Customer reviews from epson.com
Epson - Photo Printer
Average customer rating
4.4
(315 Reviews)
Rating breakdown 315 reviews
5 Stars
211
4 Stars
66
3 Stars
16
2 Stars
10
1 Star
12
90%of customers recommend this product.
(
283 out of
315)
Customer Reviews for Epson - Photo Printer
Customer Rating
4
A 99% favorable review
on September 24, 2011
Posted by: Sensha
from Houston TX
Like other Epson products, this is (at the root level) a great printer. Good color fidelity, smooth operation, multiple functions. It's of a piece with the other Epson printers that I have used (including two Photo R800s).
However, there is a fly in the ointment, one that was not obvious from all of the information that I had read about the printer prior to the purchase.
I went looking for a printer that could produce CD labels for my musical group's CDs. I had literally worn out the two 800s over several years of use for same.
My graphics for the labels were rendered in Canvas, a high end Macintosh illustration program. Precisely aligned and wonderfully rendered onto the platters, they produced a flawless, Art Deco-themed disk that was cause for favorable comment by one and all. (They also printed up beautiful CD box inserts.)
Not so the new printer. After going through the set up process, pulling off all the blue tape, and installing the cartridges, I fired up Canvas, eagar to print a test copy to compare to an older product from the 800 series printers.
Unfortunately, the new printer wasn't buying it - all it did was sit there, gleaming on the dining room table. Bummer...
It seems that any software wanting to print on CD has to send a special signal to the printer in order to activate the CD printing process. No special signal, no CD printing, period.
No problem, I'll just turn to the included Print CD software and paste in the Canvas image.
Nope. It accepted the image, but nothing that I could do would align the graphic with the CD template. And, in any event, the graphics did not retain the sharp resolution of the original program.
So, it was time to recreate the whole label in the Print CD software. That's where I found that Print CD was capable of printing labels on CDs, but not the label that would equal the product of a "real" graphics program.
First off, the interface was "PC clunky". Lots of dialog boxes, non-intuitive processes, and hidden options that were barely described in the documentation and help files. Not a fun thing for a Macintosh person.
Second, while the software seemed to offer a lot of options, once the on-screen image was transfered onto the platter, the outcome was somewhat less than optimal.
As an example, our CD has (or, should I really say "had") the group name printed around the circumference of the disk, this in an "Arts Decoratif" font called LucalTC TT. The spacing on the group's name was expanded by a couple of points, setting it off from the rest of the text.
Print CD offers an expanded text option in its many menus and dialog boxes. But, applying it to the manually entered text in the program's dialog boxes resulted (in the printed product) with each word's initial capital letter being spaced too far from the rest of the text in the word.
So, it was lose the expansion of the text. It made for a stilted end product, but at least it was properly spaced on the disk.
When it was laid down on the disk, the final output from the Print CD program was about 75% as good as that obtained by using Canvas. Some flaws were minor (a slight rotational alignment error on one text element that I was never able to remove, try as I might), but the spacing issue was a real bummer.
And, Print CD doesn't play well with the rest of the Macintosh world. Sure, it may be a PC program, but porting it over to the Macintosh without enabling Command-X for "Undo"? And, what's with the program shutting me out from using my Airport network while Print CD is in operation?
When all was said and done, I managed to turn out an end product that was "good enough", in the eyes of my wife. But, I doubt that Print CD output would measure up to the standards of most commercial artists.
With better CD printing functions and/or printing software, I would rate this printer at a 5 - it's a great printer with wide format abilities and CD printing utility. But, locking out real graphics software from printing the CD label is a real mistake.
We bought it because we needed CD printing right now. Unfortunately, there was no way to determine this problem beforehand. Caveat emptor...
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting epson.com
Customer Rating
5
on October 12, 2011
Posted by: Thread
from MI
This is a great large format printer. I own a screen printing business and use this printer to print inkjet positives. This is by far the best inkjet printer I have found. The price is very good also!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting epson.com
Customer Rating
4
Great while it lasted but Yelo ink won't print
on February 4, 2012
Posted by: Mac
from Chatsworth, CA
I had an 1160 for about 10 years and I loved it. It was great but died on me. Replaced with the 1400 a year and a half ago. Been great except the yellow ink head must be clogged - it shows full but does not print. Wasted all my other ink trying to clean head. Even used alcohol and distilled water and still no print. In 10 years my 1160 never had this problem. The cost to repair it is rediculous. Would be nice if I could change the print head or resolve this problem without paying a fortune. Unusable now without the yellow. Need help.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting epson.com
Customer Rating
5
The Best Photo Printer I've owned!
on November 10, 2011
Posted by: Monterey Photographer
from Monterey, California
The Photo 1400 has excellent tonal range and accurate color reproduction, even when printing on various media straight from Photoshop! Be aware- Photos that you print using the highest settings will at first look too dark, and you may feel disappointed. HOWEVER, this is because the Claria Inks need to dry fully (about 24 hours) before the colors in your print are totally stable. This printer supports 19 X 13 BORDERLESS media, and has allowed me to produce professional products without the need to leave home to do it! The ink is pricey, but will last well if you adjust your settings to your media and purpose each time.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting epson.com
Customer Rating
5
Incredible device for the cost
on December 16, 2011
Posted by: KusH
from Weeki Wachee, Florida
I have owned one of these babies for about 3 years now and it has printed all sizes of paper and projects from 13 X 19 Images from China and other places I have visited. It has performed well and I would not consider replacing it anytime soon. I do place some moist pices of paper towels under the print head twice a year to soak up all of the ink it sprays in the sponges. I also do the same under the cover in two wells on the far left side as well so the head does not drop ink on prints. This is not a major problem but will make blotches occasionaly on a print which is quite wasteful of expensive print papers. There is a trick to soaking up the inks so be careful you do not upset the belt alignment. Use your head and you will save a ton of money getting it serviced. I use the manual cartridge replace button to move the head safely out with an empty cartridge, then you can safely place some paper towel under where it normally parks overnight to soak up all the waste ink. It is amazing how much is in there after 6 months! The left side is easy as you turn off the printer and place a moist paper towlel piece in the other two spots and put a cardboard spacer over them to push down a little to put pressure on the towel to help soak up all of the ink. I have never had a problem with my printer and I also print CD and dvd discs I create as well. I alhave two I use in my shop at work to do part of my job and they have been running all day for over 1 year. With the exception of the cleanup tricks I have had no problems with those two either. I go through ink cartridges in about 2 to 3 weeks but I do a lot of printing of color objects and cd and dvd as well so they run all day for at least 6 hours sometimes 8 hours depending on how much work I have. A lot of my printing is on high quality paper and cardstock and it works very well for me at home and in work with the other two. I suggested to my boss we buy the ones in my office and he is very happy to see them run all day. Epson has always made very good printers. My personal prints are of very high quality as I am very good with my cameras and know Photoshop quite well. Most people have no idea how important it is for high quality prints to be able to understand gamma and how a PC 'sees' color, compared to what that looks like on a monitor, and then to have it come out on a printer. The Epson 1400 can truly reproduce what was seen on site with the human eye easily once this process is mastered! KusH Enjoy your Epson!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting epson.com
Customer Rating
5
Great intro into serious photo printing
on January 12, 2012
Posted by: Nick Name
from Evanston, IL
I consider myself an advanced amateur photographer and have spent a lot of time making traditional B&W prints from negatives. I'm calling myself a beginner with respect to my printing expertise because I've never worked with digital printing and only recently bought a digital SLR that captures 16 MP color images nice enough that I wanted to print them REALLY BIG.
I chose the Epson Color Photo 1400 because it seemed like the cheapest and most sensible entry into dedicated photo printers that could go at least to 11x14 inches and give me creative control over the final product. Since it arrived four days ago, I've had the opportunity to print maybe 10-15 4x6 prints and two 11x14's. The quality is astonishing compared to what I'm used to (i.e. uploading to a website and picking up at the drug store photo counter). I'm printing directly from Photoshop and turning off the printer's color handling (I think). In any case, the colors are perfectly faithful to my Macbook computer screen and since the print resolution is higher than the screen, the print detail looks much better. I don't know why I waited so long to buy a real photo printer.
One thing that was clear when I pulled the printer out of the box was that it means business and demands a significant amount of table top space. It's very nice to look at though, and when all the trays and doors are collapsed it is sleek and solid. It is obvious that this is a tool for serious photography and not for tucking into the corner of a computer desk. All of the doors and trays are nice and solid and don't feel cheap like they will break if you pull a little too hard. Some of them have nice magnetic closures (think of the click in/out glass doors on an entertainment center).
The operation is quiet, but I can't really compare it to similar products. What I can say is that my 8 month old son was asleep 5 feet away and didn't wake up as I was printing on both the fast and slow settings.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting epson.com
Customer Rating
1
Waste of money
on February 22, 2010
Posted by: rjretlaw
from Upland, CA
The printer heads clog too easy and once heads are clogged there is no way to unclog them and the printer is useless. This happened to me on 2 brand new printers, on 2 separate occassions. The printr is useless without printer heads and to replace printer heads it costs the same as a new printer.
The printer uses a lot of ink and the ink cartridges are too expensive.
The printer uses a lot of ink and the ink cartridges are too expensive.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Written by a customer while visiting epson.com
Customer Rating
3
Good while it lasts
on September 16, 2011
Posted by: AG designer
from Muskegon, MI
I have had two of these printers. I bought my second one after the first died, but I was happy with it for the two years it lasted. My second one has now died, at least I cannot get it to print all colors. It is probably the print head, but I've cleaned it with no success. I don't use it regularly and it may sit for a month in between uses so I figure it probably clogs up and can't be cleaned. It may be better if it gets regular use.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting epson.com