They’re crisp, can be extremely detailed if you up the settings, but will do your family photograph collection its just desserts. Scans are detailed too, and arguably the highlight of the printer itself.
Using Epson’s Scan software (which almost every Epson scanner uses, big ups), scans are incredibly quiet, so much so that I actually have to double check by ear if its working. When the printer accesses pages from the tray, it does get a bit noisy, but nothing that would wake a sleeping father of four. For an office that hums along to the baby breath of the air conditioner, it could hardly be heard. Usability concerned, the printer is incredibly quiet. And yes, the L220 can spit out up to 5760dpi, so theoretically, the printer would do extremely well with photo paper. A higher resolution would undoubtedly bring better performance. Colours were washed out, some details were missing entirely and there wasn’t all that much colour discrepancy between certain shades. Printing a bright 1600×900 image of Halo 5: Guardians didn’t yield massively impressive results. General images are also fairly represented in paper form, but they aren’t spectacular. Standard quality is admirable, but I did find that the black ink tends towards 80% grey quite often on general A4 non-gloss paper. I’d say you could easily print a 15 page essay in a minute, depending on your quality setting. This means position the printer in an office is somewhat limited.īut what of the printer quality? Well, for the most part, the Epson L220 whips out documents for fun and at a rapid rate. It uses one of those USB B printer cables too which practically everyone will have in their houses by now, and a two prong power cable, which isn’t all that long, unfortnately. I often found myself knocking the paper stack down, thanks to it’s angled design. With the paper tray erected, it also makes putting pages in and out of the scanner on top a little tricky. Nevertheless, I got the L220 to talk to my laptop within half an hour. You’ll also find that downloading the wrong package will almost definitely happen before you stumble across the correct one. These things don’t require a degree, but the biggest issue is perhaps finding the appropriate drivers.Īlthough Epson’s support page has the essential downloads, it’s not laid out very well. Setting up the printer is also as simple as it can get really. Unfortunately, there’s no screen either, so plugging into a computer is the only real way to troubleshoot it. It’s a generally flat design, with a minimal number of buttons and controls up front, apart from a power button, a copy button, and a dedicated scan button. It’s about as broad as a 23-inch monitor and about a third as tall as one, so it’s fairly large for a small desk. It also, unfortunately, makes the printer itself a little wide. It’s generally what makes this printer, an the entire L range, a little different from contemporaries. just head to the nearest retailer, purchase a bottle of the ink required, open the Epson L220’s ink dock on its right-hand side and squirt away. The theory, at least, paints a convenient picture.
Still, Epson claims that one bottle is enough for two years’ worth of printing. Ultimately, I’m not too sure how user friendly a system is if the user can’t seem to find essential elements of the system even before they attempt to use it. Although the company claims that the InkTank bottle refilling system is more efficient and user friendly than replacing entire cartridges, it’s difficult to find the former.Ī few Googles later and I was presented with American-based sites selling the bottles.
Ink cartridges for the older CX series can run up to R400 each in some cases.
It’s the latest Epson printer to feature refillable ink cartridges allegedly claimed to reduce the long-term running costs of the printer, and keep more seagulls alive than others.Īccording to the company’s marketing material, this system brings “reliable printing with unrivalled economy” to the home. To answer that question, I have to use this little quip: enter the Epson L220.