In the era of smartphones and social networks, the interest of buyers to Polaroid single-stage cameras with instant development disappeared. But, apparently, not completely. Otherwise, do not explain the appearance of portable photo printers from most manufacturers associated with printing equipment. As a result, today, gadget lovers can’t be surprised just with printer mobility, and it’s extremely difficult to stand out from the competition, especially in such a specific and narrow niche. However, an unusual and elegant device from Epson - Colorio PF-81 - it was possible.
The idea turned out to be simple: to bet not on instant photo printing, which every first competitor’s device can boast of, but to offer customers a solution to a problem from a different plane, for example, printing postcards. That is, not every one of us is a photographer, and not everyone is eager to take photographs here and now, but everyone goes to holidays (well,
almost ). Birthdays, weddings and other memorable dates: at each such event you can trump a postcard with an individual design, and not be limited to what you bought at the nearest stall.
It is clear that if desired, any owner of a regular printer, armed with a graphic editor and imagination, can make a wagon of such cards without any additional devices. But the chip PF-81 just in the utmost simplicity, casualness and autonomy from the PC.
More than a thousand templates for cards for all possible events, as well as backgrounds, fonts and effects are pre-embedded into the device. Postcards can be supplemented with photos from personal archives, downloading them via USB, SD-cards or from mobile devices via Wi-Fi Direct.
Managing the process of preparing cards is carried out through the touch panel with a diagonal of 9 inches. In addition to graphic templates, enough texts are sewn into the device for all possible solemn and mourning events. They can also be easily customized individually due to the bundled wireless keyboard.
PF-81 together with the keyboard is placed in a compact travel bag, apparently, in case you need to print postcards on trips of a working or tourist nature.
If to abstract from narrowly focused functionality, the device is a standard portable jet, similar to, for example, the more versatile Epson WorkForce WF-100. Printing is carried out on sheets of paper up to A5, using the ICCL81 four-color cartridge, at a speed of 2 pages per minute (with a maximum resolution of 5760x1440 dpi).
Well, and a little about sad. Information about the device is taken from the Japanese site Epson. In the land of the rising sun, the PF-81 went on sale as far back as 2015, and it has not yet got beyond its limits. Apparently, in his home country, he enjoys quite popular, since the company annually releases new versions with an updated set of holiday templates. The question of whether the device will even reach an English-speaking audience remains open.
A couple of short videos with PF-81 from the store: