While we usually associate today’s ink-jet printers and All-in-Ones as printing and copying in full color, Epson Signapore has taken a different twist with K300 series, which print in monochrome black only. The firm is billing the new series as cost-effective alternative to laser counterparts with its 1¢ cost per page and print speed up to 16 ppm.
The new printers, which use Epson’s Micro Piezo print-head technology, use two black cartridges that each yield up to 2,000 pages.
There’s also automatic duplex printing rated at up 8 ppm, and for the all-in-one, a 30-sheet duplexing automatic document feeder, color scanning, and ABBYY FineReader Sprint 9.0x OCR software for OCR. The K100 and K300 have a 250-sheet paper drawer, while the K200 has a 150-sheet paper capacity. All of the units have Ethernet network connectivity.
As we noted, at present, Epson is only selling the K300 series in emerging markets. But bringing back monochrome-only ink-jet printers is an interesting idea. While one of the big advantages of ink-jet technology is its ability to produce photorealistic color output, especially on photo paper, monochrome ink-jets may appeal to some users. First, today’s ink-jet printers’ print speeds – up to 16 ppm for the K300 series – now rival that of laser competitors. Ink-jet also has some other advantages. Replacing ink-jet supplies is typically much easier than replacing laser-counterparts’ toner or toner/drum combination, and ink-jet printers’ energy consumption is considerably less than that of laser counterparts. Altogether, these advantages, plus the K300′s 1¢ cost per page, may make it appealing to cost-conscious users who don’t require color capability.
Complete specifications for the K300 series can be accessed here.
