Epson Stylus C80 Inkjet Printer

• Up to 2,880 by 720 dpi resolution
• Prints black text up to 20 ppm, 10 ppm color
• DuraBrite inks for colorful, durable prints
• USB and parallel connectivity; PC and Mac compatible
• Resolution Performance Management technology permits variable resolution and smooths edges

I''ve been using Epson Stylus Color printers for awhile, originally the Stylus 740, and recently the 777i printer. Each has been impressive in the print quality, especially photos. I decided to make the leap and upgrade to the Stylus C80 printer, in part due to the $30 rebate offered.

Setup was very easy as is with most Epson printers. I use it with a USB cable to my Apple iBook computer and had no trouble with installing and using the printer drivers. As a matter of fact, these drivers are nearly identical to the ones used for the Stylus 777i. I have also used the Printer Sharing function built into the driver and now print wirelessly from my iBook to this printer COOL!!!

The print quality is excellent and speeds are noticeably faster than my 777i printer. The best improvement was the reduced noise during printing, it is much more quiet! I did notice that there is a considerable difference in photo print appearance between the C80 and the 740/777i depending on the type of paper used.

Previously, I have used the Epson 4x6 photo paper with very good resultson the C80 however, the prints appears somewhat washed out and dull. Using Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper produces much better results as does Kodak Premium Picture Paper (for less $$$ than Epson). I was also perplexed at the limited paper sizes supported by the drivers, 4x6 print is missing and must be user defined. Mac OS X drivers are due out on Oct. 22 so I am looking forward to testing those as well.

I recommend this printer for fast, quiet photo quality printing for a budget price.

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Just had this printer a couple weeks now, and finally completed making it so that it prints from my home PC via Parallel, and Laptop via USB.

Prints are great! So far I have only had the opportunity to burn up some Coated 8.5 x 11 sheets on pictures and some graphics, plus a plain paper envelope or two. No problem as long as the driver installed properly.

I was debating and debating between the C80 and the 785EPX for quite some time, and as an avid digital photo geek, it was a tough choice archival with individual durable inks or the 785EPX with the edge to edge, card support, 2 extra colors, and 4x6 rolls. Well I still feel that the extra two colors are unnecessary just a way to sell more ink (the money''s in the blades son). And I have no issue viewing my pictures on the computer prior to wasting more of that precious commodity. So I went for the C80, and I''m delighted with my decision. Who needs two extra colors and wet edges. For really special prints I go to shutterfly.com anyway.

So here''s my driver advice:

My W98 (1''st edition) home PC installed without issue, and printed from the Parallel port without complaint.

On the other side, I was attempting to attach my work W2k laptop to the USB, and ran into difficulty. I believe the issue is that I needed to install "USB printer support" from my system prior to it allowing the Epson printer drivers. This issue was not listed in the instructions neither the "read me first" nor the full documentation. It only needs to be done once, which explains why some see it and others do not. When it asks you to cancel the HW detection, don''t cancel out of the "USB Printer Support" Hardware detection. Let it install the built-in Windows drivers for USB printers, then it goes on to install the actual printer which you do from the CD (or downloaded drivers).

Other than that... One theory I have for so many drivers issues with the other users is that it is a good idea to uninstall any pervious Local Printers on the system. These programs tend to run in the background and "lock in" your LPT settings like that little ink monitor and other icons that like to display in your sys-tray (on the bottom right of your screen). HP and Epson both seem to have these background programs. So if you had a HP previously, and didn''t uninstall first, then it could still be hanging on to your port settings. My previous model was a Canon BJC4300 which died when I had amassed over a hundred bucks on ink always had to have some on hand, because it gave you no warning when it was going to start printing funny stripy pictures. But then again, it had no little TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident don''t you wish that your boss would say that to you?) program to foul up the Epson installation.

I''ve seen this type of driver issue repeatedly one of my past lives involved troubleshooting people''s computers. There once was a "Winnie the Pooh" doll that attached to the parallel printer so the kiddies could program it to read them stories. Well this one customer could only get Pooh to speak in tongues that sounded kind of like a modem you should have seen what a sight it was to see Winnie moving his lips to the sound of "EEEEkakakaka". Anyway the issue was the LPT Port was "captured" by the Epson printer driver. The customer had deleted all the Epson printer files already so it was too late to uninstall. We had to re-install the Epson Driver from the printer which was now returned back to the store and then uninstall that driver.

Nice printer other than that. It''s not a quiet as an HP, but it shouldn''t jam up as much either. Sounds very "professional". Plus the "smoothness" of the 3 picoliter drops is better than HP. After maybe 8 pages of full color photo''s the ink is still way over 90% much better than the Canon would have been at this point.

Good luck with the drivers...

Marc

P.S. W2k uses the XP driver I believe.

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This is by far the best inkjet I have ever used…

Unlike another reviewer, I had no problems whatsoever getting this printer installed and working. I can''t imagine the install being much easier. The drivers work very well with Windows 98 as they do with Win2k, Winxp and NT4.

The print speeds are incredible! I can''t believe it prints this fast while maintaining such a high quality output. The print speed has also improved a lot with mixed text/graphic pages. It seems to recognize that the text portion doesn''t need the same speed of the images and prints them much faster.

I like the separate ink cartridges, as you can replace each color independently. Canon has had this feature for the longest time, and I am glad to see Epson finally adding it. Time will tell if this makes it much cheaper than before.

The image quality is great! They have improved the plain paper printing quality from the last Epson printer I have used. On photo quality paper, it''s amazing! The picture quality is also much better than you get with latest HP printers, which tend to have grainy images when compared to the C80.

The only thing I don''t like is the styling. The previous printers look much better to me than the C80. And what''s with the naming scheme?

So far, I have enjoyed this incredibly fast printer....

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If you''re looking for a generic color printer, the C80 is most likely your best choise, even compared with more expensive printers. It is fast, economical, quiet (except for the paper-feed mechanism) and prints excellent quality text, graphics and images in both B&W and color. I use it with XP, without any problems -true plug and play, without the need of any driver installation.

However, if you''re buying the C80 for photo-quality prints, you''ll probably get disapointed. Before I bought it, I read many user reviews describing the C80''s photo prints as "dull" -this is exactly the case. I tried a number of print options (and the C80 gives you plenty) on photo-quality Epson paper -in all cases, the feeling was that the print came out OK, but didn''t have the sharpness I was expecting ("dull colors" is the right word). Another disadvantage, is the print sizes: does not have the "bordlerless photo" capability, and needs some trial-error based adjustments in the print options to print even standard photo sizes (4x6, 3x5 etc).

Very reluctantly, because it''s a great printer, I decided to return for a true Photo Printer.

First I will start by saying that I have been a fanatic supporter of Epson printers; I have owned (own) three of them. I have also owned HP''s, and like I said, am an Epson fan.

At first I was blown away by the clarity and brightness. But..

We (Epson support) couldn''t configure the printer for USB.

Then I noticed the printer was literally drinking ink...I mean lots of ink on the lowest black resolution only.

As far as speed, yeah, it cranks out the pages, but only after taking extended periods of time. On average, I have about a 25-30 second delay before the printer will begin to print (very annoying). Once it gets going, it kicks butt.

Now, back to my biggest gripe...

I have owned this printer since November 2001. It is now January 2002. I have blasted 5 black cartridges and 2 each of the remaining colors.

By comparison, with my Stylus 740, I used to go thru 1 black cartridge every month, sometimes it would last 2, and the color about every 2-3 months.

I have also found the ink incompatible with quality, high-gloss stock from Red River. Personally, I am now looking elsewhere.

Dunno what went wrong, but I don''t feel like spending [that much] in ink per year.

VERY DISAPPOINTED!!