Epson Unveils Two New High Performance Impact Printers Including Drop-In Replacement for Okidata Microline 320 Turbo.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 14, 2002

New Evaluation Program Gives Customers Free 15-Day Trial Offer

With EPSON FX-880+ Before Committing to Purchase

Building on its growing line of award-winning impact printers, Epson America Inc. leaps into 2002 with the new EPSON FX-880+ and EPSON FX-1180+, two powerful impact printers with best-in-class speed, flexibility, and performance. Engineered to fulfill mission critical business applications and multipart form output, both models deliver the speed and reliability to meet the impact printing needs of today's fast-paced business environments.

The narrow-carriage FX-880+ with 80 column width at 10 characters per inch (cpi) and wide-carriage FX-1180+ with 136 column width at 10 cpi offer faster print speeds, increased reliability and greater connectivity options over their predecessor models -- the EPSON FX-880 and EPSON FX-1180. In addition, the FX-880+ is designed to serve as a seamless drop-in replacement for customers looking to replace their Okidata(R)Microline(R)320 Turbo printer. By simply plugging in the FX-880+ and turning on the Okidata Mode feature, the replacement is complete without the hassle of changing printer drivers.

For customers who may be uncertain about purchasing or upgrading to a new EPSON FX-880+, Epson has created a special "Hands-On" 15-Day Evaluation Program. This enables them to personally test the FX-880+ printer before making the decision to purchase.

"We think the combination of this printer's features with the evaluation program is an offer most impact printer customers will find hard to resist," said Mike Lee, assistant product manager, impact printers, Epson. "Once customers see for themselves just how easy it is to replace their current printers with the EPSON FX-880+, in addition to enjoying its superior performance and lower price -- we're very confident they'll see the logic in keeping the product on a permanent basis."

The EPSON FX-880+ and FX-1180+ do not sacrifice efficiency for performance -- delivering speeds up to 564 characters per second in 12 cpi ultra speed draft mode, with a printhead life expectancy of 200 million characters. Their rugged designs also feature 25 percent greater durability than their predecessors with a meantime-between-failure rating of 12,500 power-on-hours (25 percent duty cycle), while running more quietly at only 53 dBA. Furthermore, the printers' five-million-character, high-yield ribbons deliver greater cost-per-page savings, while minimizing users' downtime.

The EPSON FX-880+ and FX-1180+ are the company's first impact printers to offer both standard parallel and USB connectivity. For additional networking solutions, each model's Type-B card slot easily accepts optional Ethernet, serial, twinax, coax, and other interface cards.

Both models have four paper paths and can print on a wide array of media such as multi-part forms (up to six parts), cut sheets, envelopes, continuous paper, labels and roll paper. Each printer also features a variety of resident bitmapped fonts, bar code fonts, and character sets. A user-friendly control panel makes it simple to select character font and pitch, while the panel lock feature offers better management of print jobs in settings with multiple users. They also support the latest versions of Windows from 3.1 through XP and NT 3.51/4.0.

The EPSON FX-880+ has a MSRP of $399 and the EPSON FX-1180+ has a MSRP of $549. Dealer prices may vary.

Warranty and Support

The EPSON FX-880+ and EPSON FX-1180+ are sold through authorized Epson resellers. Each carries a two-year limited warranty and is supported by a nationwide network of service centers. For more information on Epson and its products, call 1-800-GO-EPSON (1-800-463-7766) or visit the company's Web site at www.epson.com.

About Epson

Epson introduced the first Epson brand impact printer in 1978 and is the world leader in impact printer sales. Epson offers an extensive array of award-winning image capture and image output products for the consumer, business, photography and graphic arts markets. The company is also a leading supplier of value-added point-of-sale (POS) solutions for the retail market. Founded in 1975, Epson America Inc. is the U.S. affiliate of Japan-based Seiko Epson Corp., a global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality technology products that meet customer demands for increased functionality, compactness, systems integration and energy efficiency. Epson America Inc. has headquarters in Long Beach, Calif.

Note: Epson is a registered trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation. All other product and brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.