The Epson EcoTank L800, L805, L810, L850 and L1800. All five are six-colour photo machines and take the same set. They are not interchangeable with the four-colour document EcoTanks such as the L3xxx or L6xxx ranges — send us your model number if you are unsure which you have.

They handle the pale parts of an image. With only cyan and magenta available, a printer has to space the dots further apart to render a light tone, and you see that as graininess in skies and skin. The light inks fill those areas with a weaker ink at full dot density instead, which is why six-colour output looks smoother than four-colour on photographs.

Epson quotes up to 1,900 10×15 cm photos from a set on the L850, and notes that the figure varies by printer model, image content, paper type, how often you print and conditions such as temperature. Dense, dark images will use considerably more ink than light ones.

Dye. That is the right choice for these machines — dye inks give the wider colour range and the glossy, saturated look expected of photo output. If your priority is smudge-proof document text rather than photographs, a pigment-based EcoTank such as the 112 series is the better fit.

Yes — 100% original Epson ink, sourced through official Epson channels. On a tank system this matters more than usual: the ink goes straight into the printer’s reservoir, so a poor-quality refill is far harder to undo than swapping out a bad cartridge, and colour accuracy on a photo machine depends on the ink matching Epson’s own profiles.