Excellent value & Superb quality

Now my last review on a printer was shocking. It wasn't much of a printer more of a burden on my very soul.
When last year I started my final year at uni I felt I really had to replace the Epson Stylus Photo 830U I'd had for a mere year yet spent most of that time wanting to jump on it..
Naturally after my bad experience with one Epson I thought about going for a Canon and spent many hours trawling shops and websites and eventually, nearvously settled on the Epson Stylus Photo RX585 hoping I'd have something that would at least work!

I have to say I love my printer. The picture quality when notched up to produce photos on good quality paper is superb, the print time is good and individual inks make it a lot more cost effective to replace cartridges. The scanning and copying functions are also superb as I am an architect I need these to be relable to scan my survey drawings and reproduce them into presentations - this printer does it with ease. I test print all my drawings on this printer and the quality even on the finest of lines is superb.

Highly valued piece of equipment, I'd give away my drawing tablets before I'd part company with this little baby. Buy it. It shakes a bit but hey, don't we all at this time of the morning?

A No Thrills Printing Solution For The Home.

To be honest, I really wasn't expecting much from this printer. I believe that you get what you pay for these days, and what can you expect to get with a price tag just over twenty pounds.

I do most of my professional printing at home with my monstrous Epson R2400 (an A3 printer that costs more than a mid-range laptop, and makes me cry every time I have to buy more ink for it.)

But why did then did I buy this printer?

Two reasons. The first was because I'm now printing an increasingly large volume of text documents, the second because I've also been printing a lot of documents that only needed to be drafts. As I've mentioned my Epson printer is ridiculously expensive to run, therefore I decided that I needed a second printer that could handle all the tasks that were otherwise insulting for my Epson to do. Plus one that was far cheaper to print with, one that I wouldn't feel guilty about wasting ink with.

With the sheer range of printers available, the only reason I purchased this one, was because it was one of the cheapest I could find.

But was it worth it?

Well the basics are covered. It connects to your computer through the USB interface. It offers borderless printing, an ink level indicator, and has an 80 sheet capacity. But don't expect any extras such as a built in card reader or Print Image Matching.

The D1460 uses only two ink cartridges (one black and one colour). They are reasonably cheap to buy (both originals and compatibles) and can be found easily, so full marks for value.

The disk provided didn't have the 64-bit Windows XP driver, so I had to go online and download it, which was easy to find and only took a few minutes. After that installation was straightforward and problem free. Actually using the printer is very easy and user friendly. It start up time from cold, and the time it takes before it actually starts to print a document are both reasonably fast.

The quoted print speed is 16ppm (pages per minute) in draft black, and 12ppm colour draft. The draft mode is dire to say the very least. Yes print speed might be very close, but you can't really make out much at all from the printed sheets, making draft mode a complete waste of time. On 'normal' settings expect far, far slower print speeds (more like 2-3ppm), and even less if it's a full colour photograph.

The ink-level indicator is not reliable. It told me that my black cartridge was empty but I still managed to print nearly twenty more pages perfectly before the quality started to fade. So watch out for this, or you'll end up throwing out half empty (or half full) cartridges.

The quality of text printing is excellent for a printer of this price. Colour is less impressive but still not that bad considering. Providing your not attempting to print a black and white picture (which was pretty much a disaster,) or a photography with very fine details, then there is nothing wrong with the printers capability.

The design of the printer itself is quite nice. It's small, light, compact, and has a minimalist quality to it.

If like me, you'll seeking a no thrills printer for casual day to day use, that cheap to both buy and run, then this HP D1460 is well worth considering.

It does what it says on the box!

I bought this to print out Census sheets (mainly Black & White) for Family History research which it does very well and quickly. I have printed colour pictures on plain paper with great results - I am using Canon 100gsm paper. A3 paper can be expensive so shop around. Not had to replace an ink cartidge yet so unsure how many pages I will get of what I want to do. So far - recomended.

Don't touch it with a barge-pole!!!

Epson Stylus R800 Inkjet Colour Photo Printer

Oh yes, the quality's great - until you don't do any printing for a week or come to change cartridges that is. The ink-wastage is unbelievable. I can't even begin to describe the amount of time and money wasted vainly trying to unblock the printheads. Nothing works - not even Isopropanol. My guess would be that a lot of the positive reviews are written fairly shortly after purchase or by very heavy users who print regularly. For normal use, this thing has been an unmitigated disaster.

Frankly, my personal opinion is that this printer is so fundamentally flawed that I don't believe Epson should even be selling it - it's about time they realised that there are a lot of people who will never go near one of their products again. If you are still considering purchasing one of these money-pits, check the internet - my experiences are commonplace.

Bottom-line an expensive waste of money that's gone in the bin after 1-year.

FYI, this is an independent review and I've no connection to any printer manufacturer, distributor etc.

Rant over.

Absolutely marvellous printer!!

I bought this printer via Amazon and it is brilliant. I started using Canon Pro paper but honestly the output is totally fantastic on Jessops paper too!
Just one small point.... Amazon's ad for this printer says that it is"Dispatched from and sold by pixmania_uk". This is not true. If you buy it from Pixmania be aware that the product will be dispatched to you from France.

HP comes up trumps for Photos!

I bought this printer because of the excellent reviews of it as a Photo specific printer. I do a lot of photography and always want excellent quality prints.

If you use decent quality paper (240g/sm at least) then the photos are really of a super quality. I can't fault the quality of them - at A4 size or below. The software is also good and gives you many different versions of print size and orientation (similarly you can print birthday cards etc if that's your bag).

The excellent quality of the colours is probably down to the 6 different cartridges which can be replaced individually if you happen to use a lot of yellow etc OR You can buy an HP Photo Value Pack for less than £30 (non-HP versions can be cheaper OR there are reservoir systems which last many many times as long but CAN be fraught with problems).

If you want an all-singing, all-dancing printer which does scanning and photo-copying also then that's fine - choose something else but if you want a printer which just prints excellent quality photo prints (plus your normal everyday printing) then this is the one for you - you won't be sorry!

really Poor

I have had many printers before but this has to be the worst. I thought Epson was a quality make but everthing about this printer is poor quality. It uses the most unbelievable amount of ink and locks when one cartridge is low. It is a fiddle to change the ink and last night it just kept saying the cyan was out even when I changed it. I bought a new one today as I had bought lots of ink and it will not work as it says that there is no ink in two of the colours, and yes, I did put in new carts. Please don't buy this!

Good Little Printer

I have had this printer for around nine months now and cannot fault it.
So simple to use, easier than messing around with a full size printer and playing around with endless options.
If you want very good fast photo's just buy one.

Kodak printer dock rules!

Have got 2 myself as one has been constantly used for luxury (yes, I am that vain!)on daily basis and selling the other one to share the excitement around! So easy to use and the quality is at its best. The only downside is that you should keep it properly packaged when you go traveling as it is fragile! Best option is to go and get one of those special travel bags here on Amazon! ;p

Quality & Value

Had this approx 3 weeks now. Found it very easy to install, have printed off the manual for the printer from the CD (there are other manuals on it for the other software) but didn't really need it because it's so easy to use. It doesn't come with the usb lead but I found that the lexmark I was replacing (horrible machine) that cable works fine with the canon.

I wasn't sure I'd use the memory card facility but now I've tried it I've printed many photos this way without the PC using the index sheet which, once printed out, you just tick the boxes of the photos you want and scan it back in - easy. I've just started using sandisk extreme III SD cards with my canon camera and I was very surprised to find that this printer could cope with them. My pc card reader couldn't! I also enjoyed the pictbridge facility by attaching the camera to the printer for my photo-stitch prints again without pc intervention, to obtain some lovely results. The print quality is excellent but like every other printer is dependant on the quality of paper.

Have been printing on it every day including printing out the manual to A4 per page size (approx 200 sheets), I would say I've printed about thirty percent photos and seventy percent documentation and my black cartridge is showing 'low' and my colour cartridge is just over half full which seems reasonable to me. Bought the 'high yield' cartridges to try which seem to have nearly double the ink in them PG50 black, CL51 colour but can't comment on them yet except to say I've paid less for them both on Amazon than high street stores are selling one 'low yield' one for.

Have only done a couple of scans but had no problems and found it very easy to use. Cannot fault the printer in any way whatsoever and, seeing as I purchased mine from the canon outlet on ebay at a much cheaper price it was a risk worth taking. Having said that, now I'm using the machine I would happily pay out the price on Amazon without hesitation.

2nd A3 from HP

My first HP A3 printer produced great results but drank ink, this one produces, if anything, even better results but the individual catridges has cut the costs dramatically.

Perfect Photoshop screen image onto the printed page 100% of the time and first time.

Epson photo printer R220

I am disappointed in the way Epson has made this printer obsolite.I have been to 3 of our major ink stores in my town and found that they no longer carry the bundle ink packs for my computer,because they can make more money selling them individually.My printer will not work with just the black ink or with just the color inks. You have to have all of the cartridges in place inorder to use the printer.My printer holds 6 cartridges,2 pink-2 blue-1 yellow- 1 black.
Black =$17.99 ea.
Pinks,Blues and Yellow = $12.99 ea.
I have found this to be grossly unfair.
I am unable to use the last approx. 25% of the ink in the cartridges.When does Epson step up and make this right?
NEVER!!
I have checked my mail box and found no check from our class-action lawsuit against Epson.
Epson feels that any and all research in this matter is frivolous and they have gone after generic ink makers to shut them down so we the consumer cannot buy ink cheaper for our printers.
Walmart
Office Depot
Comp USA
Best Buy
Office Max
None are selling the bundle ink for my printer any longer!
My Office Max here is refilling cartridges,but not R220 Photo Stylus printer cartridges!!!
Whats up with that?
I have found that I would rather go back to my trusty NEC printer,pay $150 for the toner and have it last the next 5 years.I will pay 2 bucks for crayolas and color in the graphs I need for work.I guess maybe they want families to have a good time together?Cause I have to inlist my children to help me color them in....
I have approx. 1 week left on my EPSON printer ink and I will be donating it to the Good will store.I will put a warning on it,Stating:The printer is cheap,but the ink will put you in the poor house!
Invest in Crayolas.

photormart 835

great portable printer . you just need the battery. with mine i got a bluetooth adp which is good for printing wirelessly. quality is great and if you look around you can get ink cartridges for under £13

HP PHOTOSMART 145

What a neat little unit,unpacked and in use in about three mins,so simple to set up i class it as idiot proof but i supose some one will prove me wrong on that one? I used it with two different cards no problem,picture quality good,fade factor as yet unknown,i see there is a 12 volt lead available now that make this bit of kit versatile,well pleased overall,only gripe the price of ink cartridges as ever,why are they so dear?.

ok for printing photographs useless at scanning slides

this printer is ok for normal printing, but all slides come out very out of focus when scanned. Epson support brought two replacements and even the epson technician could not get any of the 3 to scan slides properly. Thus this must be a design fault.

Most expensive photos ever

Having bought this printer, I was initially very impressed with the look of the output, even at the standard quality level. However, I was suprised to find that the printer displayed a low ink level message after printing just 6 photos. On raising this with support, I was told that the printer often displays this in error. This was true, the printer managed another 2 photos, before running dry.
Given that you only get to buy the ink in a combi paper/ink pack, I now have dozens of wasted photo sheets. For me, £2.75 per photo (not including the cost of the printer) seems a little expensive. Very disappointed with this product.

Excellent mid-range A3 photo printer

Having had Epson printers in the past I opted for this printer as it seemed to provide the best quality offering in my price range. In particular I wanted to print A3 and panoramic rolls (banners with A3 height) using pigment inks (the benefit of pigment inks over traditional dye inks is that they do not fade over time, although they do not appear quite as vibrant when printed).

Six months in and results have been very good. Installation (hardware and software) was easy. The sharpness, vibrancy and overall quality of the photos produced has been excellent. Border printing, CD printing (it has a special tray), gloss effect and black and white prints have also been of a very high quality. I've found I've had to do quite minimal configuration to get the image I have on screen to match what is printed - this seems related to the pigment colours being somewhat more lifelike in my view than the dye colours in previous cartridges. The printer is quiet, fairly quick (a lot faster than my old Epson) and all in all a definite improvement on what I had previously.

On the downside, ink usage is high (but then you get what you pay for... to reduce ink usage use a lower print quality - you may not notice the difference most the time) although I've not yet had problems with cartridges drying up (since there are 8 cartridges they can be replaced individually, a big benefit to me). Despite some reviews I've read, I think the build is a bit clumsy - the paper collection tray uses some unusual hinges and springy bits to open up, but always strikes me as about to break off.

Is this the right printer for everyone? No, probably not... if you're doing a lot of black and white you should consider one of the other A3 printers in the Epson range, and as an all-round printer it is expensive to run (especially with the speed it goes through ink).

Two minor tips though: stick to Epson paper (especially on the glossy prints the difference between HP paper and Epson paper when both are used on an Epson printer is striking); also, stick to Epson cartridges (although it's tempting to use cheaper inks I'd really recommend against it as they do have a knack of clogging up the printer and making it utterly useless).

To conclude, I definitely recommend this printer for what I use it for... printing A3 and A4 photos from a digital SLR at a keen amateur level, and the odd A4 letter in black ink.