Dan Littman

Epson Stylus Photo 825

At $179, the Stylus Photo 825 is one of Epson's least expensive photo printers, and it includes a control panel for printing images from your camera's flash memory. The 825's menus let you create layouts with multiple images, add frames and borders, sharpen and brighten images, and even print photos with an old-time sepia look. The 825's six-ink design helps it render highly detailed photos, with colors that are accurate and attractive.
The 825's monochrome ink cartridges cost $25 and its color cartridges cost $20; text pages run approximately 4.6 each, and color pages are 13.6 cents apiece. The 825 prints text slowly, at 2.5 ppm; we rated its text quality as only Fair in our tests.
The Stylus Photo 825 comes with an adapter for CompactFlash, Memory Stick, MultiMediaCard, and Secure Digital media; if your camera uses a different format, you'll have to provide your own PC Card adapter. As with Epson's more expensive Stylus Photo 925, the Stylus Photo 825 comes with ArcSoft's PhotoImpression photo editor, Epson's own FilmFactory photo-album program, and a PIM color-matching plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. The printer doesn't include an LCD preview monitor, but Epson sells a separate one for $80 that displays the photos on your memory card, so you don't have to remember frame numbers or print a contact sheet. The company also provides a detachable spindle for feeding paper in rolls.
Epson's Stylus Photo 825 creates pretty pictures, but its slow and expensive text printing make it unsuitable as an all-purpose model.

Buying Information

Epson Stylus Photo 825 Rated 8 ppm for text/8 ppm for graphics, 5760-by-720-dpi maximum resolution, 100 sheets input, 30 output $ 179 Rated 8 ppm for text/8 ppm for graphics, 5760-by-720-dpi maximum resolution, 100 sheets input, 30 output http://www.epson.com 800/463-7766