The Business Ink Jet Printer Guide: Vendor & Product Profiles
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EPSON
Long Beach, CA
569 981 3840
www.epson.com
Vendor Profile
Epson America is a division of Japan-based Seiko-Epson
Corporation, a manufacturer and supplier of imaging
products, semiconductors, liquid crystal displays, and
watches.
The company has been an innovativedesigner of ink jet
printers and sells an extensive line of them, most of
which are geared to home and school use (and therefore
not in the scope of this volume).
Epson is the inventor of a technology called piezoelec-
tric ink jet printing. Unlike other companies that have
thermal technology for placing ink, Epson’s technology is
based on changing the shape of a crystal, embedded in
the ink jet nozzles, by means of an electrical signal. The
shape change causes the ink to be squirted onto the paper.
Epson has perfected this technique and is using it to cre-
ate context-sensitive dot sizes, which allow for added
image control and ink savings. The technology can now
deliver the smallest ink dots on the market. It has also
refined its ink technology (called DuraBrite inks) so it’s
now water- and light-resistant, an important factor in
competing with laser output.
Product Profile
Epson Stylus C88+
Up to 14ppm full color (320 x 160dpi, draft mode)
Up to 23ppm black & white (320 x 160dpi, draft mode)
Sum-up: Good printer with high-quality inks and a very low
price.
This $80 Epson model can be only marginally defined as
a business-class printer. We are unable to provide specifi-
cations for its speed when printing in normal mode, part-
ly because Epson does not specify that speed and also
because this model lacks the standard 600dpi resolution
other companies offer.
Pros: Available external Ethernet server, available
IEEE 802.11b wireless Ethernet, waterproof light-resist-
ant inks, and low price.
Cons: Minimal paper handling (120 sheets input, 30
output), lack of speed rating for normal resolution, no
PostScript or PCL.
Hewlett-Packard
Santa Clara, CA
800 752 0900
www.hp.com
Vendor Profile
In addition to being a leader in laser printing, Hewlett-
Packard (HP) is also the dominant market force in ink jet
printing. It offers a dizzying array of models and has

Vendor & Product Profiles

This section provides an overview on each vendor (complete with contact details) followed by
analysis on each model offered for sale in the business ink jet printer market. General information
about the market, including discussions of technology as well as advice on how to buy a business
ink jet printer, follows this section.
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