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 (4 star rating)
My Use of the C88 for Printing Slides and Photos
I've printed a few documents with PowerPoint slides and a half-dozen or so pictures on the C88. So far I am satisfied, although not thrilled, with the results. Slides and small pictures with text printed on plain paper in "text and picture" mode resulted in clear images that did not appear to have washed-out colors. The images did not appear grainy or include any other artifacts that would distract from the appearance of the image. However, when I printed larger photos (4" x 6" or larger) on plain paper, I did notice that the images were not as clear and the colors sometimes started to look washed-out. The level of detail when printing larger photos on plain paper was just not there - the edges were not completely smooth and I found the images to look grainy.
Printing larger photos on glossy photo-quality paper produced much better results. The images looked clearer and I did not notice any graininess. The colors were consistently vivid and natural looking, and I am happy with the results. I would be much happier, however, if I could get the same level of quality using plain paper.
I found the "border-free" print option to be useful for printing photos. This option allows you to print pictures in typical frame sizes - 4" x 6", 5" x 7" and 8" x 10". Once you finish printing, the pictures can be easily framed or added to your photo album.
The noise level when printing slides and photos is essentially the same as when printing text.
Again, I was disappointed with the speed of the C88. It took over 3 minutes to print just one of my 5" x 7" photos! Once you start the print job you can take a bathroom break, go get a snack and give your mom a call - and still make it back to the computer in plenty of time to see your photo print job finishing. Sheesh!
Conclusion
Overall, I am satisfied with the Epson C88 Inkjet. At a reasonable cost, it provides high quality text and photo printing with useful print options. Separate ink cartridges allow you to purchase replacement ink only as needed. So far it has provided a lot of text printing without using a whole lot of ink, which is definitely a plus for those people who print a lot of plain documents. The major drawback I would cite is the slow print speed, although this is not a big issue for me since I do not do a whole lot of printing. It has performed reliably so far, and based on my positive experiences with Epson, I am hopeful that it will continue to print reliably in the future.
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