It'll make you jump

I recently purchased the Epson C80 as a replacement for our old Epson 440 inkjet that died on us after four years. I am pleasantly surprised with the progress and improvements made in inkjet printers in that time, and am satisfied with this printer.

Use

This printer is for use at home for doing reports for my condo board and general correspondence. In addition, my wife uses it for preparing lesson plans and handouts for her students. On average, we will print 25-30 pages per week.

Setup

Setting this printer up was very quick and easy. The box contained the printer, quick start manual, ink cartridges, and software. You must supply your own cable. This printer connects through either the parallel port or by USB. I chose parallel so I wouldn't have to buy a new cable. The quick start guide worked perfectly, and installation on Windows 98SE went without a problem. The most time-consuming part of the process was installing the individual ink cartridges. You must also examine the printer carefully to make sure you remove all the packing tape (similar to locating all the pins in a new button-down shirt).

Paper Feeding Mechanism

The printer holds roughly 50 sheets of paper vertically behind the printer. Our desk setup puts the printer against a wall, so this arrangement makes the printer sit further from the wall, occupying more desk space. The first time I printed, I nearly panicked over the noise the printer made as it grabbed the first page. It is LOUD, and I thought I had a serious paper jam for sure. It is, however, just how the printer works, and I have had no problems with paper jams at all.

The paper ejects into a retractable tray that folds up nicely to somewhat reduce the footprint. The time between ejection of printed pages is sufficient to allow the ink to dry.

Print Quality

Using draft mode, the black and white print quality is perfect for my needs. I can distinguish a print job on this printer from a laser printer only upon close inspection, and even then the differences in quality are minimal. If you are looking for a quick text printer with sharp output, this will certainly do the job.

I am also impressed with the color output of this printer. It is not good enough to use for photographs, but when adding color to a report or graphic the colors are vivid and there is almost no bleeding between different colors. Speed in color output is slower than draft B&W, but not terrible.

Downers

There is little about which I can complain for the C80. It has a giant footprint, but we knew that before we purchased it. The noise the printer makes when it grabs the paper makes me jump when I'm not expecting it, and as an added benefit, sends the cat scurrying out of the room. While printing, the printer makes the desk on which it sits shake back and forth. That is probably more due to my construction skills than to any problem with the printer. These are very nitpicking issues, though, and if these are the only problems that develop, I will be thrilled.

The Epson software creates no fewer than two new programs that start up when you boot your computer. Evidently, Epson finds it necessary for users to constantly monitor the status of this printer; I am saddled with a longer boot time and another icon next to my clock at the bottom of the screen. The status window also contains a "helpful" tip that I mistook for a problem with the printer initially. I have yet to figure out how to shut these features off short of going through msconfig.

Ink consumption remains to be seen. We are still on the original cartidges after three weeks' use (6/13/02)

Conclusion

This printer is ideal for our home printing needs. I like that it is fast, has good quality output, and has individual ink cartridges to eliminate waste. The ink cartridges retail for around $10-13. I also like that the black cartridge is twice the size of the color cartridges since I do significantly more B&W printing than color. For the price, it is an outstanding printer.