Epson XP-970 Wireless Photo Printer

A very polished machine. Largish but not as bulky as you would think given it can handle up to A3 paper. Not the fastest printer but quality of text and photos is excellent. Wireless connection works well and not too difficult to set up. Premium features like the touchscreen and self opening / retracting output tray give it some wow factor too. Super happy with this.

Better paper and photo quality than my previous Canon. Color pics look great. Control panel easy to use. Paper and photo capacity is just fair, fewer than my old Canon. Only issue is that the photo tray is somewhat hard to use. Overall a good product and worth the somewhat higher price.

This is the last iteration of the Epson series XP-900 printers. My XP-960 have been wonderful performers for years. One apparently needs a maintenance box replaced, but to get me back in business, I ordered the 970. The image quality is still extremely good and the mechanics appear to be exactly the same as the 960. The display is a little different and I like it less than the one on the 960, where things like closing the paper tray were front and center. A small complaint. This seems to be on the same solid chassis and I expect it to last many years. Good printer.

Did not print properly right out of the box. I ran alignment after alignment and each subsequent page just got worse. I finally got to a point where I thought it would be acceptable if I slowed the printing speed down with high quality settings. Then, I tried to print a photo and the black ink just blotched all over the photo, and this was after a dozen alignment pages a few nozzle checks and a couple of head cleanings. I waited until the next day to call Epson about it, the tech did not listen to my observations, he just kept following his stupid script. He made me do nozzle check and head cleaning two times each, with no change in performance. It shouldn’t be this hard to get this up and running properly. Also, quiet mode does nothing to improve the clunky sounds this thing makes. For what I paid for this printer, I would have expected better and quieter performance right out of the box. I’ve had an Epson RX-560 and RX-580 over past years, and they both worked pretty well, probably my RX-560 was the best photo printer I’ve ever had. I guess it’s time to give up on Epson. I didn’t want to buy Canon, but every time I set them up for the guys at work, the Canons always produce great photos. I wanted the XP-960 for the large format and CD printing ability, I always have liked Epson’s CD print utility, it reminds me a lot of the old EZ CD Creator utility back in the early 2000’s., It’s very easy to use compared to Canon’s “garden” software, which is a nightmare to use. Anyway, back the support guy on the phone, he told me to let it rest for a day, and then run the alignments again and then call them again if it doesn’t improve! That was the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard as of late! How is letting it sit for 24 hours and running the same re-alignments over again going to help when I just did it? I ran all the same tests myself the day before I called Epson. I’m not a dummy when it comes to printer setup, I’ve done dozens of them over the years for both work, home, friends and acquaintances As an engineer, I think I know a few things about printers, I’ve set up everything from photocopiers for business to laser jet printers for the office environment and quite a few bubble jet and inkjet printers over the last 20 years and other than a frustrating HP one time, this has got to be one of the more frustrating printers I’ve dealt with, not to mention that the stupid HUGE automated door on the front gets in the way of the dinky, flimsy paper trays you can’t get any paper in. I told the guy, if this is what the Epson product is going to be right out of the box, then I don’t want it, I’m sending it back. I figure, if it’s going to give me this kind of trouble brand new, then what surprises is it going to have for me down the road? Guess I’m still on the hunt for an affordable large format printer that can print on CDs. If they would have spent more time designing the printing section of this printer properly and less time on the stupid automated doors and whirring gizmos on this thing, I think they might have a better product, but it sucks. I will reconnect my old RX-580, it prints badly, but at least I understand why, it’s several years old and is done. But, there’s no excuse for a new printer to act like an old one! By the way, there are no sample papers with this printer like Epson product in the past. The support guy asked me if I had Epson paper, and I told him, how could I if they don’t see fit to include anything in the box any more? Besides, a printer should be able to print on whatever you stick in it. By the way, I almost forgot, when I went to put paper in the rear paper feeder, it sucked the whole lot into the printer! None of my older Epsons ever did that! What a mess this thing is!

The Epson Experience XP – 960 is the most featured filled printer I have ever owned with great printing, scaning & copying quality for your money. This printer boasts a max printing resolution of 5760×1440 dpi, scanning resolutionat 4800 dpi, which is one of the best in the $250-$300 price point. The printer can print on a variety of different types and sizes of paper up to 11×17. The scanner has loads of feature such as duplex colour copy/scan,border sizing, background & size adjustment, binded copies, fold-able scanner lid for holding originals in place & more. The printer has Epson’s six colour Claria ink but prints photos a bit on the pink side though,which you can adjust yourself (I also don’t have the latest firmware). There are also alot of creative features you can take advantage of that I have not tested, like editing photos right on the printer(via sd card), make colouring books, print on CDs/DVDs and more. It can print via sd car, USB, Eithernet, WPS, or through your easy to set up home network connection. the ink cartridges are small so heavy printing (epson277ink) will run you through some cartridges. Printing speed for text and duplex printing is decent and prints resonably quick for coloured photos. Claims to print 4×6 photos in 11 sec, which was around the same for me when. Printing 5×7 photos on gloss photo paper. Lastly I love the printer’s large, very responsive touch screen. Which automatically folds and unfolds upon use and still has a stardy build, especially compared the Canons Pixima in the same price group. I recommend the Epson XP 960 to anyone looking to print pro looking photos at home with great overall all-in-one printing capabilities, packed with loads of features.

Needed a printer that could do 11×17 or larger for proofs to replace an irritating HP, and looked around for a couple months at options. Photography people kept saying ‘Epson’ but I was more familiar with Canon or HP. So I was suspicious. I’m a suspicious kinda guy.

Saw this on sale on Amazon, and figured for the price, I may as well give it a try.

I am very impressed with this. They even have linux drivers! I’m a Unix/Linux guy, and hate having to boot up a windows or mac box to have to print anything. So this was great.

The printer is a bit cantankerous to set up. Takes forever to warm up ink cartridges on install, took 3 firmware updates, and the paper trays are just… well… poorly thought out. But… I didn’t get it to store paper. I got it to print.

The print quality is an amazing upgrade for me. No banding, no oversaturation, no smudging or bleeding… With a lustre paper, the prints are indistinguishable from photo prints. Best of all, with the right monitor setup, the colors you see on the screen are the colors you get in the print.

I have a high end setup. 30 bit color monitors and quadro video cards, so your mileage may vary. But if you have the right setup, you can get matched colors on prints without messing around and experimenting with tons of ICC profiles.

Also I LOVE the true borderless printing. Best I have used.

Some people complain about having to manually feed the 11×17 paper in, and yeah, that’s a pain if you want to do a lot of prints at a time, but honestly, for the cost of ink… if I am going to be doing enough that becomes an issue, I am just gonna go to a real print shop. Seems silly to do a bulk run on a studio printer.

Ink useage is reasonable compared to Canon or HP, which are just bloody ink hogs. I’ve done quite a few full color image prints and the ink levels are only down about 5%. The cartridges may seem pricey, but if you’ve been stuck with the horror of HP for the last few years, these are cheap in comparison.

So, for proofs, references, or one off specialty printing, at the price, I am quite impressed.