Printer that pours

GOODBYE CARTRIDGES: EPSON BRINGS BACK BOTTLED INK

- Arthur Goldstuck

What is it? The Epson EcoTank L3550 is a curious mix of the old and the new: a compact three-in-one inkjet printer that prints, scans and copies, while demanding one pours bottled ink into its tanks like it's 1999.

Instead of clicking in a cartridge and watching your budget bleed out with every page, you line up 65ml bottles of cyan, magenta, yellow and black, tip them in, and watch the transparent front-facing tanks fill up like a fishbowl of productivity.

The box includes an extra bottle of black, because Epson knows that black ink is the caffeine of the printing world: it runs out first, it runs out fast, and without it you cannot function.

Epson claims a resolution of 4 800 × 1 200 dpi, which translates as sharp-looking text and colours that look good in daylight.

The first black page spits out in about nine seconds and colour in around fifteen, which is quicker than most budget inkjets dare.

Once it gets going, one is looking at 15 black-and-white pages per minute and 8 colour pages per minute: respectable numbers for a home or small office machine.

Epson also quotes up to 33 pages a minute for draft-quality black, but unless you enjoy reading text that looks like it's been faxed from 1986, you'll stick with the standard modes.