Customer Reviews
Piece of junk 
2007-08-22
Do not buy this printer. Not only does it use ink fast and won't let you print if one is out, but the colors that are printed are never right. You will regret this purchase. I will never buy another Epson product again.
Fortune on Ink.. even if you only want to use black ink 2007-08-07
This is a piece of junk. I mostly only use the black ink however, I am forced to replace all my colours when each of the other ones dry up which is every couple months. The software prevents the user from printing, even if the image is all black and you tell it to use black ink only. I end up paying 5 times the price for black ink. I will never buy an epson printer again.
Worst Printer I Ever Owned 2007-05-30
My job requires me to do a lot of color printing. I have had a lot of different Inkjet printer through my carrier and I have to say the R300 is by far the worst. I have a R300 for my home printer which does not get used often. The print heads clog up and the paper handling is so bad that every other print miss feeds or jams. The printer will miss feed 90% of the time. You can not leave this printer unattended. You have to fiddle with the paper constantly. This printer is very frustrating; the beautiful prints it makes when it works right only make you mad because you know that it will take more fiddling and constant attention to get the next print.
Expensive - Worth It? 
2006-11-18
This printer produces wonderful photo prints and does a great job with printable CDs, too. Here are the negatives:
1. VERY expensive inks. As is the case with most inkjets, Epson expects to make its money with ink cartridge sales. I began using a local "refill" service to save some money and have not noticed any degredation in performance or quality. Well, at least not yet.
2. You do get warned about low ink long before the ink runs out. This results in ignoring the warnings, and that results in some bad printing...putting everything back right to where you started! The irony is irresistable.
3. Using the CD print tray is slow and awkward.
All that said, you won't be disappointed with this printer. Knock wood, I've had it for two years and it's running fine...
Horrible, just horrible 2006-11-15
I use this junk printer at work to print out DVD labels and cases. Using printable DVDrs, this printer is great, the colors are pretty accurate to the original, and the DVDR looks professional. But, my DVD tray on the printer doesn't work well, so you have to push the DVD into the printer EVERY time you want to print. It gets annoying, but you had to do it manually anyways.
My main problem with this printer is the paper jams. I have to make a lot of CD cases (50+), so having this printer jam on every sheet of paper wastes a lot of my time and money. Instead of letting the printer print out all of my CD case labels overnight, I have to manually feed the paper into the printer, and even then that is a challenge! It takes 2-10 tries to get the paper into the printer, multiply that by 2 (I have to print the backside of the case too), and it leads to headaches.
Also, this printer consumes so much ink, it's not funny. I have twelve cartridges lying next to me after 5 months of working here, and I only printed around 100-120 CDs and CD case labels.
Buy Shares in Ink, profits are up 2008-06-01
I bought this printer with the idea in mind that the separate ink cartridges would save me money on ink. The cartridges were only $9.99 at Fry's when I bought the printer, but they have gone up to $12.99 since. I reasoned that if one color ran out, I wouldn't have to throw away a lot of ink, especially since I print mainly with black ink.
Instead of meeting my expectations, however, I discovered that my color cartridges registered lower and lower despite the fact I was using only black ink and using the "only black ink" setting in the print setup, which, by the way, you have to manually reset each time you start to print. Therefore, I was using more ink and spending more money than ever before. I tried getting iso replacement cartridges, but the computer detected that the cartridges were not genuine Epson cartridges and refused to operate. So that was a waste of money, too, especially since I couldn't return the inks. Then there was the problem that the printer will not print if one cartridge registers out of ink, even if you only want to use the black. Tough luck if you are running a deadline!
Later, I got a letter in the mail which turned out to be a notification to me of a class action suit against Epson because consumers found that their ink cartridges registered empty when in fact there was still ink in the cartridges. So I shook my "empty" cartridges, and sure enough, they sloshed. Too bad I opened that letter way too late to benefit. Not that I would have received anywhere near the amount I spent on the inks...
I rated it low because ink is a huge factor when buying a printer. It's supposed to save us money to have our own photo printers, otherwise we might as well have our photos done professionally. I shudder to think of how much each individual printout must have cost me.
Good Product 
2008-05-21
I have been using this product for a couple of years and have very good luck with it. Definatly would ecomned.
DO NOT^ waste your money on this one! 2008-03-25
I bought this printer when I bought my new pc several months back.I wanted an inexpensive printer that could do simple printing and label cd's & dvd's.
At first I thought it was ok.It does a good job on plain document b&w printing but REALLY SUCKS on color copies quality wise and ink wise.
I have tried several photo printings.It ended up looking grainy and fuzzy.If you up the settings you drain your ink carts,making quality printing very expensive.
I went to replace the ink carts,and was shocked to find I can almost buy a brand new printer for what ink cost.Bundle pack alone from Epson 61.00+ and Amazon 50.75 at time of writing this.The black cart.17.00-19.99.
Now who wants to spend approx.70.00 to almost 100.00 on ink everytime you have to replace the carts?
I tried generic ink and it doesn't recognize the cart because it doesn't fit like a Epson cart.Plus the generic does not last as long as the Epson.
If Epson would drop the price of ink I still do not think I would continue to use this printer as the ink just doesn't last.
YES the ink warning DOES come on way too early.
It seems ignoring the warnings(even though you KNOW the ink is suffient)leads to the printer giving you reduced quality.This could be anything from lighter color to streaks to splotchy places on your final documents.
Although I had bought this printer for mainly getting into printing cd's and dvd's,I am not wasting my time with that feature any further.The cd tray is flimsy and I do not like the fact that you have to take it in and out in order to change from cd printing to regular printing.
The negative reviews on this printer so far is 100% correct,and I WISHED I had read further reviews before wasting my time and money on this printer.
The reviews about cleaning the heads is so true and I found out it did not help that much on printing afterwards.I also had a problem aligning the heads.
It is NOT simple to use nor is it user friendly unless you are a expert in rigging it around all the faults and flaws.
I read the reviews about doing various tips and techniques to make this printer useful,but WHY bother???
For the average person that wants something simple to use this isn't it.
It is not worth the hassle to have to go through to get the prints and final products out of it.
I have unplugged this printer and will go and find another brand that is not so difficult to work around and one that ink will not cost a fortune to use.
My old HP did a far better job and it was older technology,but was far simpler and ink efficient.
Will NEVER buy another Epson as they seem to have quality issues and ink issues.
I am now boycotting Epson products! 2007-12-31
I received an R300 for Christmas a couple of years ago. Initially the print-quality was excellent and I was extremely happy with the results. However, it wasn't long before the problems occurred- clogged ink heads for the colors which weren't used regularly, and eventually even poor text output from clogged ink heads for the black, which was used often. The only options that were available to me was to service my printer, costing me as much money as the printer originally cost- or to try to clean it myself. Unfortunately Epson has absolutely horrible customer service, and the most outrageous thing I learned was that they do not even sell the cleaning solution to the public- you HAD to get it serviced for $$$ if you wanted to continue printing with this piece of junk which continually clogs with ink before sucking the cartridges dry from head-cleanings.
I am now finally replacing this defective excuse for a printer with a Canon model (Pixma iP6700D). I can't really imagine the Canon being any worse than this one, and expect it to be much better. In a couple of years I'll let you know how the Canon has worked for me.
Epson Makes Garbage 2007-11-04
This printer is a horrid little beast that will not last long before breaking, and require you to continue feeding it color ink even when you don't use it. Epson makes printers that work for a year, then develop some sort of mechanical problem. Just a fair warning, stay away...
