Customer Reviews

Epson Stylus Photo 960 Inkjet Printer

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I think it is fair to provide a little background so you can better evaluate my review of the Epson Stylus Photo 960. I have been interested in photography for about 40 years and consider myself an advanced amateur. Until recent years I did all my own enlargements - black and white as well as color. I use a 35mm SLR film camera and scan the slides/negatives to digitize them. I now use my darkroom to store my photo equipment and produce all my enlargements on the computer. I consider myself an intermediate computer user. I have had the Epson 960 for about a month now. It replaced an Epson Stylus Color 800 that I bought shortly after it had been released (I don't think they were making 6-color inkjets at that time.)

I am very pleased with color photographs printed by the 960. As with my previous printer, I will use only Epson ink and I have started with the recommended Epson papers. I have made test prints including portraits, landscapes and architectural subjects. I have made about two dozen 5x7 prints (two to a page) and, to evaluate details and performance, about ten 8x10 prints. I tested various printer driver settings with each of three papers. So far, I have printed on Epson's Premium Glossy, Premium Luster and ColorLife (semi gloss). Color accuracy, saturation, and tonal gradation are excellent with the Premium papers. ColorLife prints with a slightly warm color shift, but is otherwise much like Premium Luster. (My wife likes it better for portraits, but I am still considering my final opinion - I may create a custom profile to remove the color shift.) I will test other papers as time and interest allow. I find that the ink dots and dither pattern are nearly invisible (unlike my previous printer) and results compare very favorably to photo lab prints. The small ink dots allow the 960 to produce very fine detail in photographs. So far the light cyan, light magenta and one black ink cartridge are being consumed faster than the rest. I'm sure this will be affected by the nature of the colors being printed (bright, primary colors versus softer hues), but is likely to be true for most users. I tried printing at both the 1440 dpi setting as well as the 2880 setting. I have determined that the prints at 1440 dpi are so good that they will be my standard. I will use the 2880 dpi setting only for "special" prints. A friend has the Canon 900 and I printed 2 prints on his printer to compare to the 960. The Canon is faster, but the detail and lack of visible ink dots/dithering from the 960 make it a better printer for me. I also preferred the more neutral colors on the Epson 960, but that could probably be adjusted in the Canon printer driver.

I have only two small complaints about the 960. The first is the time required to perform a print head alignment. In order to get acceptable alignment I had to go through the process 4 times - each time it got better. Although I did not specifically time the process (I didn't think of it until I was part way through the second alignment cycle), it took between 1.5 and 2 hours. I did not even attempt to print a photograph until I was satisfied with the alignment results. There may be a good reason why it takes around 30 minutes to go through each alignment cycle, but it is still irritating. Hopefully the print head alignment will not have to be repeated very often. The second small complaint is that if I turn on "high speed" for text printing (bi-directional printing) I get frequent ink blobs at the start or end of the page. If I print with the "automatic" settings there is no problem, but printing is slower. Despite this complaint, text printing is acceptable.

Based on my experience so far, I can highly recommend the 960 as a photo printer. Because of the two minor complaints, I would have rated this printer at 4.8 stars if that choice were available.

I researched photo printers extensively before choosing the Epson 960, specifically comparing this printer with the Canon S900 and the HP 7*50 series. In my opinion, the Epson 960 blows away the competition. Yes, it's slower than the Canon, but the colors are truer, and there's more detail. Also, definitely better image quality than the HP. I'm very happy with my choice.
Would not use it for text, but that's not what a photo printer is for, is it?
Update: since I wrote this review, I have found that the printer has a problem where the print head contacts the paper near the end of the print, only when printing at 2880 dpi, and 8x10, causing a slight scratching and smudging. After extensive discussion with epson tech support and customer support, it became apparent that this was a known issue, and the paper must be absolutely, perfectly flat for printing at this resolution. Somewhat annoying, because sometimes the curve in the paper is imperceptible. But in general, the quality of the output is top-notch.

I received my Epson 960 a couple of weeks ago. I tested a number of other printers and was not satisfied. I did a lot of research and discoverd that the 960 was the first printer to have a 2 picoliter printhead. I am a portrait photographer and print my own brochures, this printer does an excellent job of showing small detail. My brochures have both text and pictures in them. This printer has 2 black ink cartridges for text. I also just read a GREAT review written in the magazine Shutterbug, Feb 2003 issue. To get a complete review from someone who knows what to look for I would recommend reading that article.

This is not a technical opinion. I am an amateur photographer with an expesive hobby. I have spent several thousand dollars on a Nikon D100 DSLR camera, lenses, accesories, and software. I normally use a high quality photo lab for my prints because I care about the color quality. I bought the printer to use it for proof before sending it to the lab, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the quality of the Epson 960 when compared to the lab prints. Now, I am thinking of saving myself from going to the lab for my regular 8x10 or smaller prints. In a couple of words, I LOVE THIS LITTLE PRINTER!

I use a Brother HL-1240 laser printer for its speed and economy (two and a half years without having to change toner), plus I use an Olympus P-400 for printing superb photographs and graphics. When the need arrived to print on CDs and DVDs, it did not take long to find that we have limited choices; to pay a thousand bucks or more for a decent CD printer, or try to save a little money and buy a lower quality printer with dubious dependability. Neither choice was appealing.

The arrival of Epson's 900 and 960 printers were an instant success for my needs. A quality brand with factory backing, plus pricing that is reasonable. Although the 900 is about a hundred dollars less expensive, I chose the 960 for its better features of having separate ink cartridges (we all know how expensive ink cartridges can be), plus the 960 has a much higher photo quality rating. I estimate that with as much ink as I will be using, the 960's long-term cost will be about equal to that of the 900's.

In actual use, the 960 is less than half as fast as an inexpensive laser printer, but the graphic quality is noticably better. While the laser printer's graphics are 300 dpi and look good, the Epson's output is smoother and better detailed even when on the minimal quality setting. If you are not concerned about speed and do not need more than a few copies of any one page, the Epson will do a fine job. For those of us with laser printers without an envelope tray, the Epson's tray is very much appreciated and allows for printing large quantities of envelopes in a much shorter time.

For photographs, nothing I have found even comes close to the Olympus P-400, but the Epson 960 still produces very nice quality prints with excellent color tones. As with all bubble jets, lines will be noticeable which lessen the photo's quality, so be aware that even though your prints will be very nice looking, they will not have a photo-quality finish. Now that the price of the Olympus P-400 has dropped and is not much more expensive than the Epson 960, if your main goal is printing serious photographs, go with the Olympus.

Now, for the main reason I bought the 960, for printing on CDs, it's great! Beautiful! Yes, for everyone who wants to make CDs and DVDs with a professional finish, the 960 is *the* way to go. Two thumbs up for CD printing!

All in all, just like all printers, each will have its own advantages and disadvantages. The 960 is not real fast, but it's good, better than most bubble jets, and while photo printing isn't the best, it's much better than almost all others I have seen. The 960's strength is in its versitility of being able to do many different types of printing, and do them all very well. Just as with all products, no printer is perfect, there will always be little things to annoy different people, but overall the 960 is pretty decent. After shopping numerous different retailers, I ordered mine from Amazon simply because all of my past experiences with Amazon have always been trouble-free.

If I had to settle for just one printer, I would keep the 960.

This being my 6th printer I have ever owned, I have to say it's the best printer I've owned. There are a few minor things I'm not too crazy about, but with the right photo paper and resolution settings, the pic's come out "photo quality". The option for printing directly onto inkjet printable CD's was one of the reasons I bought this printer and I have to say the prints on the CD's come out GREAT! (I suggest going to CDW.com and purchasing the Verbatim inkjet printable CD's). The roll paper option that comes with this printer is also excellent, but there's literally nothing you can do to get out the "paper curl" that happens when printing off a roll. The only thing you really can do is put the pictures in an album and leave them there forever. Picture quality is excellent though.
Now onto the minor annoyances I have with this printer that prevented me from giving it 5 stars.
I'm not, and have never been, too crazy about the ink cartridge systems that Epson puts out. The cartridges come with a protective "covering" where the ink comes out (looks like plastic but I'm not sure) and when you first install them, the printer itself has to "drill through" the plastic when you first install the cartridge. The main problem with this is that sometimes it takes 2 or 3 times to run throught the whole head cleaning process to get the cartridge to open. When I first set up my 960, I installed all the ink cartridges (6 in all) and when I went to print, there was purple color on the page I printed where there was supposed to be blue. For some reason, the blue didn't print and it took me 4 times of going through the "head cleaning" process to get the blue to work. Although, after I did finally get it to work, the colors were excellent...
The other minor annoyance I have is that on certain photo paper, the Epson 960 didn't perform well at all. I've only really used 2 types of paper and both of them I purchased at Costco. They have a Kodak 100 pack "Premium High Gloss" photo paper for about 25 dollars, about 25 cents a sheet. They also have an Epson Glossy Photo paper for about 20 dollars for 100 sheets, about 20 cents a sheet. I guess it's true what they say about using the paper that is the same name as the printer. The Epson paper, which is cheaper, prints better pictures than the Kodak paper which is a better paper (both prints I did were at the 1440 dpi setting). The only way I was able to get a good print on the Kodak paper was to set the highest dpi setting (2880 dpi) and then I got a decent print. So basically, if you want good prints out of this printer you really need to stick with the Epson paper. I haven't tried the high gloss Epson paper yet since it's a bit expensive right now...the regular glossy Epson photo paper is a good choice...
And the last minor thing I need to say is the ink availability. It's strange but I was able to get the ink here at Amazon, but it was offered through "Office Depot". When I went to the local Office Depot here, they didn't have it and when I went to the Office Depot website, they didn't have it either. The only way I've found to get this ink is through Amazon via Office Depot (huh?)
Anyway, this printer, for the money, is probably the best photo printer you can buy for picture quality and versatility. I know there are other photo printers out there costing 2 and three times as much as this printer, but I can't see how much better pictures can print than what this printer puts out. Without a doubt, worth every penny!

I would give this a 4.5 if I could. I finally replaced my 1998 Epson Photo 700 printer with this one. Short of shelling out $600 for the Photo 2200 I decided on this one because I don't have a camera that can give me enough detail that can be printed on something larger than 8.5X11" paper can do. Even if I did decide on the Photo 2200 I would have to spend more for larger paper and subsequently more ink. I got the "best price of the season" from Amazon at $310 w/ free S&H. I buy a lot from Amazon so they upgraded me to 2 day fedex shipping for free (usually $23 to Hawaii). It came in a huge box that could hold 3 printers. The main gripes I have about this printer is that I have to put in attachments for specific media. When I want to print on roll paper I have to attached the roll to the back, the paper cutter on the front, and the catcher on the output tray. To print on regular paper or use the front feeder attachment I have to roll out the roller paper and detach everything. The paper cutter is fine but if I cancel a 35" panoramic picture it will cut it at 35" so I waste the rest of the paper unless I can print smaller pictures on the rest of that 35" later. Ink is hard to find but this printer is relatively new and most stores don't stock it yet.
You really save on ink on this printer. Ink capacity is huge compared to standard 1 color cartridge systems. I've been mainly using the paper roller to print out borderless 4X33"-35" long panoramics that Photoshop elements 2.0 and my Epson 3100z camera can do with stiching (not on OSX though). Try get custom panoramic sized prints at your photo lab or online photo site... Those come out fabulous and when I show people they say "wow" or "cool", esp. if they are HP, Cannon, or dare I say Lexmark users.
Print image matching works great. You have to really read the manual about color profiles or else you will get discolored prints that are useless.
I bought this printer mid-Sept. and it came with the CD printing carriage which I did not try out yet because inkjet printable CDs are hard to find.
Printing at 1440dpi is fine. You really can't tell the difference between lab processed photos and prints at 1440dpi, fast mode off, and on premium glossy photo paper. I suggest cold laminating prints you want to display indoors and want to last long. Hot lamination might warp colors. Prints in photo folders/albums last very long. My prints from 1998 still look great from my photo 700 in the photo albums on the standard glossy photo paper. Printer manual suggests drying for 24hrs before framing eventhough they are dry to the touch right after printing. I'll trust the manual sans destroying a great print.
I'm an avid digital media enthusiast but short of being a pro or pro-ameteur. After reading photo printer reviews for a year waiting to replace my photo700 this printer more than fits my requriements. Great media handling expands your creativity in the print world. 2 picolier prints on this printer is noticeably more detailed than my 4 picoliter photo 700 prints. I use it at home so printing speed is not an issue. I let it dry before laminating anyways so there is no rush. It is significantly faster that my photo 700.
This printer is a must for digital media enthusiasts like me that are willing to pay a bit more for a whole lot more quality and "shock and awe" prints. Can't wait to see what Epson will have when I'm looking to replace this printer in 4-5 years.
Just make sure you print often or else your print heads will clog, usually about once a week for me in Hawaii. Even just a little printing like a web page invoice of your cell phone bill, bank statements, etc...

After a lot of research, I decided to purchase the Epson Stylus Photo 960 as my first inkjet printer. I'm a web designer who also likes to take digital photos. But until I saw this printer at a trade show, I prefered to just email images. I didn't want to worry about the color matching, the dots or the noise I came to associate with most inkjet printers. Well, I didn't have to worry about any of that with this printer. For one, the color is just beautiful. Second, you would be hard pressed to see any dots (they're like 2 picoliters, which must be microscopic from my observation). And third, this baby is QUIET!!!

Mine just arrived yesterday and I'm still experimenting with various types of images, settings and papers. But I have to tell you: I'm very happy with my new personal photolab. It's the perfect accessory for my new 5 megapixel digital camera. And even images from my old 2 megapixel digital camera still look stunning in 4x6 size.

I'm looking forward to seeing what else this printer has to offer, like the CD/DVD printing capability and ability to print on thicker papers and cardstock. (Of the few papers I've used thus far, the Epson Heavyweight Matte seems to be my favorite. The Epson Heavyweight Matte is gorgeous too, but I prefer my most of my images to shine without the gloss.) This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship...between a designer and his printer.

I recently bought the EPSON Stylus Photo 960 right here from Amazon specifically for printing on discs. I am a Mac OS X Panther user. And, although there are many warnings about this or that not for Mac OS X, I was up and printing perfectly aligned discs within 10 minutes of opening the box !!

If you want to create professional looking CDs or DVDs, buy this printer NOW ! I've done the sticker thing and there is no comparison.

Aloha

I have almost always bought Epson printers for use with my Mac because I felt that the quality of the prints were great when the printer worked properly. The problems are unfortunately, numerous. First and formost with the 960 is the fact that local stores do not carry ink cartridges for it and when the printer runs out of ink, it won't print. In this regard, Epson forces you to keep a big stock of cartridges so you don't get stuck. This is problematic when all you want to print is a fax that uses only black ink but because your Light Cyan cartridge is out you can't print anything. The cartridges are insanely expensive as well and they don't last long. I might add that printing on CDs and DVDs is a hit and miss affair. Registration is haphazard. And try printing on the silver printable discs. Impossible. The ink just bleeds. And the ink sometimes "wrinkles up" on the white printable discs when it dries. Epson just doesn't have the bugs worked out on this one. Also, the printer drivers don't get updated soon enough to keep up with Macintosh OS upgrades. Epson software also often conflicts with just about everything from scanners to Photoshop to MS Word. After reading other people's comments on Epson products, I'm considering moving to another brand of printer. Epson printers are just too high maintenence.