Forty seconds for a 4-by-6-inch print is much shorter than the wait at the photo lab.

If you're spending too much time and money at the photo lab, it's time to invest in the versatile, yet reasonably priced, Stylus Photo 1400. It prints photos to rival those from a lab, in a flexible array of sizes.

The printer can do borderless prints on media from 4 by 6 inches to 13 by 19 inches, and it will print on DVDs and CDs with a printable surface. The colors it produces are consistent, rich, vibrant, and true to life, with realistic skin tones and excellent shadow detail. Our black-and-white photos had a slight color cast to them, however, so you may need to spend some time making adjustments in Photoshop. Standard 4-by-6-inch prints finished in 40 seconds at the printer's best image quality. If the Ansel Adams in you wants to go bigger, 13-by-19-inch photos printed in just over 3.5 minutes. It took a little over a minute to print on a CD, depending on how complex the design was.

The Stylus Photo 1400 uses six Epson dye-based Claria inks (cyan, light cyan, magenta, light magenta, yellow, and black), which Epson claims are "smudge, scratch, water, and fade resistant." The prints withstood our abuse - the ink didn't run when we sprinkled a few water drops on our pics, and we didn't experience any smudges or smears when handling fresh prints. And we had to be especially rough with the prints to scratch them. We printed 20 4-by-6s, 15 8-by-10s, and three 13-by-19s before we had to install two new ink cartridges. Epson sells replacement cartridges online for $18.99.

Our only two beefs: The printer lacks a card reader (although it does have PictBridge support), and the built-in automatic photo correction feature doesn't work on a Mac. Also, the printer is huge, measuring 24.2 by 31.6 by 16.3 inches, so be sure to clear space on a sturdy table.

The bottom line. You don't have to go to a lab to get top-quality prints. With the Stylus Photo 1400, you can get beautiful photos in a range of sizes, without having to leave your desk.

COMPANY: Epson
CONTACT: www.epson.com
PRICE: $399.99
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.2.8 or later, USB
Excellent image quality. Prints on DVDs and CDs. Supports a wide range of media sizes.
Built-in autocorrection for photos isn't Mac compatible. No memory card reader. Slight cast in black-and-white shots.