If your chief task is printing photos but you need a printer at a value price, the Epson Stylus Photo 700 may be an ideal choice. This inkjet features both hardware and software that are geared toward producing photographs, and, on Epson photo paper, you'll get the benefit of 1,440 x 720 dpi resolution.
The Photo 700 uses six colors of ink to provide accurate color balance. The unit accepts a five-color (cyan, magenta, yellow, light-cyan,light-magenta) ink cartridge and a separate black cartridge. With this version of Epson's proprietary Micro Piezo inkjet technology, the printhead remains in the unit when you change a cartridge.
The sturdy case includes a fold-down telescoping output tray in the front, a 100-sheet input tray in the rear, and a flip-up top cover that runs the width of the printer. The unit sets up quickly—plug in the parallel cable, drop in the ink tanks, and secure them with the intuitive lock/release levers.
A CD-ROM provides both Windows and Macintosh versions of helpful applications, collectively called Epson Digital Photo Lab. Titles include Adobe Photo Deluxe for image editing, Epson Photo Sheet for printing sheets of photos in various sizes, Extensis Portfolio for organizing photos, PictureWorks Spin Panorama for producing panoramic pictures, and the DiaMAR Learning to See Creatively LE tutorial.
Speed is not this model's strong suit—a plain-text document prints at only 1.2 pages per minute in monochrome mode—but photos are of surprisingly high quality given the printer's low price. Note that the unit includes both parallel and serial interfaces. The latter is for connection to older Macintosh computers and to select Epson digital cameras.
What's in the Box
Printer, output tray, input tray, flip cover, paper guide, color ink cartridge, black ink cartridge, software CD-ROM, setup instructions; printer cable not included
Product Description:
The Epson Stylus Photo 700 color inkjet printer is ideal for creating photo copies so lifelike that it's difficult to distinguish them from the originals. The Stylus Photo 700 prints black and white text at 3.5 pages per minute (ppm) and color at 2-3.5 ppm. Both are printed at a resolution of 1440 dots per inch thanks to Epson's Super MicroDot Technology. It brings out each image's fine detail so all colors are vivid and all text is sharp and clear. Epson uses their own Micro Piezo print head in the Stylus Photo 700 to ensure clean, consistent printing on all your photos and documents, no matter what type of paper you use.
Epson Stylus Photo 700 Inkjet Printer (PC/Mac)