Epson Stylus Photo R1900 user reviews

Pros Good speed, good paper options, excellent color prints, for home / small office use price for printer and supplies is acceptable .

Cons Ink is hard to find locally, setup not intuitive on Mac.

Summary I use a Mac running 10.4, print using Photos Shop Elements. First few prints not good until I re-read documentation for both products. Implemented suggested settings (let Elements control printing) and use Epson papers exclusively. Results are excellent. I use Premium Photo Paper Glossy 4x6 and 8x10 for borderless prints. My use is to print home / family shots taken with a Panasonic 8 mega-pixel digital camera, shots are printed with the camera's embedded color profile.

Problem has been noted about printer not recognizing replacement ink cartridges, have not had this problem but I turn printer off and on to have it read the new inks. Have not had any problems with the Mac and the printer utility program that reads ink levels and performs other printer functions such as cleaning and alignment. Here again, if changes have been made to the printer, such as replacing inks, I cycle the printer power and restart the utility program.

Did have to go in and create a profile for plain-paper use on my Mac G4. Make sure Use Gloss Optimizer is turned off in this profile.

Granted, I don't print for commercial or gallery applications. I print for family and friends, plus occasional work for the business I work for. For this type of application the output of the R1900 is excellent and cost effective. The initial set-up took some trial-and-error printing and a careful look at the various settings available through both the printer driver and Photoshop Elements printing functions, but once through that I have been very impressed with the quality of the prints I get. I have standardized on Epson papers for best results, having tried HP and Kodak papers as well.

On the Mac set-up, I first go to Page Setup. select the printer, paper type, and orientation, then use the Print function from Elements to use the correct profile - Plain paper or Standard - then Print to set the number of copies and other options. Note: The "Fit On Page" option will do some auto cropping, if you have already cropped the image you may loose some area. I've taken to a bit looser cropping to avoid this.

The printer is a tool, and like most tools, requires some work and experience to get the best out of it. I am now to the point where I load the paper of choice, bring up my photos to print, make a couple selections in the print process (profile and quantity) and sit back while the R1900 produces excellent 4x6 or 8x10 prints.

Granted I am not a power user. However, if you have the patience to set up the printer properly it will work as advertised. I would recommend the R1900 for families who takes a lot of digital shots and are looking for high-quality output. This printer is probably capable of much more than I ask of it, but I am a very satisfied user after the 4 months or so I have had it, and have printed about 100 each 4x6 photos and another 50 or so 8x10 prints. I also use the printer for my daily print needs, letters and so on.

Remembering back to my darkroom days when printing CibaChrome from transparencies, I never dreaded one day I could get this kind of quality from a desktop printer. Unless you have extremely demanding printing requirements, the R1900 is a good choice for small volume printing, but does require patience to set up and configure for best results.

Pros Fantastic glossy out-put! Prints look like they came from the lab - skin tone is excellent. Very smooth printing. Looking forward to many years of photo printing with this unit. I use Red River papers and they work excellent together.

Cons None thus far. Maybe larger ink cartridges (?) although I recently read that Epson used the smaller ink cartridges because for the hobbyist who might not use as much ink as the professional, and the smaller tanks keeps the inks "fresher".

Summary Recently purchased this unit to replace my Epson 1400. The skin tones and colors are superb on this printer. I got a great deal on it - $404 with an additional $150 rebate! It is nearly $300 less than regular price! Couldn't resist.

Pros I grew progressively dissatisfied with the quality of photos printed by my HP Photosmart. The Epson R-1900 produces prints equal to those of a photo lab.

Cons Very little. Set-up was a snap. I do believe, however, that Epson should have included a USB cable (or cables) in its carton.

Summary This printer exceeds my expectations in the quality of photographs it yields.

Updated on Nov 11, 2009

Like most printer-makers, Epson insists its own photo paper will produce better prints than any other. It's not true. I've printed the same photos on Epson Premium Glossy, HP Glossy, and Office Depot Professional and there is no perctible difference between any of them.

Updated on Nov 11, 2009

NOTE: I ordered this printer from Staples on-line. When I opened the carton I found the envelopes holding the ink cartridges were empty. I immediately e-mailed Staples and objected that I had been sent a used (perhaps demo) printer. Staples apologized and had an "exchange" (or replacement) printer delivered to my door the next business day. That service, plus the $150 rebate and I am a happy buyer.

Pros Solid, sturdy printer. Prints both text and photos superbly. Color prints are bright, sharp, and almost perfect. The $150 rebate makes this printer a steal.

Cons Expensive ink cartridges.

Summary I highly recommend this printer to both professionals and semi-pros. A great replacement for the Epson 1280.