Product ReviewsEPSON STYLUS PHOTO R280 ULTRA HI-DEFINITION CLARIA INK JET PRINTER BRAND NEW!

Good inkjet for printing on printable cds.

I bought this printer new, in-the-box to replace a Canon iP7220. The Epson R280 works much better for my use. It feeds the cd into the printer easily while the Canon would often spit the cd back out and after awhile I'd need to reset it using a method I found online. After resetting the Canon 6-7 times I could no longer reset it so it became unusable. I don't use the Epson for printing on paper because I use a pigment ink printer for that. One warning: always make sure you shake the ink a bit before you install it so that the printer recognizes it easily. The R280 is a good cd printer if you need an ink jet for that and can find. Look for the best deals, of course. Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: immasales

Eason Stylus Photo R280 HD printer. Purchase at your own risk.

Used to be a good value. Recent software updates have made it useless for printing PVC media. Fortunately I had an old computer with software I had installed for my old R280 which allowed me to print using PVC tray. The only reason I purchased a new R280 is because I downloaded R280 install software and my old printer flashed all three lights and would not print on the PVC tray. I tried everything, reinstalled software, replaced ink, new PVC tray but nothing. Finally purchased a new R280 and guess what. It did the same exact thing my old R280 did. So now I’ve spent $300.00 for a printer I didn’t need. And to top it off, the ink that came with the printer had leaked making the ink useless. Very unhappy with Epson and will probably purchase Cannon printers for my PVC printing needs. By the way, the Epson R280 is an excellent product. A shame some nerd programmers had to screw it up. Also, support is clueless to the problem. I had to find a solution on my own. Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: 681437

Apart from the HIGH ink cost.... excellent

I love Epson stylus printers for great photo quality prints. The colors are accurate, images crisp and clear, and if kept out of daylight, will last for many years in an album. The CD print function is great. The one I got is a bit temperamental, but the quality is very good. Well, that's the good.
Now for the BAD. The cost of ink is VERY expensive. I usually plug in a continuous ink supply system once the originals run out, but that it messy and the jets then tend to clog if not used regularly. Epson make their money from ink, so they put a chip on the ink cartridge that decides when you have run out of ink, whether you have actually run out or not. It forces you to change to a new cartridge. If you are planning to use this to print 4x6 photos, using genuine Epson ink, then it will cost you far more in ink cartridges. It would be much cheaper going to Wal-Mart.

Further, what is VERY annoying is that when it decides that one of the colors has run out, and you still have black ink, it will NOT allow you to print a document with black ink only.
The other thing that I don't like is that it does not use a true black for grey scale pictures. They come out looking a bit green.Read full review...

Epson Stylus R280 Great little Printer

This printer has great print quality but the thing I like best is the ability to print on CD's and DVD's. I can make my own professional looking media easily. Also it has 6 ink cartridges which are inexpensive to buy aftermarket and prints nice photos on photo paper.

Ease of use, quality of printing and expense of ink make this a good choice for anyone doing photos or printing on Media. It's better than my R220 and it's EPSON which I think are the best injet printers out there.Read full review...

Easy to Use Photo Printer

The Epson R280 was very easy to set up--loading included software only took 10 minutes. The printer itself is easy to use amd the quality of my prints is excellent. The R280 is the low-cost replacement for Epson's R380 printer which included a 3 inch LCD permitting Stand-alone use (no computer required for prints). The R280 does not have that feature so it is not as convenient to use. But the quality of the prints is just as good. Like the R380, the R280 prints labels directly on Printable DVD's and CD's. The quality of this feature is excellent but learning to properly center the labels on the disk is a tedious process-be prepared to waste a few before you get the hang of it. In summary, I am happpy with the quality that I have on this printer. For the Ebay price and overall performance, its a very good buy.Read full review...

Good fast CD printer, needs some improvement.

I bought this printer for the CD printing feature and I have never used it to print photos or text so this review wont mention that. This printer is replacing an EPSON Stylus Photo R300, which I will be refering to in the section about the CD tray.

The printer is large, larger than a toaster oven, and very heavy. I believe the weight is do to the printer's inner metal frame and not because it is made from thick strong plastic like other EPSONs are. The printer lid and paper tray cover are made from thin flimsy plastic and flex a lot when handled. The paper tray is removable and can be put in to to different slots in the front of the printer depending on what you are printing. There is a lower slot for printing paper and an upper slot for printing CD's. The paper tray is held in the printer very loosely by a large and small peg on each side of the tray. The small beg is what holds the weight of the tray and feels strong, which is good because when you pull open the paper tray cover, the paper tray falls hard, putting a lot of stress on the pegs.

The CD tray is much better than the one in my old Stylus Photo R300. It is made of a stronger and thicker plastic and is shorter, but wider. The CD tray now has one thick black tab at the front of it, this replaces the small clear tabs that broke off easily on earlier trays. Also, the CD tray no longer slides out of the back of the printer when printing, which helps prevent some CD jams. I am however confused by EPSON's lack of a way to store the CD tray. With how large the printer is, it should be easy to include a small slot in which to store the CD tray when it isn't in use.

The Photo R280 seems to be quieter then the R300 and prints smoother, which is great for wobbly desks. It prints a full color, full label CD a little faster than the R330 could.

Over all, it is a good desktop CD printer if you are gentle with the paper tray and paper tray cover. If you travel a lot, I would recommended buying the R300 because it is smaller, a little lighter and the plastics seem stringer.Read full review...

Epson R280 Review & Fix For Documents spacing changed

I Bought this Printer "Epson R280" as a second printer so I could inexpensively print directly onto Cd's and Dvd's. Disks come out looking quite nice, and print in just a couple of miniutes. Apears well built and seems like it will last as well. I would have liked to see some sort of clips under top cover to store the CD Print Tray when not in use, but I sapose I'm just nit picking. I had an issue that has a simple fix, but was a bit difficult to figure out, so I'll explain my issue and the fix here. After installing the Epson R280 Printer, driver and software, I then noticed that documents I had previeously created in Word Perfect had changed (spacing was different and pages ran onto other pages and it messed up page Headers/numbers etc.) After some research I found out that Word Perfect Gets its spacing/margin settings from the printer driver. The Epson Printer drivers settings are different than my other printers driver settings. Since when installing the Epson printer it set itself as the Default printer, Word perfect then took the settings from the new epson printer driver, and thus caused my documents to change acordingly (all messed up). Thankfully the Fix was to Simply Set My Default Printer Setting back to my Original Printer, that was set as default when the document was created. Simply Goto - Start Control Panel Printers and Faxes Then Right click the printer you want to set as default(the printer that was default when your documents were created) and left click in drop down menu. Thats it, your documents will again appear as they did before installing the Epson Printer. And when you wish to use the Epson printer, just make sure that when you go to print something, and your print job window comes up, that you choose the Epson printer in the drop down window. So far I'm Liking This Printer. A Great Low Cost way To Print Nice Professional Looking CD's and DVD's.
RCRead full review...

A good product, by a great company.

This is the latest upgrade of the home version of the R series from Epson. I have used the original R220 for years, and found it to be reliable; and does a great job of fairly hi-def printing. It also works well on CD/DVD's; albeit it's feed mechanism is somewhat unreliable. This printer is simply an upgrade of that original printer, on essentially the same chassis. It boasts higher definition print capability, due to better control of the print heads and finer ink droplet size. I have not used it enough to speak to whether or not Epson fixed the problems with the CD/DVD feed mechanism. Both versions of this printer are quiet and relatively small, considering their multifunction capabilities. One thing users will quickly find, is that the ink cartridges for this printer are VERY expensive! Fortunately, they hold a lot of ink, and last for a large nunber of images; but they are still quite expensive. I used to buy my ink from COSTCO; but they no longer carry the ink for the R series printers; and me and refills have had too many nightmare problems for me to recommend that alternative.Read full review...

It's a keeper

Setup was easy. Looks good and the quality of print is excellent. The only drawback has been getting the tray that holds printabvle CDs into the unit for printing. I use this item for text as well as photos, so I am sure I will be purchasing more black ink, quickly. I use it to print documents for legal research papers, CDs for my music business and photographs. I would have liked the black cartridge to have been larger, but overall, this is a keeper.Read full review...

Epson Stylus Photo R280 InkJet Printer

It prints clear, sharp, and fast, however it's an ink alcholic..The small inkjet cartridges don't last an avg. user such as myself more than a month to run the black cartridge dry. And I have ordered a complete set of cartridges for this machine twice, at a very high price. What's worse is the Artisan, 800, it needs ink drug treatment, it guzzles the ink, and when one ink runs out, the whole machine quits working. Epson has a fine working machine however they should give you the printer if you buy their ink. My old H/P printers were afterall a much better bargain, and you could buy remfg. cartridges..I'll probably go back to them as I din't throw them out......good thing.Read full review...