800's, though they don't offer it on the consumer B9180 printer.
EPSON STYLUS PHOTO R1800 M PRO
On papers like, for example, Epson Premium Glossy, Canon Photo Paper Pro or Plus, Jessops 160gsm glossy (or the similar Olmec glossy), the new Kodak Ultra Premium instant dry, Ilford Printasia, Fujifilm MultiJet glossy - or any other decent quality glossy microporous paper, when printed properly using dye-based inks you get a much cleaner and more attractive finish than with the R1800, with or without the gloss optimiser. It doesn't mean the R1800 is a bad printer, just that I'd probbaly not use the gloss optimiser very much. I'm just not that impressed by the R1800's gloss optimiser. Why do you assume I don't like Epson pigment printers? I think both the R1800 and R2400 are splendid printers.
My personal opinion is that the R2400 is better for matt papers, but the R1800 is undoubtedly better than an R1400 for matt papers. I think you are having some fun with my words I was only comparing the R1400 with the R1800. So you don't like any of Epson's pigment printers then? Any "plastic top layer" is the same whether using the R1800 or the R2400 given that the gloss optimiser is only used in areas of little-to-no-ink on the R1800. You're saying that a printer with an ink set purposefully designed for gloss prints (hence the name "Ultrachrome Hi-Gloss") shouldn't be used for gloss prints? The general consensus is that the R1800 is not the printer for matt papers, for that there's the R2400, but that it is the printer for glossy papers. It's interesting that your view differs with most other people's.