fast photo printing

When I first read about this printer in a computer magazine, I was immediately impressed by its functions and price point. CD/DVD printers cost $100's more and even then, they usually just serve that single function. Later that day, I went out and bought one.

The R200 not only prints directly onto the discs, but is also a quality photo printer. You can print out crisp images with that function as well as carry out normal day-to-day tasks like homework and other documents. It's great because the printer has an extra USB port on the front of the machine for easy hookup to a laptop. The software for the printer is easy to install and there really was no printer alignment necessary. It did all the work for me.

The only thing you really need to buy, if you don't already have one, is a USB cable because it doesn't come with one packed in the box. Yeah, I know. I was disappointed in that too, but the features made up for that. Speaking of features, in order to successfully print onto a disc, you must use an Ink-Jet printable disc. Otherwise, you'll have a disc with a pool of ink on it.

I needed to purchase a color inkjet printer for photo printing. I have been a die hard HP fan for years (my HP LaserJet 4L is still my workhorse for B&W). My photographer recommended Epson for quality and multiple ink cartridges and I also read the online reviews. This printer had 5 star reviews because of quality and ease of installation, so I purchased it.

The installation was truly a snap (and not intrusive like users complained about HP's installation) and literally took about 2 minutes. The photo quality of the pictures are out of this world. I bought Epson photo paper in bulk at Costco ($20 for 120 sheets) to insure good results. Yes, after printing out about 100 8x10 full color, best quality images, I have to go and buy a Yellow Toner Cartridge, but what can you do? A photo lab here in L.A. wanted to charge me $2 per 4x6 print!

I have had to play with calibrating my color management with Photoshop to match what's onscreen with what prints out, but that's a Photoshop issue and not an issue with the printer. Just read your Photoshop manual or get a Visual Quickstart Guide for Photoshop.

This printer is quiet, compacts nicely (when not in use) on my jam packed desktop and installation and the quality of prints is amazing! I cannot recommend this printer enough!

The good news.... OK it prints on white paper, and if you set it to its highest quality (slowest printing) it will turn out pretty decent photos. And on the off chance that you are able to load the CD/DVD tray into it exactly the way it wants, it will print on CD's relatively well.
Now for the real review of this printer: Text is abysmal, even on its best setting. I have a Canon i860, which in every way (text and graphics/photos) blows the doors off this Epson. Printing CD's which really is the ONLY actual reason anyone would buy this over ANY Canon, is a chore at best. You must print them one at time (choosing more than 1 copy craps out the tray alignment for the next copy, which brings on the error message) and it takes a REALLY LONG TIME. Don't get me wrong, the quality in "Best Photo" on CD's is pretty great.... but the hassle with the tray never being happy and the S L O W print speed is just not worth it. WAAAAAAAAYY better results are achieved using the Avery Afterburner kit and printing labels with ANY Canon printer. I had an Epson several years ago, and upon buying Canon, will never go back to Epson. The quality difference is measured in light years. But alas Canon has no CD printer in the U.S., only Europe. So if you're contemplating this as your primary printer, and just every once in a while will print to CD's... move on to another brand that is actually capable of printing clean black text. If you just need a printer to print 2 or 3 CD's a week, this will suffice.