Epson Stylus C64 review

Designed for homes and small offices, the C64 is an all-round printer that Epson reckons is just as good at outputting text documents as it is at high-quality photos.

This, Epson says, is because it uses DuraBrite inks, which Epson claims are smudge-proof, giving you good results on plain paper as well as on pricey, specialist photo paper. Alas, we found the C64 suffered from the same problem as any inkjet printer with plain paper - the ink runs before it's had time to dry, so text looks rough and spidery.

Text quality was improved significantly when we switched to Text & Image mode instead of just Text, but this slowed things down somewhat.

Despite Epson's claims that the C64 is capable of printing 17 pages per minute (ppm), we only managed to get it to do 11ppm, even in Draft mode. And then, quality suffered noticeably. In standard Text mode, it ran at a painfully slow 3ppm, and in Text & Image mode (which provides the best text output), it printed at a rate of less than 2ppm.

The C64 also claims a maximum resolution of 5,760dpi, even though the human eye can only discern about 1,200dpi. With resolution this high, you'd expect photos to look incredible. In reality, they were only reasonable. Colours were extremely accurate, even in shadows, and skin tones were well reproduced.

Even on glossy photo paper, we found the dots were clearly visible, making the images look less sharp than they otherwise might have done. This is rectified to some extent by using Epson's DuraBrite paper, but the image is still less than ideal. If Epson's claims about its DuraBrite inks are to believed, you really shouldn't need to use specialist paper to get good results.

Despite the fact that we felt a bit let down, both by its quality and speed, the C64 does have some redeeming features. It's exceptionally quiet, and the driver software is very well designed and thought out. The basic interface is simple, but provides all the options most users will need. You can also switch to an advanced mode if you require. There are also plenty of extra options such as the ability to do borderless prints, multiple pages per sheet, and poster printing. A reasonable printer - but far from outstanding.

Author: Mike Hirschkorn