Have you had it with ultra slow inkjet printers? Are you disappointed that pictures you printed out last month have faded? Do you wish you could make BIG printouts (13" x 44")? Epson has a winner with their new 1270 Color Inkjet Printer. This printer has just appeared in stores recently and is a big improvement over previous models for several reasons.

Here's the feature set;

1. USB and parallel port connections.
2. Mac and PC compatible (Win 95/98, Win NT 4.0, Mac 8.1 or later-USB only)
3. Larger format capability. Paper sizes from A4 or US letter to A3, 11" x 17", and 13" x 44"!
4. 6 color inks for greater color accuracy
5. Faster and quieter than older models
6. Lots of detail up to 1440 x 720 dpi
7. Comes with Epson's Picture Perfect® software and Adobe® Photoshop® 5.0 LE
8. New ink dyes and new paper stocks promise prints that won't fade for 20 years!!!

Here's the scoop from a new user (me). This printer hit the shelves in US retail stores around April 5, 2000. Epson has done a fine job improving their well accepted line of inkjet printers with this new one. My company had need of a printer quick in a hurry while I was on a business trip recently and a colleague recommended the 1270. We hopped in a cab and took off for the local Comp USA store to browse for a printer. Once we paid our approximately $500 for this one, we took it to our hotel rooms where we had set up a temporary documents and graphics center to create copy for distribution at a technical conference.

The Epson set up very quickly and we were printing extremely high quality hand out sheets with full color illustrations in very short order. Full color graphics printed about 4 times faster than on my old trustworthy Model 600 at home. The ability to print large size sheets is a big plus too. This printer is extremely quiet compared to its predecessors. The 6 color inks make for great colorimetry on full color images.

The hand outs we printed up looked real professional and were a big hit at the conference. Epson should take at least some of the credit for those hand outs since they made a printer that works so well.

Epson's url for this printer is;
http://www.epson.com/printer/inkjet/sty1270/

Update: November 24, 2000. Epson has a url discussing "Lightfastness" of this and other recent model printers. For more info, go to:
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/EditorialAnnouncement.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0974086089.0975119544@@@@&BV_EngineID=faljgkhedfhbfdlcfjgckicnf.0&oid=10453




Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 500
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh