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EPSON VERSUS HEWLETT PACKARD PRINTERS

Gavin Haines

Gavin.Haines@tesco.net

We have had one HP printer and two Epson printers. The original Epson was the Stylus Color 740 and that went wrong, so we replaced it with the Stylus Photo 870. The HP printer was a PaintWriter XL which worked with our original 68k Mac.

We bought Epson instead of HP mainly because Epson was cheaper for a comparable machine.

So which make of printer should you buy?

The first question you need to ask is: Can I get ink cartridges for it? Sometimes, when a printer is very cheap it is because the manufacturer has discontinued it. Cartridges may only continue to be available until stocks are exhausted.

Check to see that ink carts are available for purchase *before* buying the printer! In the case of the Photo 870, I found that the carts could be purchased along with the shopping in a local supermarket.

Are the carts more expensive or cheaper than the rival manufacturer for the quantity of ink?

Do you need a printer which prints permanent documents - e.g. for legal work? Some printers can only print in washable ink.

So the next question you need to ask is : Does the printer use permanent or washable ink? Test: wet your finger and touch the printout.

The earliest HP Deskjet series used an oil based ink which tended to clog the printhead. This problem has now been solved with a heating element in the printhead. Some HP printers, like the Paintjet, used a spirit-based ink.

Most if not all HP printers print in permanent ink. Those that use oil-based ink produce a dense black which looks like printer's ink.

Epson printers use a water-based ink. A drawback of this is that if you use it to print addresses on envelopes and then you go to the post box on a wet day, and it rains on your post, the address can wash off. I know because it happened to me once!

Epson printouts definitely fade with time, particularly if they are exposed to strong light. Printouts from more recent Epsons are guaranteed not to fade for ten years or more.

I think if you intend to archive permanent digital photos, then it is worth spending a bit more on a printer.

Some printers will take a larger quantity of blank sheets of paper and can print onto cards and envelopes. Others cannot.

Some printers can only produce the best quality output on special papers.

Is special paper for the machine you are contemplating buying very expensive?

Will the printer print onto any paper, such as old typing paper you happen to have in a drawer?

The Epsons can print on to any paper. The HPs are more limited in the types of paper on which they can produce good quality results. The Epsons have an easy paper-loading system - just put the paper into the top of the machine. The HPs have more complex paper-loading arrangements and some of them can print on both sides of the paper.

I have found our Epson cannot take a stack of envelopes without jamming and it is necessary to feed the machine by hand, an envelope at a time. It will print on card.

How quickly can you get a printout? The Epson has an irritating re-inking cycle which you often have to wait for.

The HP printing system has the print head as a part of the cartridge, so it means that this element is replaced every time a new cart is installed. Print quality remains fairly consistent for the life of the printer.

The Epson system uses a "printhead cleaning cycle", which has to be invoked by the user who notices a decline in print quality. The cart goes along to the right hand side and rubs up against a pad which is inside the machine. I found on the Stylus Color 740 that the pad became saturated with ink and I had to soak up the excess ink with tissues. The Photo870 is much improved in this respect and it is only necessary to execute a cleaning cycle once in a while.

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