Epson Stylus Color 860 Inkjet Printer

by Epson

Product Details

Product Manual [2.62mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 23 x 14 x 11 inches ; 18.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 19 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002JUZ4
• Item model number: C303011
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

From Winmag®

There's no question that you will appreciate Epson's new Stylus Color 760 and Stylus Color 860--both are quieter than previous models--a welcome change. Still, for those looking for little or no interruption in a workspace's peace and quiet, the HP DeskJet 970 Cse on our WinList wins by a mile.

I connected each printer via the USB port (parallel port connection is also provided) after I found a cable--it's not supplied. Set up was relatively painless (the only pain was due to a Windows 98 anomaly) and within minutes a test page emerged, clear and crisp.

Printing on plain paper with the 760, at the default speed setting, our twenty-page test document tested out at 4 pages per minute, slower than the 7 ppm maximum touted by the manufacturer. Characters were black with some artifacts due to the inexpensive paper. When printed on higher grade paper, output was almost laser quality. But timing significantly changed when I printed the same document at the highest quality setting--1.2 ppm, or sixteen minutes and twenty seconds. The trade off: Output was excellent.

A three-page mixed text and graphics document was produced at 3 ppm, with good color reproduction and the same clear, sharp text.

Printing a full page graphic on glossy paper took almost eleven minutes and the colors showed rich reds, bright yellows, and deep blues along with good shadow quality. Four by six digital camera photos printed in less than a minute and were good enough to share.

The Stylus Color 860 is faster, printing the twenty-page test document at 5.3 ppm, still slower than the manufacturer's "up to 9.5 ppm" claim. The three-page mixed text and graphics document printed at 3.5 ppm. Each document exhibited very good, solid black text; and the graphics were as expected, more than acceptable at the default settings. An 8 by 10 inch digital camera photo of a darling baby, using the speed setting, popped out in one minute thirty-five seconds--with no complaints from the parents.

The print driver for both the 760 and 860 provide plenty of choices for a variety of printing needs. The default settings will usually produce excellent results, but if you wish to adjust the printing mode you can select PhotoEnhance, designed for scanned or digitally captured images, including sepia and soft focus effects. Custom settings provide you an extensive level of control over printed output, including color management, print quality dpi settings (ranging from 180 x 180 to 1440 x 720 dpi), limited halftoning, sharpness and tone modifications; you can save your settings for later use. Reducing and enlarging an image to fit a specific size of media is quickly accomplished. The driver also tracks the ink levels in the cartridges.

In addition to selecting 2- and 4-up printing, you can select the order of the pages on the single sheet and decide if you want them framed or not. Four, nine or sixteen page poster layouts are available and it only takes a few mouse clicks to add cutting lines, overlapping panels or to omit panels in which no printing occurs. A watermark can be placed almost anywhere on the page and you can determine its text as well as its color, density and size. Unfortunately, there is no provision in the driver for two-sided (duplex) printing.

The printer handles up to 100 sheets of paper or 10 envelopes in the input tray, and approximately 30 sheets in the output tray. Printing on cards, transparencies, labels, iron-on transfers and banners is also available; there is no straight through paper path. The Stylus Color 760 weighs approximately 12.8 pounds, the 860, 13.2 pounds; and with their papers trays fully extended both measure 6.9 by 17.7 by 25.5 inches (HWD). Epson says its black cartridge life is around 900 pages for letter-type documents, and the color cartridge will print approximately 300 pages with 15% coverage. If you're planning to print a lot of photos or graphic images, you can be sure the cartridge life will be much less. The Stylus Color 860 has a smoke-colored cover so you can preview output.

The 760 and 860 come with a nice software bundle that includes Polaroid PhotoMax Pro SE, ArcSoft PhotoPrinter SE, e-fax and Epson Film Factory.

Though overall color quality was not as saturated and rich as the HP DeskJet 970Cse, at $199 after rebate the Epson 760 does deserve a place on our WinList as a first-rate printer for the economy minded. The Stylus Color 860, priced at $279, is faster and produces the same fine quality output.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A NICE FAST INK JET, March 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Epson Stylus Color 860 Inkjet Printer (Office Product)

The Epson 860 is all that the editoral cracked it up to be. Fast, quiet, excellent color and at a good comparable price (Amazon.com beat all others by $30-50). It is also quick to warm up. My two complaints are small ink cartridges and lack of USB OR PARALLEL connectors included in package which was not mentioned in advertisement. Other than that I'd buy again (DON'T FORGET THE USB OR PARALLEL CONNECTORS)

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great printer, May 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Epson Stylus Color 860 Inkjet Printer (Office Product)

. . .Ink Cost: black is for 634 pages and color for 300 pages (both15% coverage). You can get cartridges at Amazon.com as well. FastSpeed and stunning color when you print off the sample picture in the accompanied software. Paper type: it comes with various types of paper samples in the box so you can try them out and decide for yourself which type of paper is the best for your photo print needs. Personally I found Gloosy Photo Film Paper the best. However, if you need the same sharp color as in the sample photo, you yourself first need to be a master of digital photography.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars epson 860 is wonderful, December 4, 2003

By 

Gerald Feingold (Clearwater, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Epson Stylus Color 860 Inkjet Printer (Office Product)

Have the printer for about 1.5 years and love it. Gives good crisp black and white copies. Prints photos as good or better than any printer I've tried with similar dpi resolution. And all with generic inks!