Epson Artisan 50 Color Inkjet Printer (C11CA45201)

Printers continue to improve in print quality and decrease in cost. Of course, the printer manufacturers figured out long ago that they can practically give the printers away because they make their money on ink cartridges! I bought this printer specifically because it will print CD/DVD labels. And it does that very well. The print quality is wonderful not only on discs but on glossy photo paper as well - I hadn't even considered that when I bought it. I wish someone made a reasonably priced, high print quality disc printer that didn't involve manually loading and manually inserting a special tray. They exist, but nowhere near this price. So, you do have to manually load a disc into a separate tray and then carefully align it with a mark on the printer. Not a big deal, just a pain if you want to print a bunch of discs. Print speed is less than a minute to print a full color image on a disc.But let's talk INK! I did a lot of research and found hotzone360 on-line. They make Continuous Ink Supply Systems. Ciss Cis Ink Supply System for Epson Artisan 50 Non-oem For around fifty bucks you can buy an ink supply system with probably five times the ink in a standard cartridge. Let me tell you, it's one of the wisest purchases I've ever made! It took me about fifteen minutes to install (they offer a clear installation video on-line that I just followed along with). So far I've printed dozens of photos and discs without any problems - and the ink levels have barely moved. I highly recommend you consider purchasing this. P.S. I found out after I purchase my printer that hotzone360 actually sells this same printer with their ink system pre-installed on their website for less than what I bought the two separately (not sure why the same combo is not sold on Amazon). I'm going to recommend a couple of family members buy this package - it seems unlikely anyone can beat the quality and price.Great printer, great ink.

I just received my Epson Artisan 50 and started to hook it up when I realized that the USB cable from the printer to computer was NOT supplied. It is not shown in the instruction sheet so I assume they meant not to include it. Is this just me or is everyone else having this issue.The printer uses an A-Male B-Male type USB connector. I had a lot of other USB connectors lying around...but not one of those.Fortunately I dug through some old electronics goods and managed to scavenge one from some old equipment.Why Epson decided not to include the USB cable is beyond me. It's like not including a power cable because they assume everyone has a power cable lying around.So if you buy this, make sure you have a A-Male B-Male USB connector. Because if you don't have one, you are dead in the water until you've hopped in your car, headed over to the nearest computer store or Radio Shack.It's OK Epson. You can charge an extra dollar for your printer and include the cable. It will save a lot of folks a trip to the store.Once I got the cable and loaded up the software I was good to go.I bought this to print on CD's and it works great. The machines creeks and groans and makes a lot of noise when its getting ready to print but the results are fantastic...even using the limited CD design software that comes with the supplied CD.I couldn't figure out how to print on paper though.I put a stack of paper in but the machine didn't want to grab any of them.I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong and I'll figure that out later.It prints great on DVD's and CD's and that's what I bought it for.So 1 star for not supplying a USB cable...5 stars for a good print job....average 3 stars

I searched for a week, trying to find a low-cost printer to use as a CD printer for a job we had. I looked through HP, Canon, and others. I found them, but they were all multi-function printers. I did not want a printer/fax/copier/washing machine/telephone/TV remote/wireless access point/shower buddy/CD printer... I just wanted to print CD's. Plus, every multi-function I looked at had mixed reviews, as most do. That parts of them worked, and others gave lots of trouble. I did not want to deal with the added headache of features that I did not even want. Plus, all of them claimed to burn through ink, the most expensive part of this equation. I am not at the professional level with the need to spend $2,500 on a dedicated CD printer. I just needed to printed a few hundred CDs and have them look professional.Then I found this Epson, and with trepidation (due to it being just $99), I ordered it.It is awesome! Print quality is incredible as this has the same engine as its larger cousins. The 6 ink cartridge setup mixes colors in a way that is amazing. Since each are separate, I will only have to replace the colors I use, which will save me money. Plus, after printing 200 CD's the inks are not even 10% used. Now, I am not doing full pictures. Just a large full color logo and text. Still, if this holds true I should be able to print 1,500 to 2,000 CDs.The device is fast, less than a minute per CD.The software was incredibly easy. Although, I may have cheated as I created all the artwork in Photoshop, saved it as a high-res JPG, then simply dropped the pre-sized JPG into the Epson software and printed it. But, the output was great.I have not printed anything other than CDs on this, so that is all I can give. If you are looking for a low-cost CD printer solution, this is your baby.