The Epson DX8400 is another in the long line of popular multifunction printers coming onto the market. I'm sure you are all familiar with multifunction or all-in-one printers now, but just in case. Multifunction printers offer the ability to print, photocopy and scan all on the same machine. These machine offer great value for money as they cost little more than a standard printer and these days don't take up a great deal more space than a normal printer.

The DX8400 has a blue tinted silver colour to it, fitting in with many of the printers around this time. It comes with the keypad located on the left side as opposed to the earlier versions of Epsons multifunction printers which all the buttons were located at the front of the pad. Personally I like this look a lot better. Another improvement to the layout, is the paper feeder, Epson have managed to get the feeder to be more vertical, reducing the overhang that the printer causes, this allows the DX8400 to take up less desk space and fit into more places than previous models. It may seem like a simple thing to do, put the paper feeding system would have to cope with near vertical paper and still be able to select a single sheet and send it through.

The DX8400 operates on a economic single ink system with 4 colours, Black, yellow, cyan and magenta. As a single ink runs out you only need to replace that colour, a cheaper solution to the multi-colour cartridges of old. This printer uses Epson Durabright Ultra inks for excellent quality and durability of prints. Durabright ultra inks are pigment based to give them the better resistance to fading from water or light than dye based inks.

Acoustically the Epson DX8400 is quite loud when printing and especially when feeding paper through to the print heads, you may not want to print while trying to hold a telephone conversation or trying to watch the TV. However for most people printing will only take  few minutes and will be the priority task at the time.

This multifunction machine will print photos directly from a USB 2.0 connected machine, direct from a digital camera via PictBridge or from a number of standard memory cards via the built in memory slots on the from of the printer. An LCD screen gives the user a chance to select and see the pictures that are about to be printed.

The Software that is included is fairly standard for a multifunction printer. Scanning software for adjustable quality settings and auto image type recognition. Epsons Creativity suite is an easy to use photo management program for storing an sorting out your photos ready for printing. Also included is Abbyy finereader Optical Character Recognition software (OCR). This software can scan printed text and turn it into an editable document. You can edit hard copies of documents from work or be able to cut and paste text from book for projects.

The Epson DX4800 has the following reported print speeds (in fastest modes)

Black text - 32 pages per minute
Colour Text - 32 pages per minute
10x15cm photo - 25 seconds

Features

? Superb quality with long-lasting DURABrite Ultra Ink
? High-quality prints at up to 5760 optimised dpi resolution on suitable media
? Print directly from PictBridge digital camera or memory card
? New Micro Piezo print head mechanism for fast print speeds of up to 32ppm and 26 seconds for a 10x15cm photo
? Automatically improve photos with Epson PhotoEnhance
? Restore faded scanned photos with Epson Easy Photo FixTM?
? Create high-quality scans with the 1200dpi scanner
? Scan and edit text with ABBYY FineReader? OCR software
? Fast connectivity with USB to PC or Mac
? ENERGY STAR compliant to reduce energy wastage
? Save money with individual ink cartridges - only replace the colour used

Manufacturers Description

Bring quality, versatility and value to all your home printing. Print, scan and copy documents and photos from one compact desktop location and use the LCD viewer for even easier PC-free operation. This advanced all-in-one printer, scanner and copier is perfect for high-quality document and photo management. You can easily print directly from your PictBridge digital camera or memory card via the 6.3 cm LCD viewer - even without a PC. Epson's latest generation of DURABrite Ultra Ink provides laser-like text and glossy photos, and is resistant to water, smudging and fading. It is also cost-effective due to individual ink cartridges.

Ink Cartridges

Colour	Cartridge Number	Part Number
Black	T0711	C13T07114010
Cyan	T0712	C13T07124010
Magenta	T0713	C13T07134010
Yellow	T0714	C13T07144010
4 Ink - Multipack	T0715	C13T07154010