The $200 (as of 10/25/2006) Epson Stylus Photo RX580 could appeal to many photo hobbyists due to its fast scanning and high-quality glossy photos. But users who need a general-purpose device will likely be let down by the RX580's subpar copies and prints on plain paper.
Epson Stylus Photo RX580 All-In-One Printer (30 PPM, 5760x1440 DPI, Color, PC/Mac)

Pricing
$239.99 - $249.00 From 2 Vendors Get Best Prices »
- Spec Navigator
- Media Handling
- Display
- Network
- Connectivity
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- Dimensions
- General Features
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- Included Hardware
- Included Software
- Resolutions
- Scanning
- Faxing
Media Handling
| Manual Feed Slot | Yes |
| Maximum Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum paper size, height | 1100.0 inches |
| Maximum Sheets With All Paper Trays | 120 |
| Standard Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum paper size, width | 8.5 inches |
| Standard input sheet capacity | 120 |
| Duplex printing | No |
Platform Support
| Operating System Support |
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General Features
| Printer Emulation Type | ECS/P Raster |
| Media slots |
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| PictBridge compatible | Yes |
Included Software
| Included Software |
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- Lab Tested
- How We Test Printers »
Pros
Prints directly onto CDs
Disappointing print quality
Cons
Archives to USB devices
Slow print speeds
Bottom Line
This model is easy-to-use but fails to offer any outstanding features to make up for its mediocre print quality.
Epson Stylus Photo RX580
Stylus Photo RX580 All-In-One Printer (30 PPM, 5760x1440 DPI, Color, PC/Mac) Review, by Paul Jasper December 20, 2006
The RX580's 2.5-inch color LCD sits in the middle of a simple but effective control panel. Below it, the two media slots accept all the common digital camera memory card formats. When you're printing from a memory card, the controls provide a variety of editing options, including cropping, red-eye removal, black-and-white and sepia effects, and greeting-card creation.
You can use the USB port to print directly from a PictBridge-compatible camera or flash drive; you also can connect a CD burner to archive images from a memory card. In addition, you can plug in an optional Bluetooth adapter--priced at a reasonable $40--for printing from a suitably equipped camera phone or PDA. An IrDA sensor lets you beam images from handheld devices with infrared transmitters.
The glass platen lets you scan pages up to letter size, though the unit offers neither an automatic document feeder nor film-scanning capabilities. You can load up to 120 sheets of paper in the upright feeder at the rear of the printer, but there is no second paper tray. The RX580 does, however, come with a special tray for printing directly onto blank CDs and DVDs--a unique feature. In the box you get ArcSoft's PhotoImpression photo management and editing package, but Epson supplies no OCR software.
The RX580 prints using six inks from individual cartridges, adding light cyan and light magenta to the typical three primary colors. On photo paper the RX580 produced sharp images with vibrant colors and good shadow detail. However, our judges noticed distinct banding among blue and green tones in one of our photos. Print quality on plain paper was disappointing: Text appeared slate gray, and the edges of characters were so jagged and fuzzy, they almost looked like dot-matrix-printer output. Line art was similarly grayish, with lots of horizontal banding and dotted diagonal lines. Photos printed on plain paper had dull and muddy colors, solid areas suffered occasional dropouts, and some strange pink banding appeared in places. The RX580's copy quality was equally dismal, earning a score of Poor; text looked very gray and fuzzy, making it difficult to read. Similarly, the model scored below the average for scan quality.
In our speed tests, text pages printed at just 3.9 pages per minute--about four times slower than the similarly priced Canon Pixma MP600 we also reviewed this month. Photo print speeds were more competitive, however. Photos printed at 2.8 ppm on plain paper, while our 5-by-7-inch test image on photo paper arrived in 45 seconds--both times were a little above average. The RX580 scans quickly, and completed our 4-by-5-inch test photo at 100 dots per inch in just 7.1 seconds (only the Canon MP960 was faster, at 6.2 seconds). On the other hand, plain-paper copies emerged at an unremarkable 2.4 ppm.
The Epson Stylus Photo RX580 looks nice and is easy to use, and its CD-printing feature is unique. Still, its limited paper handling and slow, poor-quality printing on plain paper limit its value as a general-purpose device.
Paul Jasper
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- Rating Breakdown
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66
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74
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80
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Printers
66
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82
82
Performance
| 300dpi Line Art Image (secs) | 19.54 |
| 4 by 6 Color Photo (secs) | 15.22 |
| 4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs) | 15.98 |
| Color Output Quality | Poor |
| Color Photo Quality | Very Good |
| Copy Output Quality | Poor |
| Copy Quality | Poor |
| Final Scan Time, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 17.99 |
| Final Scan Time, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 7.07 |
| Final Scan Time, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 8.51 |
| Grayscale Output Quality | Fair |
| Line Art Output Quality | Poor |
| One-Page Copy | 24.69 |
| One-Page Copy (secs) | 24.69 |
| One-Page Line Art, Maximum Resolution | Fair |
| One-Page Webpage (secs) | 24.91 |
| One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | Good |
| Overall Scan Quality | Fair |
| Preview Scan, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 6.97 |
| Preview Scan, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 6.85 |
| Preview Scan, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 7.31 |
| Sports Action Shot (secs) | 44.58 |
| Ten-Page Word Document | 202.53 |
| Ten-Page Word Document (secs) | 202.53 |
| Tested Color Speed (ppm) | 2.8 |
| Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) | 1.3 |
| Tested Grayscale Speed (ppm) | 3.8 |
| Tested Lineart Speed (ppm) | 3.1 |
| Tested Text Speed (ppm) | 3.9 |
| Text Output Quality | Poor |
| Three-Page Word Document | 53.77 |
| Three-Page Word Document (secs) | 53.77 |
| Total Scan Time, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 17.99 |
| Total Scan Time, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 7.07 |
| Total Scan Time, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 8.51 |
| Two-Page Excel Document | 45.69 |
| Two-Page Excel Document (secs) | 45.69 |
Scanning
| Preview scan, 2-by-2-inch document, 600 dpi | 6.97 |
| Preview scan, 4-by-5-inch document, 100 dpi | 6.85 |
| Preview scan, one-page Word document, 300 dpi | 7.31 |
| Preview scan, one-page Word document, 300 dpi | 7.31 |
Text Printing
| Text output quality | Poor |
Average User Reviews for Epson Stylus Photo RX580 All-In-One Printer (30 PPM, 5760x1440 DPI, Color, PC/Mac)
- Latest User Reviews 3 reviews
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Reviewed by: jthaynes06
Duration of ownership: 7 Months
Strengths: none
Weaknesses: Everything (Low quality printing, expensive ink, poor functionality, nozzle cleaning every single day)
Overall: Worst printer I've ever owned, does not live up to the epson quality. The most I print is 3 times a month and the ink has to be replaced every 2 months. 6 ink cartridges times $18.00 is not cheap. If just one ink cartridge is out will not allow you to print or clean nozzle. I should have stuck to a cheaper brand.
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Reviewed by: normans96
Duration of ownership: 14 Months
Strengths: none
Weaknesses: print quality, you have to do a nozzle clean before printing pictures.
Overall: The cd, dvd copy went out in mine two weeks ago and I have had little to no help from Epson to resolve this problem.
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Reviewed by: 123xyz
Duration of ownership: 4 Months
Strengths: Affordable all in one printer. Can get 6pk ink at BJs for about $70.
Weaknesses: If even one cartridge is out of ink all functions cease. You can't use the scanner and you can't view pictures from your camera card. Also if one color cartidge is out of ink you can't even print in black. This uses alot of ink. Needed to scan a document to my pc to email for business, but with no ink there is no function.
Overall: If you keep extra ink cartridges around, then this printer is fine. You always need to have a backup or nothing works. Don't get an extended warranty plan if your store provides it....not worth it. When this one dies, I will get an HP. It functions without ink.
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
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Reviewed by: astromonsterrr
Strengths: Has a scanner
Weaknesses: Low quality printing, expensive ink, poor functionality
Overall: This is the worst printer I've ever owned. It's so bad that while I've never reviewed a product online in my life, I specifically looked for a website I could review it on to warn others about it.The print quality is inexcusably bad. If you don't print a couple of pages daily, you have to clean the printer head after every use. Even if you do print a couple of documents a day, it'll at least screw up the last few. It's worked like that since day one.For such low quality, the inks are unjustifiably expensive. And if one color runs out, even if it's just like Light Magenta, you can't print anything until you replace it. Even if you aren't using that color, or only care about legibility, you're just done. It's put me in a bind plenty of times.I guess the scanner works fine, but I'd prefer my printer to function best in, you know, printing. I wish I still had my $20 Canon.
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Reviewed by: ryuhas
Strengths: Few. It's small and combines a lot of functionality.
Weaknesses: It doesn't seem to do anything well. The colors do not appear balanced.
Overall: I've compared photo prints that I've done on other printers and this one often shows black as brown and has a rather murky quality to it. If you are a photographer, you're not going to like this one. Eventually, this one developed a streak about a quarter down the page that distorted the text from left to right. There is no fix for it that I can find in any help file. Ink has been hard to find, and expensive, since I bought this printer. It goes through cartridges like Kleenex.
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Reviewed by: melodiccadenza
Strengths: I originally purchased this printer because I had seen a lot of nice things done with it. It supports a variety of papers and it\\\\\\\'s 6 tone colors give prints a wonderful quality.
Weaknesses: If your printer does not work properly, be prepared for a hellish customer service experience. Their online help guide did not solve my problems, nor did e-mail. No weekend hours for phone support.
Overall: I purchased a refurbished all-in-one printer from Epson. (Silly me, I thought it was safer buying it from Epson\\\\\\\'s website.) The first printer installed okay, but all it\\\\\\\'s actions were very, very slow and it could not print text documents without large gaps in the text. Oddly enough, it printed photos very slowly, but well.Their online support was not helpful and when I attempted to contact via e-mail, I got a standard response that listed the same steps from their webpage. It was like no one had even bothered to read my e-mail! I had to wait several day to call by phone because their hours are from 6am-6pm pacific time. Monday-Friday only, no hours on the weekend. When I called, I was able to by-pass the phonetech\\\\\\\'s attempts to make me to all of it again (nozzle check, head cleaning, exc.) and set up a new printer to be sent to me.I just received the new printer, but this one does not scan correctly. Again, the website and their user guides are no help to me. I will have to wait until the weekdays to call and begin the whole process again.I highly doubt I\\\\\\\'ll be buying Epson anything in the future. I don\\\\\\\'t think it is too much to ask that a product works when I take it out of the box.
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Reviewed by: keyonman
Strengths: works with Windows Vista 64 bit. Prints nice pictures. Scanner works as copier without computer. The CD/DVD print feature is really nice.
Weaknesses: Uses ink like crazy. No cable included in the package.
Overall: I bought this all-in-one printer so that I can use the scanner and the CD/DVD cover feature on a windows 64 bit machine. So far so good but I wish that it doesn't use ink as much. The good thing is you can use generic/off brand ink on this printer unlike the newer Epson printers.
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Reviewed by: SILBER21
Strengths: All In One / Ultra Hi-Definition / Prints CD/DVD
Weaknesses: n/a for the price / pricey ink (as always) OEM
Overall: Really nice All In One machine - photo prints are very nice for a low priced printer - it is compact and has a small footprint - small color LCD is a nice touch as well - have not tried CD print feature, but the capability of it adds to AIO features - I would not call this AIO the best - but for the cost of this machine it might beat the rest of AIO - serves as described - recommend!
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