Epson has spruced up its printer line with the addition of two new inkjets designed for use in a home or small office.

At $699, the new Stylus Color 860 should appeal to customers who work in a small office or at home, Epson says. At $599, the Stylus Color 760 is geared toward the family fun-room, but could pinch hit as a home office printer. Both models top out at 1440 dots-per-inch resolution, and both include parallel and Universal Serial Bus ports for PC as well as Macintosh users.

Epson specifies the 860's print speed at a zippy 9.5 pages per minute for text and 7ppm for colour graphics. PC World has not yet tested the 860, but like almost all other printers, in real-world testing it is likely to perform somewhat slower than the specification on text and a great deal slower on graphics.

Epson also says the 860 is quieter than its previous printers; if true, that will be a welcome change.

The company specifies the 760's performance at 7ppm for text and 6ppm for colour graphics.

Both models come with a useful bundle of photo software that includes Polaroid's PhotoMax Pro, ArcSoft's PhotoPrinter, and Epson's own Film Factory. In addition, buyers can choose two titles from a list of games and more graphics software, including Corel's Ventura Publisher 7 and Kai's SuperGoo 2.

Epson

Phone: (02) 9903 9000

http://www.epson.com.au