Epson Stylus CX4600 Photo Printer, Copier, Scanner

by Epson

Product Details

Data Sheet [118kb PDF]

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Product Manual [7.97mb PDF]

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Supplementary Guide [1.38mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 18.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 20 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002A9SL0
• Item model number: C11C571001
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (105 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 21, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The versatile Epson Stylus CX4600 provides premium performance at a truly remarkable value. This hard-working all-in-one offers photo quality printing from popular memory cards, full-featured scanning, and convenient color copying--all without a computer.

Up to 5,760 x 1,440 optimized dpi resolution delivers exceptional image quality whether printing photos, documents, or flyers. Epson's exclusive DURABrite Inks ensure water, smudge and light-resistant output, for vivid, long-lasting results. And, BorderFree printing means anyone can create beautiful photos in frame-ready sizes. Best of all, because it's a DURABrite Photo Series product, this flexible all-in-one comes with 20 sheets of photo paper, Photo Series software, and quick access to Epson's exclusive photo craft and photo sharing web sites.

With 48-bit color, 600 x 1,200 dpi scanning, and Epson Smart Panel software, the CX4600 offers even more flexibility, making it easy to scan images to fax, e-mail, and more. And, there's a fast, simple way to restore faded color photos with exclusive Epson Easy Photo Fix scanning technology.

The Epson Stylus CX4600 even offers brilliant color and black-and-white copying, with or without borders, no computer required. Built-in card slots and photo proof sheet provide a simple way to print directly from digital camera memory cards. Ideal for any home setting, this product comes with cost-effective individual ink cartridges, plus both Windows and Macintosh compatibility. It's everything one needs to create show-stopping projects-all in one affordable solution.

What's in the Box
CX4600, paper tray, color ink cartridges, black ink cartridge, power cable, 20 sheets photo paper, Photo Series disk, drivers, quick start poster, user's manual, warranty card; printer cable not included

Product Description

The Epson Stylus CX4600 provides premium performance for more versatile home or business use. This hard-working combination scanner & photo printer offers remarkable photo-quality printing from memory cards -- no direct PC connection is required. It also offers full-featured scanning and convenient color copying. True frame-ready BorderFree printing of 4 x 6, 8 x 10 and letter-sized photos Powerful Epson Smart Panel software offers more flexibility, for whatever you want to do - scan, fax, email and more Color flatbed scanner with optical resolution of 600dpi; 48-bit color depth; TWAIN compatible Individual ink cartridge for more convenient changing USB 2.0 compatible Works with Mac and PC Built-in card slots - CompactFlash Type I & II, Memory Stick and Memory Stick PRO, SmartMedia, Secure Digital(SD) Card, Mini SD(with adapter), MicroDrive and MultiMediaCard

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

159 of 167 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Good! Until..., August 28, 2004

By 

G. Gutierrez "G" (Fremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Epson Stylus CX4600 Photo Printer, Copier, Scanner (Office Product)

August 28, 2004 - I just finished installing this machine for my parents, who are running OS X 10.3.4 (Panther) on an aging iMac G3/400 DV. The entire process was simple and uneventful. My surprise came afterwards when I started playing with the CX4600. It's a very solid little All-In-One (AIO)!

After reading reviews of older Epson, HP and Canon AIO's, I was worried about several things. So far, the print quality is very good, on par with my own C84. In fact, the CX4600 uses the same 4 separate CMYK ink cartridges as the C84, which means you won't have any trouble finding them at stores. The paper transport is a little loud, but not too bad. Printing is very quick once it gets going, with a quiet side to side undulation.

The scan quality is excellent for most uses and you can freely choose your resolution. Hint: the installer will put Epson Smart Panel on your desktop, but I prefer Epson Scan which is also installed in your Applications folder. This is the same control panel you might have seen before in the Epson Twain driver. You can choose Full Auto mode, where it will magically figure out what you are scanning and adjust settings to match (even finding and scanning multiple photos into individual files), or Professional mode, where you choose everything. To be honest, I use the middle "Home" setting on my own system, since it offers that very cool auto-magic assist with the ability to override when necessary.

Using the Copy function is.. fun. I can't explain why, but it's nice to *not* configure, adjust, crop, fit, or launch anything. Just hit the Color or B&W Copy button and it goes to work immediately. I must be easily entertained. Again, the quality is excellent. Professional designers will likely own a scanner and photo printer, but they (I) might consider owning one of these for convenience too.

Memory Card slots are the bonus which puts the CX4600 over the top. I think I spent the most time looking up info on these, to see if they could be used with iPhoto in OS X. The web site doesn't say. The owner's manual doesn't say. But the answer is YES! Along with everything else, the installer drops CardMonitor and PhotoStarter onto your drive. The latter can be set up to launch iPhoto when you plug your camera's card into the CX4600. The 12 test photos I took imported perfectly afterwards (set PhotoStarter so that it does not auto-download the photos; let iPhoto handle it). The manual does mention this functionality for Windows, so I'm sure it works just as well.

Minor annoyances: The CX4600 can only be connected via USB, so there is no longer any excuse to make customers "choose" their own cable. It should be in the box. And the installer warns that it will take a long time. They're not kidding. But it's only because it runs several individual installers, which all require your admin password and often spend a very long time searching your drive for some reason. It would be less painful if you could do this in one pass and walk away while it works. However, that's all history. Once set up, it is a thing of beauty.

Don't be turned off by the photos of the CX4600. In person, it actually looks very classy. The top portion is covered in a metallic paint, making it appear less like a recycling bin and more like a stylish computer peripheral. It's also smaller and heavier than it appears. The software is fairly seamless and lets you dig deep if you know where to look. That's about as good as it can get. If you've been looking for an All-In-One, this new Epson is a great choice.

UPDATE

It is now November 2005. About one month ago, it was time for the 3rd round of cartridges in the CX4600. Not bad for one year of light printing. My parents hadn't reported any major problems beyond one color clogging every so often. I was not pleased how much the ink level dropped when doing a single head cleaning, but I've used Epson printers for years and I wasn't surprised either.

However, all is not well. If I hadn't been there and seen it myself I wouldn't believe this. Yellow was running low first, so we replaced that cartridge. Levels check showed a fresh, full yellow tank. But when we printed a test page, there was no yellow at all. So we started a cleaning cycle. This emptied the magenta tank, so we replaced that one. The resulting test page now had no yellow or magenta. The same occurred with cyan and black, so I thought maybe we had received some bad (or old) Epson cartridges from Amazon. The little PC board connectors did look slightly different, but the product numbers were the same. I could hear ink sloshing inside and everything else checked out. In fact, after cleaning, Epson's own software showed ink levels dropping. So there was communication happening.

We went out the next day and bought more new ink, again only true Epson brand. Same result. One day, the CX4600 was printing fine. As each new color ink was installed, it simply stopped working. The scanner and card reader still work. Epson's advice? 'Clean the print heads.'

We ended up getting a good deal on a replacement CX4600, since we had all this ink, the original was out of warranty, and it would likely cost more just to ship it somewhere to be 'looked at.' The new one works perfectly with the very same ink cartridges. I believe Epson changed the electronics in these ink cartridges at some point, which broke compatibility with first generation CX4600 units. I don't know if this was intentional or accidental, but I know this one was registered with Epson and we were not notified.

The CX4600 was a nice little AIO when it worked. It's too bad Epson has fallen so far into the disposable product model, that they feel no responsibility towards their customers.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I compared many other all in one printer-copier-scanners, October 10, 2004

By 

I. Farouki (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Epson Stylus CX4600 Photo Printer, Copier, Scanner (Office Product)

This one is the best for the money. I just returned an hp one for a problem with the cartridge getting stuck. The printing resolution is better than others in the same class. The speed of printing is also faster than others. The scanner does not have a higher resolution than say the hp 1315 but for my needs it's sufficient. I don't see why anyone would need a better resolution scanner. For my 1 gig computer it would take me 38 minutes to scan on a resolution of 2400 x 2400. The highest resolution is 9600 x 9600 perforated. I compared the copier of a Brother machine with this one, and the Brother machine copying quality doesn't even come close. The only gripe I have is that it doesn't come with a usb printer cable.

75 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Epson Stylus bang4buck, September 18, 2004

By 

Linden McRae (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Epson Stylus CX4600 Photo Printer, Copier, Scanner (Office Product)

The Epson Stylus CX4600 is the best multi-function printer you'll find for the price that it is.

The Scanning quality is superb. The top-lid is removable for large items, and it does it quite quickly. They definately didn't just slap on a scanner as a quick qimmick for sales. There is an auto-scan mode - it recognizes what it's scanning and how to handle it (although it sometimes crops out what I WANT there, but no biggie, as there are manual sttings), a home option - more advanced settings but not too confusing, and an advanced option - total control over what is being scanned.

Printing quality is wonderful as well. Text is crisp and clean, and photos come out at very good quality. It's even better when coupled with the included 4x6 photo paper. You just have to be sure to make the correct paper settings before you print.

Copying is insanely easy and straightforward. (...) and it came out at a quality that is good enough for a casual copy, though not photo-realistic. If you want a great quality copy, it's a better idea to scan it to your computer, edit it with the included software (or photoshop if you have it) and then print. But for casual copies without a computer, it's great!

Installation is also simple. Just remember to GO BY THE BOOK. If you don't you're in for a bumpy ride. Once it's installed, you're ready to go. The scanner shows up right in my computer (if you have windows XP)

It has an included media-card slot for your digital camera, which can be used for 1.) transfering pictures to your computer (showing up as a "removable disk" drive in windows XP - my computer) and 2.) printing directly from the card using an index sheet where you fill in bubbles of the pictures you want printed, scan said index sheet, say "print from index sheet". Very, very cool.

Other things include the following:

the printer itself is compact compared to other multi-function printers, and is a bit bigger than the standard inkjet printer.

It's fairly quiet and won't annoy you as some printers do.

It has four ink containers, which makes photos look better from what I hear.

Ink containers are more cost effective due to the four ink containers instead of the standard two.(if you run out of cyan, just buy the cyan ink, not the entire color one).

A usb cable is NOT included, but it's not a very big deal (we already had one from the epson stylus color 880 this replaced).

Some may gripe as USB is the only option for computer connection, but I have no problem with it.

It includes some cheap photo software, but it'll do the job if you want to touch up scanned pictures. I don't need it as I use photoshop elements, but as the standard consumer doesn't have photoshop, this is a good add-in.


All around a fabulous printer if you want a great scanner, photo printer, and casual copier. Of course if this was a perfect world, it would have a built in ethernet port for network printing (so my computer doesn't have to be on for my brother to print to it for example), but I'm just dreaming there as I have yet to see a consumer printer with an ethernet port built in.

Ideally if you print a LOT of text, than you should consider coupling this printer with a monochrome laser printer (my recomendation is the $100 samsung, I forgot what model number it is, but BestBuy has it - white n' shiny) But the average family shouldn't worry.

For the price it is, above-par features included, and outstanding performance/quality it dishes out, I reccomend this as a multi-function printer that does it all.

Just be cautioned that the included ink containers are only about half-filled (as all included ink containers usually do), so the life of the ink containers should not be based on the included ones.