Kodak ESP 3250

Kodak ESP 3250 All-in-One Printer

The Kodak ESP 3250 All-in-One color inkjet multifunction printer is very inexpensive ($130 as of January 25, 2010), and it prints superior images on photo paper. Otherwise, it is an average-quality, rather slow machine, appropriate for light-duty school or home use. The ESP 3250's configuration is modest. The 1.5-inch LCD screen on the top panel is small but legible. Its menus and control buttons are intuitive, as is Kodak's Home Center printing/copying/scanning software. The single, 100-sheet front input tray also catches printed output, up to 50 sheets (per Kodak); this design, common among low-cost printers, is tolerable but messy. The single media slot takes MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, and SD Card. I noticed just a few oddities. First, duplexing is manual on the PC, with help from the driver and the front-panel display--but on the Mac, you get zero help aside from Kodak's support site, where an awkward workaround is documented in detail. Second, setting the scan area when the borders were close to the unit's maximum 11.5-by-8.5-inch area was a bit tricky and required a lot of zooming and scrolling. The ESP 3250 is decently constructed. A roller insert in the back of the machine eases the clearing of paper jams (we suffered none).