More Printer Questions... Ink, Paper, etc.

[Glenn9643]

In this thread there was a good discussion of inkjets, with Epson models CX4600 and CX6600 mentioned as good by several people. WVBILL asked "Can anyone confirm that the Epson models mentioned here will print pictures on non-Epson Picture Paper?" with no answer yet, so I thought I'd bring it back up. I'm in the market for a replacement and thought I had read elsewhere that several of the Epson models required the Epson papers to print quality photos.
buckle97, duber34, slowrev, GerardC... You guys should be able to tell us something about this. Thanks.

 

[Gatorboy]

Something to think about:

By the time you buy a printer, paper, ink, etc. The cost of printing yourself does not really save you much money, and you end up with a print that is not really professional quality.

There are printing labs out there that you can upload your images and they will print and mail them back to you within 3 or 4 days. For example, here are two names to try out -- EZ Prints and Shutterfly.

 

[gotrocks]

Howdy,
I'm not a "guru" but have been using HP printers for a number of years. One of my sons likes epson, so last time I was in the market for a printer, I bought EpsonStylus PHOTO RX500. One reason was it will scan slides and 35mm film strips. The other was indivudal ink cartridges. The colors do not run out at the same time but they are close so I don't know if it is worth the hassell of keeping 6 cartridges instead of 2 like HP requires.

Now to answer your question re: paper. I had a supply of HP premium soft gloss photo paper and Epson has been doing just fine with it.

The Epson does seem to take a little longer to print than my old HP DeskJet 890C but all in all I'm satisfied at the present time. Good luck with you choice.

Drove our church bus to CA in '72 (5500 miles 1100 gal gas) stopped in Monroe at Wesley Foundation at the college there, still remember the kids having a great time swimming in the (what do you call it) lagoon, bayou, swamp,.... It was a nice place to stay and the trip was outstanding. Had 38 high school students and they lead worship services at each stop, with guitar, singing and witnessing. Thank you Lord.

 

[RoyJackson]

"There are printing labs out there that you can upload your images and they will print and mail them back to you within 3 or 4 days. For example, here are two names to try out -- EZ Prints and Shutterfly. "

I've had work done by Shutterfly. They do a very nice job quickly. You'll get better quality prints then you could using an inkjet (unless you buy one that is dedicated to photo printing) and it'll be cheaper. Printing pictures at a high resolution uses up a heck of a lot of ink. And even using photo quality paper (about $1.25 per sheet), a standard ink jet printer just doesn't do that well.

 

[buckle97]

<font color="blue"> "Can anyone confirm that the Epson models mentioned here will print pictures on non-Epson Picture Paper?" </font>

I do print photos out of my Epson. The paper that works best for photos in my Epson is Kodak Picture Paper for inkjet printers .

Lawrence

 

[Glenn9643]

Thanks for the suggestions and referrals to printing labs guys, but my camera has a few years on it and if I’m wanting or expecting real quality I’ll have to use my 35mm...
Main issue for me was the question of using paper other than the Epson branded stuff, as I’ve got a pretty good supply of generic I would like to use up instead of throw away.

gotrocks, you and the kids were swimming in Bayou Desierd I believe. It runs through Monroe and ULM campus.

 

[_RaT_]

I am trying to understand what the reason or desire for using non Epson papers is. I would use whatever paper gives the best results regardless of brand. For my Epson R800 which uses chrome ink instead of pigmented ink, I have found only two Epson papers work very well, Premium Glossy or Premium semi gloss. After that, I have found folks who use Red River products and like them. You have to rely on other folks alot and their experiences. The good thing is there seems to be quite a bit of concensous among chrome ink printer owners about which papers give the best results. I use DPReview.com for much of this info using either the Epson forum or Printing forum.

 

[duber34]

I've had about equal results printing photos using both Epson paper and other brands. To me the cost of ink, photo paper and the time required to sit and print isn't worth the quality of photo you are left with. I'd rather use an online service or even a walk in service to get my digital pics onto paper.


Regards,
Duber

 

[milkman]

I use an Epson printer and haven't had a problem printing on Avery photo paper or Weyerhaeuser photo paper. I use the Epson compatible ink from www.meritline.com and get a really good price on the combo packages, usually that is 4 black and 2 color cartridges for less than $30.

 

[Glenn9643]

Thanks for the responses about the paper. I found the CX6600 at our local Office Depot for $198 with a $50 rebate and brought it home along with a PCI USB2 card to upgrade my computer so I could use it.
I installed the card and went through the installation process with the printer, printed the "test page" and everything was fine. Then after I bebooted the system locks up just after the sign-on screen (XP SP2). I disconnected the printer and it still did the same thing. Removed the USB2 PCI card and reinstalled and it still locks up. Booting in Safe mode it doesn't lock up, but checking the status on the hardware screen within the control panel indicates a problem with the device that is preventing it from starting. I've tried PnP changes within the BIOS, disabling my USB1 ports on the mainboard through the BIOS, installing in different slots and it still freezes the system suggesting there's a conflict to me.
There was a reference within "troublshooting" suggesting that a device may be drawing too much power... I've just noticed that my power supply is only 200W. Don't know if that could be the problem or not. My system has a FIC PA2013 Mainboard, AMD K6III 450mhz CPU, 512M RAM, 40G HD, CD-RW, NVIDIA RIVA TNT2/TNT2PRO video card, PCI 56K modem, and USB Direcway satellite modem, and some sort of Soundblaster audio card.
At any rate, if I can't figure it out pretty soon I'm planning on a new mainboard and AMD Athlon 64 3000 CPU with 1G RAM and a new power supply for this case.
It's aggravating to have a new toy and not be able to play with it!