Quantcast
PCWorld.com is upgrading some back-end systems. Some site features, such as user registration, may be temporarily unavailable.
Subscribe to magazine

NEW Reviews Beta Feedback

Get Printers updates
  • Print

Epson Stylus Photo R260 Inkjet Printer (30 PPM, 5760x1440 DPI, Color, PC/Mac)

79

Good
  • Pros
  • Prints on CD/DVD media
  • Nice photo quality on glossy paper
  • Cons
  • Slow at printing text
  • Disappointing plain-paper print quality
thumb 1

Epson Stylus Photo R260 Inkjet Printer (30 PPM, 5760x1440 DPI, Color, PC/Mac) Review

by Melissa Riofrio

Glossy photo prints and CD and DVD printing are great, but slow, mediocre-quality plain-paper printing narrows this printer's appeal.

Except for its ability to print on CD and DVD media, Epson's Stylus Photo R260 might melt into a crowd of generic photo printers. For some users, however, this bonus will outweigh the unit's speed and print-quality shortcomings.

  • Would You Buy This?
  • 0Yes
  • 0No

Got a Hot Tip?

Seen news about this product? Send us a link.

Using the Stylus Photo R260 to print on CD or DVD media is fairly easy: You flip a lever to adjust the output-tray level, carefully slide the CD and its special tray into the input tray, and then print. The disc will need at least 30 minutes to dry. Epson's documentation, which you must read beforehand, misses a few details but is essentially reliable. The company provides software for designing the labels, as well.

The Stylus Photo R260 uses Epson's Claria six-color, dye-based ink system (consisting of black, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan, and light magenta ink cartridges). Graphics and photos printed promptly, but text came out at the relatively anemic rate of 3.9 pages per minute. Photos printed on glossy paper looked very good; on plain paper, however, the same images looked faded and fuzzy, and text suffered from noticeable feathering and lightness.

The Stylus Photo R260's design mixes simple with tricky. Its control panel has three big buttons, but the symbolic labels were inscrutable to me. The lever on the input tray for switching between regular and CD/DVD printing is unmarked despite being essential to the machine's function--and finicky as well, to judge from all the warnings in the HTML documentation and printed manual.

The Stylus Photo R260 is built for pleasure rather than for business--excelling at CD/DVD and glossy-paper printing, but stumbling on plain-paper printing.

Melissa Riofrio

User Reviews for Epson Stylus Photo R260 Inkjet Printer (30 PPM, 5760x1440 DPI, Color, PC/Mac)

  • Reviewed by: westslw

    Duration of ownership: 2 Months

    Strengths: N/A

    Weaknesses: ALWAYS had to restet the printer after printing onto dvd. lights would always flash. DVD tray would always get stuck or get kicked out. if one ink cartridge was empty, printing was restricted. continued to get error message that ink was empty when new cartridge was installed

    Overall Evaluation: RUN AWAY FROM THIS PRINTER! i have sinced returned it and purchased another.

  • Reviewed by: kidpower

    Duration of ownership: 2 Months

    Strengths: Image Quality is outstanding.

    Weaknesses: None really. Have printed a couple hundred 8 by 10's. Ink costs run a little more than my R200.

    Overall Evaluation: I have the R200 and R260 setup side by side. My old R200 is excellent, but the prints from the R260 are outstanding. As far as operation goes, it functions pretty much exactly like the R200. I use it strictly as a photo printer. Once you have the right parameters and profiles, coupled with the highest quality paper, the prints are stunning.

See all user reviews

People who looked at the Epson Stylus Photo R260 Inkjet Printer (30 PPM, 5760x1440 DPI, Color, PC/Mac) also looked at:

Latest Printers Playing in PCW Video

More Latest Printers Playing in PCW Video ยป

Latest Printers News, Reviews, How-To's

  • Apple Posts Snow Leopard Printer Driver Updates If printer drivers for Snow Leopard set your heart a-racing, then Christmas arrived a month ahead of schedule. Apple posted printer updates for Canon, Brother...
  • Five Tips for Better Photo Printing Follow these five tips to get the best prints from your photo printer or inkjet.
  • Dell Touts 'world's Fastest Office Laser Printer' On Tuesday Dell announced the 5130cdn ($1549), a workgroup color laser printer that the company claims is the "world's fastest single function letter-size office...
  • Don't Let Your Printer Suck Your Wallet Dry Some printers charge exorbitant prices for their replacement ink or toner. Here are seven printers worth avoiding--and four much cheaper alternatives.
  • Internet-connected Printers While printers are important hardware devices, they really aren't all that exciting, and it's getting more difficult to figure out what makes each printer stand...

Best Prices on Epson Stylus Photo R260 Inkjet Printer (30 PPM, 5760x1440 DPI, Color, PC/Mac)

Best Prices on Epson Stylus Photo R260 Inkjet Printer (30 PPM, 5760x1440 DPI, Color, PC/Mac)

Best Prices on Ink & Toner

See all Ink & Toner

Best Prices on Paper

See all Paper