The Epson Expression range is a series of inkjet printers that are designed for home use. They are good for printing everyday documents, such as homework and personal documents, as well as basic photos. There are three sub-sections of the Expression series, ranging from entry level home printer to a printer that specialises in photos.
What Are These Printers Good For?
Epson Expression printers are designed for home use, as entry level, compact printers, as opposed to being suitable for office environments. They are all inkjet printers which use cartridges, as opposed to ink tanks. The cartridges are individual colours, meaning that you only need to replace any colour that has run out.
These printers often allow wireless printing from your laptop, smart phone, or tablet, and many have scanning and copying functions as well.
What Are the Subcategories in This Range?
The Epson Expression range includes Home, Premium, and Photo sub-ranges.
Home
This is the most basic category of printer. The Expression Home is suited to printing everyday documents, such as homework. It can also tackle the occasional photo.
Home printers are an excellent choice for people who don’t need anything with extra bells and whistles. They are more suited to users who need to print something from the comfort of their home occasionally and are not looking to print lots of high quality photos or other documents.
Some printers in this range particularly stand out, such as the Expression Home XP-2200.
Premium
These are a step up from the Home category. The Premium delivers even higher quality document and photo printing, without being a specialist photo printer.
Photo
This is Epson’s specialist range of photo printers, designed to print better quality photos than the Expression Home and Premium can offer.
These printers use a range of 6 different ink cartridges, adding light cyan and light magenta to the range. However, the Expression Photo HD XP-15000 swaps the Light Cyan and Light Magenta for Red and Grey inks. The Red and Grey inks are called 478 (or 478XL for the high capacity version).
You can read more in our dedicated guide to Epson Expression Photo printers.
Which Cartridges Do I Need For My Epson Expression Printer?
These printers use individual ink cartridges. As a broad rule, each category uses a specific type of Epson ink and includes a set number of cartridges:
Home
These printers often use Epson’s Claria Home ink, and have 4 cartridge colours in the range; Black, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow.
Common cartridges in this series include:
604/604XL (Pineapple)
These are used by Home XP-2200 and XP-3200.
603/603XL (Starfish)
These are used in printer models such as the Home XP-2150 and the XP-4150.
502/502XL (Binoculars)
These are compatible with the XP-5100 printer.
Older lines also include 29/29XL (Strawberry) and 18/18XL (Daisy) ink cartridges.
Premium
These printers use Claria Premium ink and come in five colours; Black, Photo Black, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow.
Common cartridges in this range are:
202/202XL (Kiwi)
These ink cartridges work with the Premium XP-6100/ XP-6105.
33/33XL (Orange)
These are an older Premium series that works in several printers in this range.
Photo
As covered earlier, printers in this range include 6 inks; Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, and Light Magenta. They use a type of ink called Claria Photo HD.
Cartridges for the Photo range include:
24/24XL (Elephant)
These are taken by several Expression Photo models, such as the XP-55.
378/378XL (Squirrel)
These are used in newer Expression Photo models, such as the XP-8700.
378/478 and 378XL/478XL (Squirrel)
This specific combination is used in Photo XP-15000 printers and replaces Light Cyan and Light Magenta with Red and Grey 478 cartridges.
Always ensure that you check your exact printer model before you buy ink cartridges.
Epson Expression: A Popular Range of Home Printers
The Expression Home, Premium, and Photo ranges of printer are an excellent choice for home printing. With this range, Epson gives the user a choice in whether to opt for a basic starter printer, a slightly more premium yet still affordable option, and a dedicated choice for photo printing.
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