Epson Stylus® C88 InkJet Photo Printer

This is easy to set up printer with small foot print for cramped quarters. The print quality is excellent, though for photos you really must use Epson photo paper for the best results. The Epson Stylus C88 operates smoothly, though take care re. insertion of paper into the somewhat strangely positioned and shallow paper intake tray and paper stand. Otherwise your prints may come out crooked or paper may flop forward prior to printing. This seems to be problem even when plastic alignment tab seems to be properly set! The paper exit tray could be a bit longer too - sometimes printed paper tends to fall off exit tray once printing is completed

I prefer the simple 4 cartridge set-up of the Epson Stylus C88 over some of the other more complex bells and whistles of the Canon printers. It is amazing how Espon puts such high quality color print output into this table top printer similar to its large format business printer models. But bear in mind these home use Epson printers are somewhat short-run devices. I don't think they're built to last over 3 years. Cost of repair often exceeds replacement costs. Ink cartridge consumption seems to be a problem as with other ink jet printers, depending on your use! Consider your use before purchasing! With the low price of having high volume color photos printed at Walgreens, CVS or photo imaging labs etc., I rarely use this printer for large numbers of photos. The cost of paper and ink just make printing photos in great numbers too high. However, for cranking out a couple of photos or color proofs short notice, the photo print quality is excellent (well er, provided you use Epson photo paper).

For the day-to-day printing needs (correspondences, invoices, resumes, letters, etc) the Epson C88 is a good printer. The speed of this printer is not very good. Just average. For my light use that's not a problem. It could be for you. The diagnostics and ink check tools are very effective and useful, though sometimes I get "error" messages while in the utility mode. The "on-off", "cancel" buttons seem unresponsive often which is annoying! You have to wait a few seconds for printer to come on or go off etc., and the buttons feel wobbly and cheap. Better engineering here and regarding the shallow paper trays on Epson's part would be helpful. Liker most table top printers the unit does not ship with a cable. Purchase one cheap on eBay. Retail the cable alone can cost $20.00

Regarding replacing the ink cartridges: well, say the black goes empty, you need only replace the black cartridge! The price can be high, however with diligence you can find genuine Epson ink on the web below standard Epson prices. I hear you should not use non-Epson ink, so I do not. I purchased a two year warranty on my unit in case I have any premature failure.