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E
pson’s new laser printer is quite
something. It ships as a mono laser
printer, but it has four toner slots
– this means you can put four black toner
cartridges in for four times the black
output (about 20,000 pages!) before
changing toner or – and this is the ‘genius’
bit – you can put a cyan, magenta and
yellow toner into the additional slots and
voila! you have a full-colour laser printer.
Like most laser printers, it’s a heavy
beast and takes two people to get out of the
box and into place.
Once set up, I followed the pictographic
guide, which does take close attention. I
persevered and made the grade, as the User
Guide PDF takes up after you’ve set the
printer up using the pictograms.
I turned the 2600N on and it prompted
me, via the built-in LCD, for a toner
cartridge. One after the other, cartridges
were inserted. Remember; shut the cover
each time so the printer can ‘charge’ it,
then the built-in LCD prompts for the
next (the toner slots are colour-coded and
rotate to present themselves in the correct
sequence). In about 12 minutes I had a
fully operational colour laser printer.
Being connected to my G5 tower by a
USB cable (not supplied) meant I could
dispense with any of Epson’s networking
software or ethernet cables, as OS X allows
you to share any connected printer (sure
enough, all four Macs on my local network
could use the AcuLaser effortlessly).
Of course, you have to load Epson’s
driver, which comes on a CD. With
that done, I was a little mystified that I
couldn’t print in colour from a Adobe CS2
applications, although the built in OS X
apps had no qualms.
So take note and do this immediately if
you install one of these printers: open OS
X’s Printer Setup Utility (Applications>
Utilities), choose Add Printer, allow a few
seconds for the utility to find the AcuLaser
driver (AL-2600), select it then click the
ColorSync (sic) icon. This will boot OS X’s
ColorSync Utility.
Under Devices>Printers you should see
the AcuLaser driver. Select it, then click
the Profiles icon at the top, open Other in
the left-hand pane, select the Epson AL-
C2600 profile there and voila! Close the
utility and you’re in business.
Epson AcuLaser 2600N
EPSON ACULASER 2600N
RRP (MONOCHROME UPGRADABLE TO
COLOUR) $1575 OR (COLOUR) $1800.
TONER $124 (BLACK, 5000 PAGES),
COLOUR $281 EACH (5000 PAGE YIELD)
OR $163 EACH (2000 PAGE YIELD)
DESCRIPTION Small footprint, colour-
upgradeable, high capacity and fast
black and white laser printer
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Mac with a USB
connector and/or ethernet, running
Mac OS 9.x or OSX 10.1.2+ (Windows
98/Me/XP/2000/Server 2003, NT 4.0).
Very useful capabilities
Small, fast, powerful
Amazing definition
Particular about paper size
in print jobs
Noisy (like most lasers)
Aesthetics 7/10
New features 10/10
Stability 9/10
Value for money 9/10
Overall 9/10
Available from all good computer outlets/
Apple resellers. For more information and
specifications, contact www.epson.co.nz
And what business!
This laser is something else – it must be a
long time since I looked at a laser printer
because this thing prints in incredible detail,
in black and white or colour. I was staggered
by the fine tonal gradients and minutiae
replicated on even plain A4. The 2600N can
print on stiffer photo paper too, but make
sure you load it into the side ‘MP’ tray as the
lower tray only handles standard copy paper.
Printing a photograph on the finer settings
throws your computer into some extended
cogitation while it and the printer do the
maths, but once that process is complete, the
print spits out in one go. Confusingly, the
bottom tray prints on the tops of the sheets
and the side-tray on the underside …
Colour – because it’s fused toner – is never
going to be as intense as the colours on
good glossy photo stock. That’s a given, but
crikey, it’s very impressive all the same. The
2600N prints at 600dpi, but using Epson’s
RIT (resolution improvement technology)
it achieves more like 2400dpi. Combined
with Epson’s proprietary PGI (Photo and
Graphics Improvement) screen, grey scale
and colour gradations are smooth as silk.
Verdict
An excellent, small laser with amazing
capabilities at an outstanding price. You
have to get paper loading right, and it
really didn’t like getting sent a job set to US
Letter, for example, when the paper stock
loaded was A4. This resulted in a paper jam
necessitating paper removal and a panel
being opened and closed before everything
would work properly again (I suspect this
issue may be ironed out in later software).
Some ideas are good, some ideas are genius.
Mark Webster seriously lasers some paper
But with a fast 30ppm throughput in
black and white, the ability to load two
trays full of paper and with its very useful
colour (7ppm)upgradeability, not to
mention the 2600N prints in exquisite
detail, this is a breakthrough product.
If I was running a small business, I sure
would want one of these.
Jan / Feb 06 61
review