A New Printer

My old inkjet printer (Epson R300) reached the end of the road recently, and I've had to do a bit of thinking about where I want to go with a replacement. It's used mainly for printing photos; I have an Apple Laserwriter and an old Canon BJC210 which cover very well for letters etc.

The choice is a straightforward one in that it's between Epson and Canon, both on grounds of print quality and running costs. Running costs? Yes, both horrendous if you stick with OEM ink cartridges, but very easy to find cheap alternatives that from my previous experience produce entirely acceptable results. But it's a difficult choice in that I really want to step up to a machine that prints larger than A4 (so probably A3+), but then economics come into play. If I'm going to spend considerably more on a printer, I want to know that it's of more substantial construction, and of greater life expectancy, than the cheap A4 machines.

I also want to fit a Continuous Ink Supply system. I do a lot of photographic printing, and constantly having to exchange the cartridges is a real pain, as well as wasting an absurd amount of ink. So in the end I decided to go with another cheapie, which will give me an opportunity to see how I get on with a CISS, and to stick with Epson for now simply on the basis of 'better the devil you know...'

So it's the Epson R285, a very reasonable £62, and it's just arrived. It's a relatively compact printer, far neater in appearance than the R300. It's a lot easier to get the top off too, if you're like me and like to have a good look at the innards. And the first real change I notice is that it no longer uses wiper pads at either end of the carriage track. The ones in the R300 (sponge at the left end, felt at the right) were a real pain; they didn't drain nearly quickly enough and would deposit ink on the lower side of the print head where it would drip on the paper if you did too large a print job at one go. Then there's the waste pad at the rear, far larger than the one in the R300 which implies a considerably longer service life. The tube for the waste ink is really easily accessible though a small clip-on hatch at the rear, which makes it very easy to connect your own ink trap. And the shorter CD/DVD printing tray looks like a definite improvement, as it no longer runs out through the rear of the printer.

I don't like the new-style front tray. It's fussily overcomplicated and invites damage by not closing with a single pivot. The refusal to print unless the lid is closed is pointless at best. And the manual on the CD is an absolute joke, with less info than the stuff on the (very clear) get-yourself-started sheet that you get.

Well, it's up and running, and the print quality is excellent. The CISS system has arrived, but I'm going to use the bulk of the supplied Epson cartridges first, before I connect that up. It'll give me an opportunity to realistically assess the quality of the ink that has come with the CISS; I can always top up with another brand if I don't like it.

Once I've fitted the CISS I'll post a few photos, so that the curious can see how exactly it goes in; I've avoided using one before because the early systems appeared very Heath Robinson, but the latest generation certainly seem very neat indeed.