Epson Stylus Photo 960 Inkjet Printer

I tried the canon i950,i tried the olympus p400 dye sub printer
and i have come to one conclusion.This printer is wonderful the speed is not the greatest but compared to the canon i950 the color variance is substancial.The epson 960 hands down has a broader spectrum of color without any post manipulation.Yes the i950 is faster but the end result is what counts.The olympus
is also a very good printer,and it has its advantages because
of dye sub technology.But once again the print image matching
technology that epson uses brings out all the true colors that the p400 cannot.This printer is simply the best.

I own a Kodak PPM200 which I use to get 4X6 prints and the quality of the prints is OK. The quality of this printer is excellent and no one can tell this is an output of a home printer,though I have to admit for best quality prints you need to use the bit expensive Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper but I have no problem in this as amazon offers the 50 pack ... for the qality you get you'll never regret it. One last think I have to say that I'm getting all of this with my 2.0 Mega S200 Canon camera. Imagine where I'll be with an EOS 10D or a Nikon D100. Just Imagine. Thank you Epson for this wonderful product.

This being my 6th printer I have ever owned, I have to say it's the best printer I've owned. There are a few minor things I'm not too crazy about, but with the right photo paper and resolution settings, the pic's come out "photo quality". The option for printing directly onto inkjet printable CD's was one of the reasons I bought this printer and I have to say the prints on the CD's come out GREAT! (I suggest going to CDW.com and purchasing the Verbatim inkjet printable CD's). The roll paper option that comes with this printer is also excellent, but there's literally nothing you can do to get out the "paper curl" that happens when printing off a roll. The only thing you really can do is put the pictures in an album and leave them there forever. Picture quality is excellent though.
Now onto the minor annoyances I have with this printer that prevented me from giving it 5 stars.
I'm not, and have never been, too crazy about the ink cartridge systems that Epson puts out. The cartridges come with a protective "covering" where the ink comes out (looks like plastic but I'm not sure) and when you first install them, the printer itself has to "drill through" the plastic when you first install the cartridge. The main problem with this is that sometimes it takes 2 or 3 times to run throught the whole head cleaning process to get the cartridge to open. When I first set up my 960, I installed all the ink cartridges (6 in all) and when I went to print, there was purple color on the page I printed where there was supposed to be blue. For some reason, the blue didn't print and it took me 4 times of going through the "head cleaning" process to get the blue to work. Although, after I did finally get it to work, the colors were excellent...
The other minor annoyance I have is that on certain photo paper, the Epson 960 didn't perform well at all. I've only really used 2 types of paper and both of them I purchased at Costco. They have a Kodak 100 pack "Premium High Gloss" photo paper for about 25 dollars, about 25 cents a sheet. They also have an Epson Glossy Photo paper for about 20 dollars for 100 sheets, about 20 cents a sheet. I guess it's true what they say about using the paper that is the same name as the printer. The Epson paper, which is cheaper, prints better pictures than the Kodak paper which is a better paper (both prints I did were at the 1440 dpi setting). The only way I was able to get a good print on the Kodak paper was to set the highest dpi setting (2880 dpi) and then I got a decent print. So basically, if you want good prints out of this printer you really need to stick with the Epson paper. I haven't tried the high gloss Epson paper yet since it's a bit expensive right now...the regular glossy Epson photo paper is a good choice...
And the last minor thing I need to say is the ink availability. It's strange but I was able to get the ink here at Amazon, but it was offered through "Office Depot". When I went to the local Office Depot here, they didn't have it and when I went to the Office Depot website, they didn't have it either. The only way I've found to get this ink is through Amazon via Office Depot (huh?)
Anyway, this printer, for the money, is probably the best photo printer you can buy for picture quality and versatility. I know there are other photo printers out there costing 2 and three times as much as this printer, but I can't see how much better pictures can print than what this printer puts out. Without a doubt, worth every penny!

Received from Amazon on 4/9/03. Followed enclosed instructions..set-up a breeze. Printed beautiful 8x10 color photos on matte and high gloss paper five minutes after set-up.
4x6 roll photos with cutter attachment works great; just be sure to put 4x6 photos under or in something heavy to flatten them out. Prints text well too.

I bought this printer 2 weeks ago.I though it would be nice to print on my cds.While it does a great job printing,it is more trouble to keep running than any printer I have owned(50+).I have to run a head cleaning each day,since without doing so I have NO black!... Take a word of advice,go with [brand]!