Epson R340 questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fenrir Enterprises
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Fenrir Enterprises

Hi, I'm new to this newsgroup and have gone through some of the Google
Group archives, but haven't found specific answers to the questions I
have. I own two printers for business, and am going to put the
questions in separate threads to keep things from getting mixed up.

I just bought an Epson R340, exchanging an R200 I recently got as a
gift, since I had read that the CD print tray had defects with that
model. While the R220 seems to simply be a very slightly remodeled
version of the 200, the 340 looks absolutely nothing like the
R300/300M/320 and more like one of the CX line. While I doubt many
people have much experience with this printer yet (as only Best Buy
carries it in my area, all other stores are still acting like the 320
is still pretty new), I have a few questions that maybe someone here
could answer:

1) I think I got spoiled by my HP1100D by the fact that the ink
cartridges are about 9x bigger than Epson ones, but I've only printed
about 3 8.5 x 11 sheets at about 50% coverage, 2 4x6 borderless
photos, and 5 CD/DVDs, and I've already used over 1/4 of all the ink.
I've read that the 'initial purge' uses a large amount of ink, but I'm
wondering for those of you who have any experience with the 200/300,
what the average output would be for these cartridges. I bought it for
business mainly to print on CD/DVDs, and since a DVD label is
generally designed as full (or greater than 75% coverage, at least),
I'm curious as to how many CDs I would be able to get out of a set, on
average.

2) I have several extra sets of ink for this printer right now, bought
with a gift card I got for buying it, but since I may be using it for
a lot of DVDs (I transfer video to DVD, i.e. wedding videos, etc), and
not so much as a photo printer, I'm thinking it might be more cost
effective to get a CIS or refillable cartridges. I'd like the opinions
of people who have actually bought one or the other of these items,
which company they were from, and what problems (if any) you had with
them.

3) Has anyone created/found a Photoshop template for this particular
printer in order to bypass the Epson PrintCD software? Right now I'm
designing in Photoshop and then importing it as a background image,
but I don't think PrintCD keeps a very high resolution for this. I've
found a few instructions for making your own template for the
R200/300, but the tray for the 340 is a different size/shape.

By the way, I'm aware of the local troll, so please don't respond or
give warnings to any responses it makes to this thread since I'm
already ignoring it.

---

http://www.FenrirOnline.com

Computer services, custom metal etching,
arts, crafts, and much more.
 
Fenrir said:
Hi, I'm new to this newsgroup and have gone through some of the Google
Group archives, but haven't found specific answers to the questions I
have. I own two printers for business, and am going to put the
questions in separate threads to keep things from getting mixed up.

I just bought an Epson R340, exchanging an R200 I recently got as a
gift, since I had read that the CD print tray had defects with that
model. While the R220 seems to simply be a very slightly remodeled
version of the 200, the 340 looks absolutely nothing like the
R300/300M/320 and more like one of the CX line. While I doubt many
people have much experience with this printer yet (as only Best Buy
carries it in my area, all other stores are still acting like the 320
is still pretty new), I have a few questions that maybe someone here
could answer:
Click to expand...

First off, I'd be careful in the assumption that the R340 is actually
different from the older models purely on the basis of its case. I will
hold my hands up and say that I have never laid eyes on an R340 printer
but I have seen the photos and checked the specifications.
(ref: R300 -
http://www.epson.co.uk/products/inkjet_printers/product_spec/Stylus_Photo_R300.htm
R340 -
http://www.epson.co.uk/products/inkjet_printers/product_spec/Stylus_Photo_R340.htm
)

.... and found a few things to note:

The ink cartridges used in both are exactly the same, so the ink is the
same (ie: dyebase). Likewise the printhead seems to have the same nozzle
count and probably doesn't have many differences, if any either. Based
on that alone you're probably not going to see any real changes to the
actual output.

Looking at the specifications it seems that really the major changes are
in the case design, integration of the monitor (without making it flip
up/down), and a few tweakings to the direct printing capabilities.

Of course, chances are they MAY have tackled small issues such as the
CD/DVD tray being kicked out on earlier models so the niggles may have
gotten ironed out. For my money though I'd guess they're just creating a
new look with some "wow" features without actually changing what's under
the print assembly hood.

Of course I could be wrong but I'd say it was a fairly educated guess.

1) I think I got spoiled by my HP1100D by the fact that the ink
cartridges are about 9x bigger than Epson ones, but I've only printed
about 3 8.5 x 11 sheets at about 50% coverage, 2 4x6 borderless
photos, and 5 CD/DVDs, and I've already used over 1/4 of all the ink.
I've read that the 'initial purge' uses a large amount of ink, but I'm
wondering for those of you who have any experience with the 200/300,
what the average output would be for these cartridges. I bought it for
business mainly to print on CD/DVDs, and since a DVD label is
generally designed as full (or greater than 75% coverage, at least),
I'm curious as to how many CDs I would be able to get out of a set, on
average.
Click to expand...

I've never actually run an R200 or R300 set of carts down completely as
I always install a CIS on my printers. However if you want to get an
idea of rough costs I did some maths :)

CD printable area = 115mm (diameter) = 10386mm squared
A4 printable area = 210*217 = 45570mm squared

CD : A4 = 4.4 CD's to 1 A4 sheet (reasonably accurately)

Now assuming the Epson figures are accurate for 5% coverage (had to take
these from the R300 specs as they're not shown for R340)..

5% @ A4 = approx 430 pages
100% @ A4 = (430/20) = 21.5 pages

21.5 x 4.4 (ie: A4 output converted to CD's) = 94.6

So the magic number for one colour cartridge @ 100% coverage would be
94.6 CD's..


*I can hear the rest of the NG getting ready to jump in... :) *

BUT...

Epson marketing write these figures (pinch of salt time!), any printing
is likely to use more than just one colour and the ink will not last for
94.6 CD's alone because of things like head cleaning, priming, etc...

So, you're probably looking at somewhere between 150 and 200 Cd's before
you need to be changing a significant proportion of your cartridges.
That is a wild assed guess of course because it all comes down to how
much ink your images will use. But it's probably about right.

Phew... blimey my Maths teacher would be amazed I managed that lot after
all this time ;)


2) I have several extra sets of ink for this printer right now, bought
with a gift card I got for buying it, but since I may be using it for
a lot of DVDs (I transfer video to DVD, i.e. wedding videos, etc), and
not so much as a photo printer, I'm thinking it might be more cost
effective to get a CIS or refillable cartridges. I'd like the opinions
of people who have actually bought one or the other of these items,
which company they were from, and what problems (if any) you had with
them.
Click to expand...

It all depends on how much you intend to print... I use CIS kits all the
time but that's because of my partner being a teacher and because I
support them for schools. It is definintely not for everyone though.

What I would definitely recommend though is fitting a waste ink tank on
your R340 because all the previous models in that grouping (ie: R200,
R220, R300, R320) have put out the "service required message" to get the
waste ink pads changed, a lot sooner than many consider appropriate.
(Refs: http://www.allthefaqs.net/forum/links.php?func=show&id=74 )

You'd still need the reset codes to reset it... and I doubt anyone has
actually found that yet (given the age of the printer) but it'll be
available soon I'm sure.

In terms of kits and reviews... Check the nifty-stuff forum, and I've
done a couple of reviews on kits on: contiuousink.info that might help too.

Nifty stuff has a lot of info on refilling (mainly canons) but it's
still useful and the community is as helpful as the non-trolls on here :)


On a personal level, I've found the R300 I'm testing at the moment to
work very well with the MIS Associates kit I have installed in it. The
waste ink tank is getting the usual alarming amount of ink sent to it
and I've had to do one reset on it already. Works fine though...

3) Has anyone created/found a Photoshop template for this particular
printer in order to bypass the Epson PrintCD software? Right now I'm
designing in Photoshop and then importing it as a background image,
but I don't think PrintCD keeps a very high resolution for this. I've
found a few instructions for making your own template for the
R200/300, but the tray for the 340 is a different size/shape.
Click to expand...

No idea I'm afraid, but someone will undoubtedly find out... Certainly
if you took the bull by the horns and did the research, anything you
find out is very welcome.

By the way, I'm aware of the local troll, so please don't respond or
give warnings to any responses it makes to this thread since I'm
already ignoring it.
Click to expand...

:) Nuff said...
 
Jeez, it is getting impossible to keep up with these models.

Seems like the 340 is a replacement for the 300/320.

Art
 
Arthur Entlich said:
Jeez, it is getting impossible to keep up with these models.

Seems like the 340 is a replacement for the 300/320.

Art
Click to expand...

Seems that way...sort of like Ford Tempos getting minor cosmetic changes and
newfangled ways to make sure the consumer has to buy Ford only parts...
 
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