Review: Epson Stylus Color 740

by Columnist: George Edward Green III
Until recently I was the proud owner of a Radio Shack JP 1100 ink jet printer, as well as the not so proud owner of a Stylewriter II. I still own the Stylewriter II, but the JP1100 blew as the result of an electrical surge when the power company was working on the power to my street. The JP1100 wasn’t a very high quality printer, but it got the job done, and cartridges were cheap. On the other hand my Stylewriter has more expensive cartridges, only prints in b/w, and as its old, tries to roll 500 sheets of paper through when it prints, instead of a single sheet, thus forcing itself to jam. I’ve worked to control the frequency of this, but the unit simply doesn’t due for day to day printing, it’s too much of a hassle. So I decided shortly after the JP1100’s demise, that I was in need of a new printer.

I’ll be honest there wasn’t a real big choice involved. It was more of “which Epson should I buy” kind of decision. I’ve been familiar with the Stylus line since our school purchased a Stylus Color II, ages ago. Since then two of my friends have bought Stylus printers, and been treated to wonderful color output, reasonably speedy printing, and basically a great printer. Given that and the frequency with which Mac publications have rated the printer for having great color output, I was pretty sure what printer I wanted.

I choose the 740 as it has three ports, USB, Parallel, and Mac Serial. I needed a USB printer so my new G3 could print, and I wanted to print from the PC too, so I needed the Parallel. The Mac Serial wasn’t very necessary, since I could have networked my Performa to my G3 for network printing. (As for why my USB equipped PC, with USB drivers won’t acknowledge the existence of USB peripherals, I will only say; it really is plug and pray!) The Stylus 740 can be setup so that each of these ports can be used at any one time (As to what it will do if two ports have data at the same time I have no idea. I haven’t tried this, and I’m only one person, so I don’t foresee me trying to print two documents from two computers simultaneously.) I can now print from each of my computers, without having to tie up another one, or worse yet, having to send the document across platforms for printing. My Radio Shack Printer was a PC printer, so when I wanted to print I had to get out the floppies. One can imagine the fun this becomes when I had to print from the G3, as I then tied up what I was doing on three computers.

Installation was pretty strait forward. I bought it through Mac Zone, and they sent me the longest USB cable they sell. Unfortunately it wasn’t long enough, so now my Gravis Gamepad Pro is plugged into the back of the G3, and my printer is attached to my keyboard. This still just messes with me. ^_- More and more though I’m beginning to see the advantage of USB. Once again the installation of a USB device took very little time, and no configuration of terminators, nor switchboxes to accommodate for non-daisy-chainable devices. I just plugged it in and it worked like a charm. The only complaint I have now is that I wish more companies would do what Apple did with the G3 keyboard, and provide a port on the other end to promote daisy-chaining devices. Currently I’ve got to get a hub before I buy any more peripherals. Still though a hub is better than the big ugly manual switchbox I use to allow the Performa to access several peripherals, and doesn’t come with its one device at a time limit. As I’m looking to add MIDI to my G3, I might well be reviewing a USB MIDI device, and hub in the near features. Aside from that though USB is great. I can’t wait till some real Fire Wire devices come out. (I’d be interested in the DV stuff coming out for Fire Wire if they would put a video out on the damn things too. I already have a Performa with Video In, and no out. Its cute, I can do vidcaps, but why edit video that is utterly desktop bound?)

Either way though, I haven’t done too much color printing as yet. I printed out some C++ code that was color-coded for readability, which was nice. Hardly a great way to judge color quality, but then again I dunno too much about quality color so I’ll leave that to the Labs of Mac mags. What I do know is the thing is speedy. One of the things I liked about the Radio Shack printer was that it was fast. I don’t know how it compares to other modern printers, but the Stylus 740 was definitely speedy enough for me. While I didn’t count the pages per minute, I know I wasn’t taping my foot long waiting for those 7 pages of color-coded text.

Another thing that kind of surprised me was that reminder that desktop printing is dead. Every Mac printer I’ve ever used has had a cute little desktop printer icon on the desktop. I’m so used to this that at first I thought something was wrong when no icon came up. On the other hand I’m glad that there’s less desktop clutter. Whenever it prints it’s background Print Monitor appears until it’s done printing. I can’t think of any time you’d need to access the printer monitor when it’s not printing. I recall vaguely that with desktop printers you could drag a document to their icon and they would print it, but I recall neither ever using this, nor whether it merely printed it, or opened the program and then printed it. The prior would be far handier. Still it was very apparently not a feature I ever used, so I can’t say I miss it. I am interested to see though as Apple moves away from the Chooser exactly how printing will work.

All in all I’m very happy with the Stylus 740. I understand there’s a new Photo 750 which is better for color, but I don’t print color that much so I didn’t feel like spending a lot more cash for it. I’m quite content with the 740 provided its prints are at least as good as the ones my friends got with their much older models, and I’m sure they are. The installation was easy, the three ports are very handy, and I have to concur with the box; its very handy for small mixed networks, like those found in small business, as well as in my home. The Stylus 740 offers fast, reliable printing, at a decent price, now for under $200 from some dealers. If you need super awesome color, you might want to consult a publication with a bit more background in color. If you’re just looking for a good inkjet that will work with your new iMac, or G3, and also want to print occasionally from an older Mac, the Stylus 740 is perfect for the job. Just make sure to remind the salesperson that you do need a cable.