Gadget Addict Review – Epson Stylus NX510 – Printer compatible with Copic Markers

Warning…this review may be a little wordy and techie. Some of you will get it and appreciate it and others may not give a hoot! 🙂

Yes, I have another review before I have posted any layouts.Though I am scrapping today, so maybe I’ll be able to share what I’ve played with later. I also did work on another project, but it is not finished enough to share yet! Here is a sneek peek.

Do you love your Copic Markers? Do you want to be able to easily print at home, from an affordable printer, your own Copic color chart or some of these great digital images that are popping up everywhere? I do. So, I started my quest of finding a printer that would not bleed while using my Copics. I did look at some laser printers, but I really wanted a general printer that would meet most my needs for my craftroom and one I could afford. I have a great printer in our family office that the entire family uses and that is also a copy/ scanner/ fax machine. It’s an HP OfficeJet. However, whenever I printed anything from there and used my Copic markers, the printed image would ALWAYS bleed. It didn’t matter if I let it dry for a week or even heat set it, it would still bleed. After much reasearch, I found a good printer that was affordable and met all my needs and much of my wants. I purchased a Epson Stylus NX510 and paid just less than $100 for it at Staples (they are still on sale as of this post). It normally runs for $149. This printer prints, scans, and copies and looks good in my craft room! It is also wireless. Epson has one model that is even a little cheaper, but it is not wireless. My printer is on the opposite side of my room from my laptop and I do not want to keep moving my laptop everytime I wanted to print something. I had bought that one first because we have a print server here at home and knew we could make it wireless. Well, let me tell you that if you want to utilize all the features of your printer, upgrade to the one with built in WiFi. When using a print server, it would allow the computer to talk to the printer, but would not allow the printer to talk to the computer. Essentially, I could send things to the printer to print, but I could not check on ink level status before printing a picture (which you should ALWAYS do), nor could I scan a photo from my printer to my computer. This last feature was one I really needed. I still have older photos that I want to scan before I cut or alter. We researched this issue on many forums and my techie husband tried everything to resolve this. We discovered that many have the same problem and most have not found a work-around without spending BIG bucks on a much more sophisticated print server and even that isn’t a guarantee.

What else I discovered is that while we are looking for fade resistent dye inks for our stamp ink, we actually need pigment inks for our printer ink to work with Copics. Epson makes a few inks that are pigment inks, but beware, not all Epson inks are pigments. I know now that the DuraBrite inks are and I’ve read that the new Chrome inks are as well. I have also read that HP and Canon now have pigment inks, but I have not tried those yet. I have printed on a few types of paper and it has accepted my thicker cardstock as well as plain paper and did not bleed. I did not have to wait any significant time or heat set the printed images either. I colored on them right after taking them out of the printer, giving them the same amount of drying time you’d give any document.

I’m able to scan my photos, and I am able to print right from the printer and do basic editing if I am in a hurry and I don’t want to open up my PSE to edit on my computer. I’m able to make copies of photos or a page from a book since it is a flat bed scanner. I can print photos or documents and both are looking really great right now. The printer also has a card reader that accepts the CF cards. My new laptop does not, so I can just put my camera CF card into my printer and download the photos to my computer from there!

I really wanted a wide format printer, but I could not justify the extra expense right now b/c I wouldn’t use it as much as I will definitely use these other features.

So, what am I going to do with the print server we already own? Dear hubby said he can connect my Cricut to it and make it wireless! Woo hoo! Even fewer cords sticking out of my laptop and more flexibility as to the placement of my Cricut!

Please let me know if you find others that work well or if you try the HP or Canon inks.

Thanks again for stopping by!

Cher~