Epson Stylus Photo 580 All In One Inkjet Printer Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've owned 4 or 5 other Epson printers (as well as several from HP) in the past, but the Stylus Photo RX580 all-in-one is the easiest to use printer I've ever had, with excellent picture quality and a very good built-in scanner as well. Combine that with the fact that it is the least expensive of the printers I have bought and you'll see why I consider this a bargain.
Let me start with the scanner -- it is quiet and fairly fast. The supplied TWAIN compatible software has three levels: fully automatic, "home" use, and professional. It works well. The resolution is fine for home use, although it is not a scanner for film or slides. The scanner integrates with the printer allowing use as a stand-alone copier. It can also copy photos directly to the face of an (inkjet printable) CD or DVD. And there are some interesting surprises -- you can print an index of a memory card -- then fill in a few choices (with a black pencil or pen -- like a test answer sheet) and scan the index sheet and the printer will print photos from the memory card, only the photos you choose on the index sheet, sized and borders as you selected. Very cool -- and easy to use. The scanner also allows you to directly prepare greeting cards without the computer.
The print quality is quite good. The Claria inks are dye-based inks (NOT pigment, as incorrectly stated in other reviews) giving them bright colors, and able to print on many surfaces. This is one of Epson's "Hi-Definition" printers -- which means tiny droplets and great pictures. The inks are separately replaceable, and available in two sizes (regular and high capacity -- from Epson direct -- 50% more ink for only $5 more). The printer works best with Epson papers, and can print on virtually any stock Epson sells. It also creates excellent prints directly on printable CDs and DVDs -- the results can look very good, and are much better than add -on labels.
The 2.5" built in color LCD is very useful -- it allows meaningful dialogues with the printer as well as previews of images from memory cards, etc.
The printer is fully Mac compatible (as well as PC) and includes some useful software, including a CD/DVD print layout program.
What does it lack? Well, an USB cable -- but, unfortunately, most prints ship without a cable. It doesn't do paper sizes bigger than 8.5" wide, and its not aimed at professional photographers (who want larger images, higher resolution scanners, and more permanent pigment inks), but for home/office use it works quite well.
All in all an excellent all-in-one at a reasonable price. I'm very happy with it.

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The Epson Stylus Photo RX580 photo all-in-one brings superior photo printing home with full-featured scanning and copying plus Ultra Hi-Definition printing. Get total performance for your photos, documents and CDs with or without a computer. Print beautiful photos without a PC. Use the 2.5color LCD to view, select, rotate and crop photos from memory cards, digital cameras and mobile phones. For larger memory cards with hundreds of images, use the exclusive Print-by-date mode to quickly sort through your photos. When it s time to print, the RX580 automatically analyzes and adjusts the color and lighting of each image, plus easily removes red-eye. You get phenomenal photos without extra effort - it s like having a lab technician right inside your all-in-one. Precision 6-color printing with Claria Hi-Definition Ink produces the ultimate combination of photo quality and longevity. You can feel confident about sharing and displaying stunning, borderless photos that are smudge, scratch, water and fade resistant, up to 200 years album storage. Best of all, the RX580 races through every project, printing black and color text up to 30 ppm and 4 x 6borderless photos in as fast as 13 seconds and better than lab quality in as fast as 32 seconds. With high-resolution scanning, this powerful performer makes it easy to restore the color to old, faded photos for brilliant reprints and enlargements - PC-free. You can even make photo greeting cards, using your own photos and text, without ever turning on your computer. Plus, print directly onto ink jet printable CDs/DVDs for professional-looking results with no messy labels. The Epson RX580 makes it easy to achieve amazing results whatever the task at hand, from crisp color copies and scans to Ultra Hi-Definition photos with remarkable richness, depth and clarity. It s all possible with Epson.

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