Holiday Home Printing with a Epson XP-950 Printer + Free Snowman Coloring Page Printable

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After surviving through college and over ten years of professional graphic design work, my good old Epson 1280 printer finally bit the dust last summer. I was sad. We’d been through many a late night project together and I loved being able to print 11″ x 17″ paper. That said, I guess ten years is pretty exceptional for a printer to last with heavy use! Epson offered me the opportunity to upgrade with a review of a shiny new Epson XP-950 printer. To say I was impressed is an understatement.

This “small in one ” home printer uses six inkjet cartridges which are easy to install. The included software shows your remaining ink levels so you can replace just one color at a time instead of wasting money tossing an entire color cartridge when it was likely only one color was gone.

EPSON XP-950

• Professional photo quality — stunning borderless photos up to 11″ x 17″ and sharp text, all with one ultra-powerful Small-in-One printer
• Perfect photos made easy — Auto Photo Correction and red-eye removal, with and without a computer
• Fast — 4″ x 6″ photos in as fast as 11 seconds¹
• Always ready to print— auto-extend output tray and dedicated photo tray
• Innovative fold-over scan lid— holds originals in place
• Ultimate wireless printing and scanning—share one Small-in-One printer at home; includes Wi-Fi Direct™²
• Epson Connect™³ — print and scan from anywhere; convenient mobile printing from smartphones,tablets and more; also supports Apple® AirPrint™ and Google Cloud Print™
• One-of-a-kind creative projects — rear paper feed accommodates specialty paper⁴, print directly onto inkjet printable CDs/DVDs
• Easy, PC-free printing of brilliant borderless photos — built-in card slots⁵, plus, 3.5” touchscreen with gesture navigation
• Smudge, scratch and water resistant photos — worry-free handling; share photos right after printing⁶
• Brilliant results, smart value — individual ink cartridges; replace only the color you need

I was amazed to see all of the features the Epson XP-950 printers has. This small printer is fully loaded with tools to make life much easier and perhaps actually help you create some prints from those family photos trapped on your computer, camera, tablet or smartphone. You’re able to insert a memory card directly into the printer or print wirelessly from your iPad®, iPhone®, tablet, smartphone or computer (see required mobile printing solutions below). Setting up the wireless network was easier than I expected and within minutes I was up and running. The adjustable digital display made it easy to navigate.

I set to work printing some sample pictures. I’ve wanted to frame this mother’s day picture of me and my daughter for months now. I simply loaded 4″ x 6″ premium glossy Epson paper into the back loading tray OR the second dedicated paper tray below (which allows me to have both standard office paper and my 4″ x 6″ photo paper loaded and ready at all times).

The Epson color correction tools allow me to either use my software color settings or allow my Epson printer to correct color for me. These test prints were spot on for color compared to my monitor. I’m also able to print right from my memory card and the Epson printer can correct not only color right from the card (no software required) and even correct red eyes!

I was happy to see that my large printing option was still available allowing me to print my custom typographic designs to give as gifts or sell. This huge print turned out perfectly and I was surprised how quickly it printed.

Epson also bundled some neat functions which could be fun for your family. Under the “More Functions” tab I found a “Coloring Book” option which let me choose a photo or drawing from either the scanner (did I mention this printer has a scanner!?) or the memory card slot. I was curious and needed to find out what this did!

I drew a fun winter design, scanned it in using the Coloring Book functions and in a few seconds I had an adorable coloring page. I didn’t expect the cute outline it did which added a lot of character to this design.

My daughter was home sick and this was the perfect little craft to brighten her day. Download your own snowman coloring page below. Do you wanna build a snowman?

FREE COLORING PAGE DOWNLOAD

Download your free Snowman “Do you wanna build a snowman?” coloring page in a pdf format.

IMPROVEMENTS:

So far the only aspect of this Epson printer that is frustrating is the split in the lid for the printer. When I open the lid it feels as if it’s going to bend and break the white backing board for the scan bed. I’m not sure why this was built this way. Then again I’m not an engineer so perhaps there’s a functional reason I’m not aware of.

Holiday Photo Cards Printed at Home:

I was also really excited to see that Epson provides a TON of home printing downloads on their Epson CreativeZone page. This includes holiday cards which are incredibly popular right now. Why trudge to the store and brave the mobs when you can print exactly what you need with a simple PNG download and any simple photo home software.

I made the personalized holiday photo card below by downloading a PNG from this Snowman Christmas Photo Card instruction page. Using Photoshop I added our photo, name and date. They’ve even included simple cut lines.

Check out this link for more fun holiday photo cards!

Need More Help?

More help videos from Epson.

More About the Epson XP-950 Printer

The Expression Photo XP-950 puts professional-quality photo printing right at your fingertips. This wide-format all-in-one features 6-color inks and an innovative, fold-over scan lid that holds originals in place. Quickly produce stunning borderless photos up to 11″ x 17″ or print 4″ x 6″ photos in as fast as 11 seconds.¹ Featuring the ultimate in wireless printing², the XP-950 makes it easier than ever to print from your iPad®, iPhone®, tablet or smartphone³, whether in your home or out and about. No matter what you choose to print, you’re ready with a dedicated photo tray, specialty paper support⁴ and CD/DVD printing.

Mobile Printing
Print wirelessly from your iPad®, iPhone®, tablet, smartphone or computer³ with the following mobile printing solutions:

I was impressed with all of the features, some that I have yet to explore, on this Epson XP-950 printer and can’t wait to continue using it. We’ll see if it outlasts it’s predecessor.

BUY IT: ON SALE NOW!

Epson XP-950 originally priced at $299.99 – on sale now for $199.99 on the Epson site with their $100 instant rebate and FREE ground shipping! You can also find this printer at major retailers including Best Buy and Target!

Disclosure: I received a sample for the purpose of review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.