I really love this printer. I purchased my first one over a year ago from an office supply place in town. I had gone there to purchase new cartridges for my R220 and found out I could buy this R260 (with cartridges) for only about $10 more(on sale). Before I switched to Epson I swore by HP. The main thing that I switched for was the capability to print CD's. Then I compared the two for picture printing. Actually there was no comparison, Epson won hands down!!

Then I discovered E-bay! I then purchased four more R260's for future use. I strongly feel the R260 is much, much better than either the R200 or R220. I would definitely suggest to anyone who prints a lot to invest in a CISS and save a fortune in Ink Cartridges. I have one and I haven't spent much more than $100 for ink in the last year. (about what one full set of cartridges cost)

My only gripe is that the CD's take about 2 minutes to print. But when they come out they are great, so it's worth it. I use Matte Silver and White Full C overage discs with printer settings for Premium Discs and Kodak 3 Star Gloss Photo paper for the Case Inserts. However, I do use Epson Premium Gloss Photo Paper for regular photos.

All in all, The Epson R260 and E-Bay have a 5+ Gold Star Rating from me.

colburner

This is a great photo printer. Excels at producing sharp & vivid prints.
Like most Epsons it has separate inks for 6 colors. No Black & White option though. Outboard ink systems available.
Very touchy about cartridges - new "chips" prevent most 3rd party inks.
Color palette is closer to Fuji films than Kodak films. As good as most dye-sub printers.
Produces its best using better quality paper.
Excellent software for PC & MAC and decent drivers available for Linux/CUPS
While it doesn't have some of the features of larger and/or more expensive printers it does one thing really well - great pictures.
Setup, even in Linux, was a breeze and Epson's on-line help is excellent.
The ink cartridges were bad in my box - got a new set expressed shipped from Epson.
The only problem I can see is that it needs to be used at least a couple of times a week to prevent clogging.
All and all a nice replacement printer.

We are a professional production house that creates a lot of original DVD/CD Disk artwork. The Epson R260 produces very high quality proofs and disk work. It can print a high res (1200 dpi) full color disk graphic in about 3 minutes per disk. It is very easy to use (comes with software for both the mac and pc.) It is compatible with older mac operating systems. You can buy recycled (refilled) replacement ink cartridges for about $3 each on ebay. Compare that with $26 each for an HP cartridge at Staples. One full set of ink can print about 100 - 120 disks, so even at 100 disks, the six ink cartridge set will end up costing about 3 cents per disk for graphics printing. Excellent value for the money.

Fabulous color. Faster than any previous inkjet printer I have owned. DVD's and CD's look absolutely great when printed on the R260. The printer does not use much ink when printing CD/DVD but if you print photos on glossy photo paper in "best" mode, it WILL use a LOT. So far I have been able to find genuine Epson ink 6-packs for about $35, which is about half of what Epson will charge you for the same ink. But Epson does not lie when they sing the praises of their Claria ink, and nanojet technology. It's Awesome!

I bought this printer to use for printing cd,s I have A R 300 photo printer for my photos but must say this printer is as good if not better I bought this cheap on E bay and tried it out for A week then decided to print some photos on my computer I use 4 diferent photo editors and can change almost everything so printing an unedited photo with this printer I was not expecting great things to happen BUT! to my amasment it did do A verry good job printing photos and cd,s this is another great printer from epson and if you have done your homework and checked out the people who writ reviews on epson you will see why this companey beats all the others you can print verry cheap with epson inks about one halfe or less than the others -canon was the last of the printers to compeat but then they chipped there carts and they can be refilled but when the carts quit working you are forced to buy canons carts OEM the other companies can not sell the chips-- allso I use maney different typs of photo papper so as we who print lots of photos know you must set up each to its thickness and type to get the desired results I am so tired of hearing from people writing reviews and stating that only one papper can be used for printers what A bunch of 3,;x dont these people know how to read any papper can be used in any printer as long as it is thick enough to catch the rollers correctly and if set up as A person likes will print exelent photos do your reserch befor buying any printer check the cost of refilling check the cost of cartridges and you WILL BUY AN EBSON

Originally, I bought this printer as a used unit to be used solely for printing imprintable dvd's. So far, that's a work in progress. I have done some cardstock printing and that turned out nice. This printer's lifesblood is six color cartridges that run about $15 each from Epson; on the generic market a R260 compatible cartridge set goes for $20 for all six including shipping. The software that came with the R260 was for earlier Windows versions, not my Vista; but Epson does provide a downloadable version and that's how I got the R260 to do cardstock printing. However, CD/DVD printing requires separate software that is not downloadable. Therefore, I had to order a Windows Vista software disk from Epson for $10 to get the CDPrint software that was a part of it. As of now, it's still in the envelope.

When I get back to it, I assume I'll have to uninstall the downloaded version and then load the Vista disk that will include the necessary CDPrint software. Then I'll be capable of both paper printing and disk imprinting. It's been somewhat of a hassle so far, but I have to say that Epson's support website and their live support have been quite helpful. I certainly don't regret buying the Epson; I just need to stick with jumping thru the technical hoops until it's fully workable.

I have had many many printers and this printer and the R380 print 4X6 digital photos as good as I have ever done. But I give it a 4 because Epson caused the Federal Trade Commission to ban all imported ink cartridges,(not OEM), that are compatible with Epson. My point being the OEM Ink is too expensive.I spent hours checking all the inkjet websites for compatiable R260/R380 refills to no avail. All said,"Not Available at this time."

I bought it brand new on 11/17/2007. On 1/4/2008 Ebay sent me an email asking for writing a review. If I did that day I would say it's a great printer, for that price.

But today, 1/11/2008, the printer is dead, totally, with the red light on, indicating the ink cartridge is not recognized, although it is the original from Epson.

When you got something new, opened the box, plugged in, test it working and working better than what you already have. WOW, cool, you write a 5-start review right away. This makes manufactures don't care about how durable the product is anymore.

Don't write 5-star review too soon.

It would be a good idea if a person can change the review he/she put online late.

Electronics today are like toys, fancy, and will break up easily. If they don't break, how can we get new toys?

It's time for me to find a new toy now... Just don't want my wife to know that I need another printer. This is the fifth printer I bought in 2007, after my Canon Pixma 780 break up after six months use. After that I hated inkjet printers. So I bought a Canon all-in-one, laser, double sided. But my kid needs color for school work so I bought an Epson RX600 all-in-one from Epson online store, refurbished. It was not working. They sent me another one, again, not working. The third RX600 they sent to me worked with a little feeding problem but I didn't want to return it any more. Late I needed a print that can print CD/DVD which is this one.

This actually turned out to be an R280, the updated R260.

Like most Epson Stylus Inkjets this one is top drawer in the price range,easy to use and exceptional color reproduction on photos and other work.

It was picked as a Best Buy in the current issue of Consumer Reports magazine

I use it primarily to print color labels on CD's, and make CD jackets from scans and it works like a charm.

Can use other than Epson (less expensive) ink with good results

the print quality was good and the speed as well, and the pics came out good. the only problem, and i just got off the phone with the help desk for epson, is that it only lasted one year, give or take a month. i have kept ours clean and covered when not in use. the amount of papers that i have put through it is about 5-600 and not to many pics. the bulk is for school work. im not to happy with the life cycle, as the person on the phone told me from epson, bugs have longer life cycles than one year for petes sake. you just cant buy quality and longevity any more, you must be rich enough to keep spending money on new printers every year, and ink and paper. good old american know how, where is it these days, i sure know how to buy someone else products. im not sure who but i'll research it again like i did with this one on consumers reports.
oh well.

I like the price of this printer and the functions it has for the price compared to some other brands. It has some faults like the print head starts getting clogged after a bout a year of normal use and even sooner if it is left on and not used for several days. I know how to service it and get it working again since I have 2 of these printers and have had 2 of the previous model. I did start saving money by using a continuous ink tank system which costs me about 30 to 50 dollars a year to fill with ink where the factory ink cartridges cost around 65 dollars more or less depending where they are purchased. Also Epson has built in firmware in this printer that causes an error message to pop up after the printer cycles X number of times and says that a component in the printer has reached it's life expectancy and then the printer will not print. They do have a downloadable small program on the Epson Support web site that resets this and allows it to continue to work but, you should read the notice on the website before downloading, installing, and running this program. I have run this on 3 printers now without problems.

Bruce S.
Waltonville, IL

What I like the most with this printer is that it can print directly to cd's with a printable surface and put out regular documents as well and print on 4x6 photo paper all in 6 colors that wont fade or smudge the thing that I dislike about the printer is that its very large compaired to other printers

I have had several Epson printers in the past, but this Epson Stylus Photo R260 far surpass those in print quality and performance. I will be more than happy to recommend this printer to anyone.

Wanted to print on cd or dvd. This unit works great for that application. The price for what I wanted it for made me decide to purchase. So far I am very pleased with the performance of this printer. I prefer Epson printers for all my printing needs.

I bought one of the Epson R260 printers for the capability to print on CD's and DVD's. I also found out that you can use one of the CIS ink systems which I purchased and can't believe how long the ink is lasting plus the quality is incredible!! I have a T-Shirt business and this printer works BEYOND great for transfers!!!!

Likes - Individual ink cartridges, front loading of disks, don't have to unload the paper to print disks. Included software very easy to use.

Only dislike - Epson Print CD software has very limited selection of backgrounds and clipart.

I have recommended them to all of my associates who ask about printing disks and no one has been disappointed.

This is a great printer. Terrific Quality. There are a few more ink cartridges 6 in all. And since the model is fairly new, the reman cartridges can be hard to find.

I've purchase the refillable cartridges to save money.

Overall this printer is easy to use, quiet and delivers great quality photos!

IT DOES A GOOD JOB OF PRINTING,BUT IT USES AND WASTE TO MUCH INK.THE INK IS OVERPRICED AND EXPENSIVE.I HAD TO FIND AN ALTERNATIVE.MY PRINTER THAT I HAD WAS UNRELIABLE SO I WENT LOOKING FOR ANOTHER.I ALSO WANTED ONE THAT COULD PRINT ON CD,S BECAUSE LABLES CAN CAUSE PROBLEMS WITH CD PLAYERS.THE PRINTER WORKS GOOD BUT IS EXPENSIVE TO USE OR WAS UNTIL I ADDED A CISS INK SYSTEM.SO BY THE TIME I BOUGHT INK AND ALL THE PRODUCTS I NEEDED I SPENT WELL OVER 100.00 BUCKS 3 TIMES WHAT THE PRINTER COST.IN THE LONG RUN IT WAS WORTH IT.BUT IT HAS HAD MANY PROBLEMS THAT HAD TO BE WORKED OUT.


SINCERELY JEFF DICKERSON

The ink cartridges are not as costly as other printers so I get the same quality photos for about half the price as my other printer.

This is a very good entry type level printer that is robust and reliable. I've used a few of them and have been very pleased. The DVD printing and the ability to use aftermarket external ink tanks (CIS) make this an excellent buy. Although not super fast, printing quality is very good to excellent. Recommended.

If I knew then, what I know now about this printer, I would not have bid on it. This printer is the LOUDEST and NOISIEST printer that I have ever heard. I don't see how EPSON stays in business, I will never buy another EPSON Product.

The Eposon R260 printer is an excellent printer for photographs delvering crisp and color rich photos at half the time. I love it. The deliveryof my oder was fast too!

It is very difficult to write a review about something that I never received.
So that said I am not sure why this was sent to me. I love Epson printers. They usually are much better then Lexmark which allows other companies to put there name on there product.

I love this printer. I replaced a HP Photo printer with this one. It prints great on cd/dvd's.I initially bought it for this purpose, but after using it, decided to remove my HP prinetr and use this one for my photo printing also. So far, I have no problems or complaints with it