Epson R-200, Photo printer

I purchased the Epson R-200 as a replacement for the Canon S-820. It has many similar features, plus an additional one - the ability to print directly onto DVDs and CDs.

setup
Like most printers today, setup was a non-issue. Unpack the printer, connect the wires, install the printer cartridges. Paper is fed from a tray behind the printer, so some room for depth is needed. With its paper trays attached, the printer takes up 18.5 x 19.0 x 11.9. There are USB 1.1 ports on both the front and back of this unit.

ink
The Epson R-200 uses six individual tanks as opposed to a black and tri-color tank system. Over the past nine months each color cartridge has lasted about three to four months each. Black has been replaced every 10 weeks or so. Having a dedicated text printer would certainly have increased the time between black cartridge changes. Cartridges are generally easy to find (one of the reasons I switched from the Canon printer.)

quality
The quality of this printer is superb. I have printed photos ranging in size from wallet to 8x10. Authentic Epson paper tends to show better quality than generic, but about the same quality as Kodak paper. The epson paper also tends to be a little less expensive than Kodak.

The printer gives you many options between quality levels. Preset levels include "draft" "text" "text and pictures" "photograph" and "best photograph." Higher quality settings turn out higher quality pictures, but also require more ink.
The printer can also print borderless pictures without a problem.

Dry time is almost instant. Prints are generally dry seconds after printing is complete.

To this day I have never had a page jam. It is also great at ensuring it feeds only one page at a time.

CD / DVD printing
This is the set-apart feature of this printer. When designing CDs or DVDs, most printers require you to buy another software program, buy labels, HOPE the printer lines up with the labels correctly, take the labels off, line the cd and label up, and attach.

This printer allows you to print directly on printable-cd and printable-dvd media. It is important to note that you must have pre-labeled printable CD or DVD media. Attaching a label to a blank CD will not work as the CD will be too thick for the printer.

The included software for this feature is easy to use. You have many different options to create any type of label. When you are finished, you load the CD onto the included tray, place it into the special CD load dock, and press print. The CD is then pulled into the printer and a perfectly aligned label is created.