The
Epson 740
Epson has been making printers for a considerable amount
of time. As a matter of fact most early printers from other manufacturers emulated
many of Epson's printers both in operation and with drivers designed for Epson's
own machines. However today the playing field involves many other products that
are very competitive and feature aggressive pricing. While Epson does provide
more feature laden printers one could consider the Stylus 740 to be their flagship
for the home user as it provides the features common to most bubble jet printers
with a few more special features thrown in.
The main features of the
740 are:
1. Four color Micro Piezo (small droplet) ink jet technology
2. 1440 x 720 dpi maximum resolution
3. Supports selection of 720 x 720, 360
x 360, and 180 x 180 dpi
4. 6 ppm black text and 5 ppm color. Support for
photographic mode with a very slow results.
5. Sound level of 47 dB
6.
Drivers for Windows 3.1, Windows 9x, Windows NT 4.0, Mac System 7 and 7. Provisions
for Parallel and USB interface (more on that)
8. 17.1" wide x 11.5"
deep x 6.6" high. 11.5 lbs.
9. One year limited warranty
Setting
Up
Setting
up printers is a definite no brainer especially since Epson has chosen to include
a USB interface with the Stylus 740. At first this may seem like an unnecessary
option but when you consider that leaving your existing printer attached to your
parallel interface will give you the option of selecting which printer you'd like
to use for text-only operations it suddenly makes sense. Anyone with an existing
high quality text printer such as a laser printer (or ribbon gobbler) will appreciate
not having to replace the Epson black ink cartridge. While the addition of the
USB interface is a welcome addition I have to argue with Epson's rational of not
including a USB cable. As a matter of fact they didn't include a parallel cable
either. Seems to me that a $200 printer should include a $10 cable whether it
be USB or parallel. With a $14 Belkin USB cable in hand I headed for the checkout.
Printers
have reached such small dimensions that the box they come in are quite easily
handled. Inside I found the printer packaged with foam supports on each side much
like a new CD-ROM would be. Then I found the documentation. While Epson was considerate
enough to include a good manual, directions for the install and software setup
are on another document. I find this an odd way to package this information since
it was the last document on the bottom of the regular manual and the other bundled
documents. To Epson's credit they did include a small sample of photo papers in
sizes 8.5" x 11" (Letter Size) and 4" x 6" (photo size). Also
included were sample sheets of photo quality ink jet paper. The printer comes
with several small pieces of tape to keep pieces from moving during shipment.
Once I removed the tape I set up the printer and plugged it in. Ink cartridges
are included separately in the box. When you power up the printer you'll get a
blinking indicator light informing you that it needs it's cartridges inserted.
Cartridge insertion is a snap however the ensuing ink loading was amazingly loud.
Once I assured my neighbors across the street that there were no
jackhammers
in my house I continued to connect the printer to my computer. I already had my
system running as I intended to test USB detection. USB detection went without
a hitch and I loaded the included drivers. Any other software you wish to install
must be run from the CD's initial menu as they are not loaded automatically after
the driver install.
Bundled
Softwares
Polaroid
PhotoMAX Pro: an image editing program that features photo retouching, blemish
correction, and color modification using 30 special effects. I found it to be
very similar to most of the image editing software I've used before. If you have
no photo editing software like the software included with most scanners then you'll
find this program very useful.
ArcSoft PhotoPrinter 2.0: a photo
layout program which allows the manipulation of your photos into creative formats.
Multiple images can be combined into one montage with the ability to select frames
or borders. Calendar creation software is also included.
ArcSoft
PhotoBase 2.0: allows you to create albums of your image, video, and audio
files. One notable feature is that allows keyword searching and drag and drop
onto other applications. Of special note regarding this program is the ability
to e-mail a friend a slide show you create from family pictures.
DogByte
Greeting Card Store SE: a program to create special occasion cards and their
matching envelopes. I gave this program only a cursory looking over as I don't
use this type of software. Of special note to Mac users is that this program is
for Windows only.
Printing
Epson creates
a shortcut on your desktop that allows you to print a test picture. Having compared
the test pictures printed by various printers at the store I was very pleased
with the results. At this point it is important to note that setting your printer
for photo paper and using normal paper instead will create skin tones that are
unusually dark and orange in appearance. Using the correct settings for the paper
creates stunning images. There is no noticeable bleeding between colors and the
edges of all images are crisp with no artifacts. The drawback to any color inkjet
printer is the amount of ink required to print a large picture. Epson included
a utility that resides in the taskbar that gives a graphic representation of the
amount of ink on hand. This includes both the color and black cartridges. I found
that very useful as I burned through several pictures testing the printer.
A warning to anyone planning on buying a bubble jet printer. All manufacturers
provide an advertised output rating of their printers based on printed pages per
minute. Manufacturers use different test pages to achieve these numbers and one
shouldn't use this number as a sole deciding factor between two printers from
different manufacturers. These numbers may be useful if deciding between different
printers from the same manufacturer. With that said I found the black text speed
to be 6 ppm as advertised. Color printing varied between 3 and 4.5 ppm which is
just short of the advertised 5 ppm. I printed 1 photographic quality picture which
took about 1 3/4 minutes to complete.
Picture
quality remained excellent as long as the heads remained cleaned. I did have to
clean the heads once after all my printing. Included in the utilities is an automated
head cleaning feature. There is a warning that the cleaning procedure should be
used sparingly as it wastes a lot of ink. Unfortunately this procedure took 4
tries to completely clean the heads. Once clean I resumed printing both text and
color and was satisfied that my results were back to the original quality I saw
when I first used this printer.
Epson advertises laser quality text printing.
This is accomplished through the use of their Micro Piezo droplet technology.
By using many more small dots Epson is able to achieve far crisper text. Edges
of text have very little artifact. What Micro Piezo does for text creates very
well blended textures and hues in color pictures. The only other manufacturer
who approaches this quality is Hewlett Packard with the PhotoRet technology.
Pros:
* 1440 x 720 photorealistic quality
* acceptable
print speed
* sample pack of Epson photo papers
* Mac support
Cons:
* No USB cable packaged with printer
* Documentation
could be consolidated to make use easier
* Loud start up and initial ink loading
I can highly recommend this printer for the home user who needs laser quality
text printing with the ability to print photographic quality pictures. Epson advertises
this as a home office solution. I think a home office may want to consider a laser
printer for their text work as ink cartridge expense would surely add up over
time. This would be a very good unit for someone who must print reports with black
text and color pictures.
