Epson Stylus Photo 1280

Design, Functions and Controls
The 1280 features a light tan body with a rounded front and a dark grey dust cover that protects the printer head assembly. The basic body measures 24 x 12.2 x 6.9 inches (609 x 311 x 175 mm) without the paper trays extended, and weighs 18.9 pounds (8.4 kg) -- making it a good bit larger than average, but not too heavy for the size. The top-mounted paper support handles sheets up to 11 x 14 inches. The lower paper output tray folds up against the front of the printer, flipping down when the printer is to be used.

The dust cover lifts up to access the two printer cartridges: one Black and one Color (cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan, and light magenta). The cartridges are easy to install, and when in place, are automatically calibrated by pressing the Ink Cartridge Replacement button in the lower right corner of the printer's front panel. The ink cartridges feed into a series of MicroPiezo print heads, with 48 nozzles per color, and the entire assembly travels back and forth across the paper on a small metal rod. Ink is deposited by applying pressure to the ink chambers, forcing the ink out through the nozzles. Epson claims that this process is more precise and consistent than competitors' thermal ink printing process (heating the ink to force it out of the print head), and based on the positive market response (and excellent print quality), they seem to have developed a very successful formula. An automatic cleaning mechanism periodically initiates a three- to five-minute cleaning, which can be repeated several times for deeper cleaning whenever necessary, and an automatic Ink Low / Ink Out detection system enables you to keep up with ink levels for each cartridge, simply by viewing the Printer Driver menu.

The top right side of the printer has an Adjust lever (normally hidden under the top cover), which can be set to the "+" position when you use thick paper or envelopes, to help prevent ink smearing.

At lower right, three buttons control power (far right), the head cleaning/paper jam button (right center) and the roll paper button (near right). Hidden under the cover is a big yellow button that moves the print head into position at the far left-hand side of the printer, so you can change the ink cartridges.

The left side of the printer is clear, with no printer controls.

At the bottom of the printer's back panel are the USB connector for Macintosh 8.5.1 or later / Windows 98 / 2000 computers, and a Serial Port for Windows 95 / 98 / NT 4.0 / 2000 computers using a Parallel connector. The top paper support slides into a plastic slot at the top of the back panel, and is large enough to hold up to 100 sheets of standard printer paper or 10 envelopes.

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