[stoppingdown]

Printing is a problem, indeed, at least for amateur photographers. I have a quite old Epson Stylus (I think the 2100). It worked fine, and I was also satisfied with the calibration. It was also reasonably cheap, considering the paper and ink costs. The problem was its slowness. That's why I've not used it for several years. It probably still works, apart the fact that I should clean the nozzles. But I can't spend the whole day attending it for a few dozen prints.

 

Unfortunately, as far as I can see from my country, printing services aren't cheap. After a few attempts, a couple of years ago I found a printing service that delivered quality prints (calibration ok, after a few attempts) at a reasonable price... but only on glossy paper. I don't like glossy paper, I prefer matte. They also offer matte paper (as well as a number of specialty papers), but they are too much expensive (10x roughly in comparison with glossy).