Stylus Photo 925
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The printer offers the ability to print with or without a computer with built-in card slots, which support CompactFlash Type I and II, IBM Microdrive, SmartMedia and Sony Memory Stick. The printer supports Secure Digital and MultiMedia Cards with an optional Zio! card reader. The Stylus Photo 925 can also store or back-up digital files right to a storage device such as an Iomega Zip drive or other USB device like the Sony Micro Vault. The printer also offers connectivity with Direct-Connect-Compatible (DCC) digital cameras enabling users to print directly from a variety of digital cameras via their USB cable. The Stylus Photo 925 produces long-lasting photos which can resist fading up to 25 years with Epson's optimized combination of photo inks and fade-resistant papers, like EPSON ColorLife Photo Paper. The printers also use Epson's fast and convenient quick-drying inks for prints that are immediately dry to the touch and water-resistant on EPSON Premium Photo Papers. The Stylus Photo 925 includes EPSON Software Film Factory 2.5 for PC or Mac with PRINT Image Matching support. PRINT Image Matching (P.I.M.) II ensures that P.I.M.-enabled digital cameras and P.I.M.-enabled printers work perfectly together to create the best possible prints. Included in the software bundle is a P.I.M. file plug-in for Photoshop 6, 7 and Photoshop Elements 1, 2. Also included is ArcSoft's PhotoImpression 3.0 for editing photos and adding special effects. All three software applications are Mac and PC compatible and support P.I.M. and Exif Print technology.
Stylus Photo 925 Features:
 The Photo 925 uses two ink cartridges, the T026 black and T027 color with the usual cyan, magenta and yellow chambers plus a light magenta and light cyan chamber for more accurate skin tones and smoother color transitions and gradations. There are no special black or color cartridges that need to be "swapped" for either text or photo printing. The black ink is high density and "photo optimized" for dark, rich blacks in both color and b&w photos with better shadow details.
Using genuine Epson Photo Inks and Epson Photo
and Premium Photo papers, the printer creates photo prints that resist fingerprints and
smearing from water spillage.
The printer "knows" which ink cartridges are in the printer and exactly
how much ink is left in them. There are tiny little electronic chips on the edge of
each ink tank. This allows you to swap any cartridge at any time and then put it back
in the printer later. These IntellidgeTM cartridges
actually count each ink droplet used to keep track of the ink remaining.
Compatible with both Windows and Macintosh platforms, the Stylus 925 features a USB 1.1
input port for connection to the host computer. The
connector on the left is for the optional color LCD preview monitor.
 The Photo 925 has three built-in card slots that support CompactFlash Type I and II flash cards as well as Microdrives. SmartMedia and Memory Stick cards can be read in the other two slots. Secure Digital and MultiMedia Card media requires an optional ZIO! card reader. Image data read in from the card slots can be transfered to the host computer (if connected) or to an optional Zip drive. Pictures can be printed directly from memory cards or Microdrives without need of a computer via the control panel and data LCD display.
Using the control panel makes standalone printing from flash cards very easy thanks to
the verbose monochrome LCD menus. You just follow the menu and prompts on the LCD and
enter your selections with the Up/Down and Select keys. When you have entered all of
your printing parameters you then press the big PRINT button.
 Here's a page of the settings for printing a borderless 4x6" photo on glossy photo paper. You select the picture # to print, the layout (one up, two up, four up, bordered, borderless and etc), the paper type, paper size, # of copies and so on. The camera icon on the bottom indicates we are reading from a flash card, the two icons on the right are the black and color ink cartridges and their approximate ink levels. If you don't have the optional color LCD preview monitor then you must print an index sheet of your pictures on the flash memory card. This gives you a small color thumbnail image of each picture along with the number that the printer will use to identify it.
You can also adjust the picture's brightness, contrast, color saturation or sharpness.
as well as crop the image, cropping is done in "blind" fashion unless you have the color
LCD preview monitor.
 
If you're doing a lot of standalone printing then I would highly recommend purchasing the
optional $79 1.6-inch color LCD preview monitor. This lets you select your pictures
visually rather than printing out index sheets. It also makes the cropping process much
easier as you can actually see the area being cropped. The color LCD has a tiltable head
and a brightness control on the side.
Here's the roll paper holders mounted on the back of the printer. Shown here with a
4-inch roll of photo paper. The printer handles 4" or 8.3" width roll paper stock for
edge-to-edge borderless printing. The roll paper is fed into the paper path and then
automatically pulled up to the start point when you press the feed button. You push and
hold the feed button to make it "back out" the roll paper when you're done.
 The automatic cutter assembly is built-in and active when you select roll paper as the paper source. It's an easy and fairly quick change from cut sheet to roll printing. The printer driver has an option for adjusting the cutter and to select the desired cut option (auto, paper-saving or manual cut.)
You can't see it in this picture but there's a little trap door that opens up in the
back side of the paper tray that catches the cut-off portions of the paper.
 My complaint with using roll paper is that the prints never seem to sit flat again. The prints shown here were under a heavy book for three days and yet still retain as much curve as when first printed. My advice for making 4x6" prints -- stick with the cut sheet paper. |
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