Epson Announces Photo Printer Under $200 - Prints Directly Onto CDs and DVDs

April 16, 2003--Epson is introducing the first photo printer under $200 that has the capability to print directly onto CDs and DVDs without adhesive labels. The EPSON Stylus Photo 900 is Epson's latest addition to its award-winning photo printer line and is the second printer in the line to include the technology for printing directly onto ink-jet printable CDs and DVDs. At this remarkably low price, this technology is now more affordable and convenient than ever before.

CDs and DVDs have become the preferred media for storing digital data, digital photos, digital music, and digital video. As the demand for these storage media has grown, a need has emerged for a technology that enables digital enthusiasts to safely and creatively label their growing collection of CDs and DVDs. The EPSON Stylus Photo 900 is the perfect solution for these digital enthusiasts because it allows them to print directly onto ink-jet printable CD-R or DVD-R media right at home with personalized text, graphics and photos. The EPSON Stylus Photo 900 is also ideal for amateur photographers due to its incredible photo printing capabilities on Epson papers.

"With the introduction of the EPSON Stylus Photo 900, Epson continues to lead the ink-jet printing industry with affordable printers that have innovative technology," said Parker Plaisted, product manager, photo imaging. "Whether you print customized CDs, print photos, or print everyday documents, the EPSON Stylus Photo 900 offers a complete printing solution for your digital lifestyle."

Printing Photos with the EPSON Stylus Photo 900
The EPSON Stylus Photo 900 provides a great deal of functionality, without sacrificing image quality. Epson's superior 6-color Photo Ink system, with up to 5760 x 720 optimized dpi and ultra-fine 4 picoliter ink droplets, delivers prints that look like traditional photos. With the EPSON Stylus Photo 900, customers can print high-quality photos at home without expensive photo lab fees or reprint charges. Users also are able to make more prints per cartridge with the printer's large capacity color ink cartridge.

This printer also offers PRINT Image Matching (P.I.M.) II and Exif Print support, making it easy to get great prints automatically from P.I.M. and Exif 2.2 enabled digital cameras. For more information about PRINT Image Matching visit www.printimagematching.com.

Utilizing innovations such as PRINT Image Matching technology and Epson's patented BorderFree photo printing technology, the EPSON Stylus Photo 900 produces outstanding photographic prints in a variety of frame-ready photo paper sizes. Customers can effortlessly print their photos on Epson's Borderless 4" x 6", 5" x 7", 8" x 10" and letter-size photo papers with no borders to trim and no perforations to tear.

The EPSON Stylus Photo 900 has fast photo print speeds delivering a 4" x 6" photo within 50 seconds on EPSON Glossy Photo Paper. The printer is also capable of handling everyday printing tasks, such as printing sharp text documents and web pages.

Printing Directly on Ink-Jet Printable CD-R and DVD-R Recordable Media
With the EPSON Stylus Photo 900, customers can print directly onto the surface of ink-jet printable CD-R and DVD-R media, thus eliminating the expense, inconvenience, and risk of using adhesive labels. This is a significant benefit to customers for three reasons. First of all, manufacturers of CD and DVD drives warn customers against using adhesive labels on CDs or DVDs because the adhesive label could delaminate and damage the drive. Second, the cost of ink-jet printable CD-R and DVD-R media is considerably less expensive than the combined cost of adhesive labels and regular CD-R or DVD-R media. Finally, printing directly onto ink-jet printable CD-R or DVD-R media is much easier than printing on adhesive labels and applying them to regular CD-R or DVD-R media.

With the included CD printing software, customers can design and print professional looking CDs and DVDs with customized text and colorful backgrounds and images. When the user is ready to print, the ink-jet printable CD or DVD is placed in a tray that protects the CD or DVD during the printing process as the tray passes through the printer's straight-through paper path.

Only ink-jet printable CD-R and DVD-R media are compatible with the EPSON Stylus Photo 900. Ink-jet printable CD-R media are produced by several major media brands including Imation, Maxell, Memorex, Mitsui, TDK and Verbatim. The ink-jet printable CD-R media can be purchased from a variety of online retailers including www.cdw.com, www.macconnection.com, www.pcconnection.com, www.warehouse.com, and www.zones.com.

Media Flexibility with the EPSON Stylus Photo 900
Epson offers a wide variety of papers for use with the EPSON Stylus Photo 900 including EPSON Glossy Photo Paper, EPSON Premium Glossy Photo Paper, EPSON Premium Semigloss Photo Paper, EPSON Premium Luster Photo Paper, EPSON Matte Paper Heavyweight and EPSON ColorLife Photo Paper. The EPSON Stylus Photo 900 can print on cut-sheet media sizes from 3.5" to 8.5" wide. Additionally, the EPSON Stylus Photo 900 offers the convenience of two separate paper paths including the standard paper path for most media and a straight-through paper path for thicker media. The straight paper path supports a variety of media up to 1.3 mm thick and also supports the CD/DVD tray.

For printing continuous photos, the EPSON Stylus Photo 900 comes with Epson's unique roll paper holder accessory for printing multiple borderless 4" x 6" snapshots and panoramas on 4" glossy paper rolls. Larger images can be produced on the printer with a maximum printable area of 8.3" x 44" on 8.3" wide roll paper.

Using Epson's optimized combination of quick-drying EPSON Photo Inks and certain Epson papers, the EPSON Stylus Photo 900 produces water-resistant, fade-resistant photos which can resist fading up to 27 years.

Included Software and Connectivity
The EPSON Stylus Photo 900 offers built-in parallel and USB ports and includes the following software applications: CD design and printing software, EPSON Software Film Factory and PRINT Image Matching Plug-in (for Adobe Photoshop 6.0, 7.0 and Elements 1.0 and 2.0). The printer and all of the included software are Windows and Macintosh compatible. Optional accessories for the EPSON Stylus Photo 900 include the Bluetooth Print Adapter from Epson and the external EpsonNet 802.11b Wireless Print Server.

Pricing, Support and Availability
The EPSON Stylus Photo 900 will be available at the end of April for an estimated street price of $199 through consumer electronics stores, office supply stores, computer superstores, specialty camera stores, mail order and Epson's retail Web site (www.epsonstore.com). The printer is backed by the one-year EPSON Exchange Warranty and is supported by the EPSON Connection, a customer support technical assistance line. More information about Epson and its products is available by calling 1-800-GO EPSON or visiting the company Web site at www.epson.com.

SOURCE Businesswire

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