WHAT'S HOT: Epson's Stylus Photo 960's design is very similar to that of the more expensive Stylus Photo 2200, but the 960's paper carriage can handle paper no larger than 8.5 inches wide. On the other hand, it costs $349, rather than $699. Like the 2200, the 960 has plenty of paper-handling goodies, including a spindle attachment for feeding rolls of 4- or 8.5-inch-wide paper, plus an automatic paper cutter and a sling that catches finished snapshots when they're done. You don't have to empty the 960's cut-sheet paper tray to operate the paper cutter, as you do with the 2200; to print on heavy stock, however, you have to attach a special feeder that blocks the 960's ordinary output tray (the 2200 feeds straight through from the back).

The 960 is like the 2200 in another important way: It produces superb glossy photos, with lifelike color, good shading, and fine detail. And because it uses ordinary black ink, the 960's text looks somewhat better--the black is more solid, though it still shows a little roughness in larger letters.

WHAT'S NOT: The 960 uses dye-based inks instead of pigmented inks, which may reduce the longevity of its prints. Also, it doesn't print narrow lines well at all, producing overlapping blobs and voids instead. Though it delivers reasonable-quality text, it does so at only 2.5 ppm--at the lower end of the photo printers we've tested.

WHAT ELSE: The Stylus Photo 960 holds seven inks like the Stylus Photo 2200 does, but instead of light and regular blacks, the 960 simply has two ordinary black cartridges--in effect, you get a reserve tank for when you print lots of text. Also like the 2200, the 960 lacks an on-board LCD as well as slots for flash-media cards. Their printers' ink cartridges cost the same: $12 for color and monochrme.

UPSHOT: If you want to print digital photos by the roll and don't need poster-size prints, the 960 can save you a big chunk of change over the Epson Stylus 2200.

SUMMARY

Epson Stylus Photo 960 Rated 6 ppm for text, 2880-by-1440-dpi maximum resolution, 100 sheets input, 30 output. $349 800/463-7766 www.epson.com