Epson AcuLaser C2000

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The Epson C2000's models
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There are four different models available (we chose the basic model) :

* AcuLaser C2000 - 32MB mem, 500 sheet cassette and 150 sheet tray.
* AcuLaser C2000PS - 96MB mem, PostScript 3, 500 sheet cassette and 150 sheet tray.
* AcuLaser C2000DT - 96MB mem, duplex printing unit, 2 x 500 sheet cassettes and 150 sheet tray.
* AcuLaser ...
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The Epson C2000's features
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All the C2000 printers offer 600 dpi printing resolution, and with the AcuLaser's 'Fine Dot Control Technology' (!?) it can 'fake' up to 2400 dpi. So basically, it's a 600 dpi colour laser printer :-)

The print speed for the C2000 is quite impressive. Considering that the printer houses 4 large laser cartridges, and has to rotate these as it ... more

Now before I start, this opinion may not be for the home users out there, as this printer starts selling at around £1,500. Right. Now that I've scared all my sensible readers away, I'll continue talking to the 'not so sensible' people who are going to find out about one hell-of-a colour laser printer!

We recently purchased one of these huge A4 colour laser printers at work, and it has been used constantly ever since for flyers, brochures - in fact anything with a hint of colour, just for an excuse to use it!

The Epson C2000's models
========================

There are four different models available (we chose the basic model) :

• AcuLaser C2000 - 32MB mem, 500 sheet cassette and 150 sheet tray.
• AcuLaser C2000PS - 96MB mem, PostScript 3, 500 sheet cassette and 150 sheet tray.
• AcuLaser C2000DT - 96MB mem, duplex printing unit, 2 x 500 sheet cassettes and 150 sheet tray.
• AcuLaser C2000PSDT - 160MB mem, PostScript 3, duplex printing unit, 2 x 500 sheet cassette and 150 sheet tray.

The Epson C2000's features
==========================

All the C2000 printers offer 600 dpi printing resolution, and with the AcuLaser's 'Fine Dot Control Technology' (!?) it can 'fake' up to 2400 dpi. So basically, it's a 600 dpi colour laser printer :-)

The print speed for the C2000 is quite impressive. Considering that the printer houses 4 large laser cartridges, and has to rotate these as it applies each colour, the printer still manages to spit out up to 5 colour pages a minute, and is also capable of printing up to 20 mono pages per minute.

The printer can be connected via the usual ECP parallel port. But also includes the ability to connect it to a network via a 10/100 Mbit network.

Personal experiences with the C2000
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We chose to buy the standard C2000 printer, so I cannot comment on it's PostScript or duplex printing capabilities. I also cannot comment on the network connectivity side, as we chose to use a Intel Netport to connect to our network, just to keep it the same as all our other printers.

Installing the C2000
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Unwrapping this printer is probably the hardest part of the whole process. It comes in plenty of wrapping, and with (what feels like) hundreds of little strips of blue tape (all you new Epson printer owners would know what I mean) that you have to remove. Small bits of polystyrene in and around the printer are also amongst the things that you need to be sure you remove before starting up the printer.

Once you've unwrapped the rather large printer, you can sit it on a table only a little larger than an A3 foot print. The printer is taller than it is wide or deep, which is quite a good design.

The separate CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key - Black) laser cartridges, look just like any other laser toner cartridge, but (obviously) there are four of them. They are easy to install, and require you to rotate the cartridge housing inside the printer, inserting one at a time.

Once the printer has been unwrapped and the cartridges installed, all I needed to do was connect a parallel printer cable between the printer and the PC, and install the software. The software was very easy to install. It consisted of a classic Epson set-up which you simply run, it check to see if your C2000 is connected to the PC, and installs the drivers. You need to reboot, but once you've done that, you're ready to print.

For me it was a little different. Although I tested the printer locally whilst connected straight to my own PC, it was really intended to act as a network printer. I know that some of you may be a little worried about using the printer over a network, as the majority of drivers which are supplied with modern printers do not tend to control networked printers very well. However, I found the C2000 slightly different. During installation, the software tries to detect the printer on your local machine. If it can't find it, it will bring up an error message - but still continue installing the software. Once it's done this, you can capture a printer port or map to a network printer share from the printer set-up without any problems. The age old Epson problem whereby you end up with communication errors popping up on your machine when printing to a network printer can also be eliminated, as for the first time, I've managed to find the option to turn off such error messages. So you can get stress-free network printing with this printer too!

Using the printer
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Using this printer is bliss - as long as you're not next to it. A little piece of advice - make space for this printer over the other side of the room. It's pretty noisy, and it smells - worse than a normal printer. It's hardly surprising really, as it has got 4 toner cartridges to work with, rather than one. But you could end up with a headache from the fumes after a little while. The 500 sheet cassette makes things easy, and there's a 150 sheet tray on the side of the printer to make things easy for manual sheet loading.

The setting under the printer properties are much like any other printers settings, but also offers plenty of colour management adjustments.

I will, however, advise anyone who uses this type of printer to use good quality colour laser paper - 100 or 120 gram colour laser paper is ideal. It produces brilliant professional quality prints, and best of all, you don't get wrinkly paper as you do with bubblejet printers! :-)

It's quite an upgradable printer too. You can add the duplex unit at a later date, add more memory and even a harddisk. However, each of the toner cartridges cost around £80, except for the black, which costs around half that.

Conclusion
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This printer is ideal for businesses who want to produce their own leaflets or brochures and an extremely profession looking standard, without too much cost - considering we've done almost 1000 pages and still haven't run out of toner. It's relatively easy to install and use - just like any normal laser printer, but produces prints which you wouldn't hesitate sending to your customers. We have yet to experience any problems with the printer so far, and would therefore say the printer is reliable. However, the cost of toner cartridges and replacement parts I can see will mount up over time. This is why I wouldn't recommend it for the home user. Although the initial price might be affordable - I can see the running costs quickly eating away at the home users pocket. A must for the business - or someone at home, who's won the lottery ;-)
 

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