Epson Workforce 1100 Color Inkjet Wide Format Printer

5 comments

1. 

   James Duckett on December 18, 2009 at 1:43 am

   I’ll admit, I wasn’t mentally prepared for the size of the printer until it came in. My first thought was, “My goodness, this thing is humongous.” And you can tell that before even taking it out of the box. So, if you are going to pick one up, make sure you have plenty of room to put it somewhere.

   I do want to point out a few negatives before I get to the two big positives. Despite my “gripes”, I think the positives outweigh the negatives.

   Negative #1: It’s huge. Okay, I’ve covered that.

   Negative #2: No network support. Is a NIC card really going to make it much more expensive? This is a frustration as I have four computers in my network and I hate sharing printers. Luckily I had another print server but I would think product with the word “Workforce” in it would gear itself towards networking capabilities.

   Negative #3: TOC (Total cost of ownership). Granted, this is cheaper than running out to a print shop everytime you need a large print done but the cost of ink has already sticker-shocked me and I’ve only had it for less than a month (my wife loves scrapbooking). I’m surprised how quickly we went through the ink it came with and I feel like we are going through the initial replacement faster than I ever did on my HP Photosmart (which has a NIC, by the way). In fact, this has become printer choice #3. For black and white we use the laser, for printer that don’t need to be blown up we use the Photosmart, and then we turn to this for blown-up photo printing. I hate reserving so much space for something that is only used 10% of the time.

   But, on to the positives. And I think these are the two things you should consider when looking to pick this up.

   Positive #1: In my opinion, this is my highest consideration. The prints are BEAUTIFUL and FLAWLESS! I love printing to this printer when I want to go big on some of my photos. It is definitely better than what you’ll get off of a color laser (you’ve got to drop a lot of coinage if you want a laser to print like this) and carries the same quality as my HP Photosmart. So if it is large, photo-quality prints then this is the way to go.

   Positive #2: I might be a little old school here, but I remember when printing something like this took forever. I was actually surprised at how quickly it printed this out and even beat out the HP Photosmart on larger prints. My first printout I had to go back to my print settings to verify that I had printed out on my highest print quality just to make sure. I don’t print out tons and tons, but I’ve really appreciated the fact that the onsis and twosies I print I don’t need to wait forever to get it to come out.

   Bottom line: the quality is there and the speed is pretty good, but if you print to it a lot you are going to end up paying the price of this printer many times over.

2. 

   JAG on December 18, 2009 at 2:50 am

   We got this to make printing architectural drawings faster than our supersized printer that prints 24″ x 42″. We paid over 1500 for that printer and I’ve hated it since the day it was installed. This epson printer, doesnt print that size, but it has not once backed up or eaten the paper or smudged ink everywhere. For less than 200 dollars, this was one of our best investments. I’ve also tried using it for photos, but it wasnt designed for that purpose so I cant judge its performance on that. It does print a little slow for high quality prints but that can be expected on all printers. I would recommend this to anyone needing 11×17 prints.

3. 

   A. Reader on December 18, 2009 at 5:40 am

   First this printer is huge, (and heavy!) keep that in mind and pay close attention to the dimensions.

   Second the print quality is outstanding, one page on maximum quality, one page on high speed, they both came out excellent.

   Thirdly, its a little loud. Even for a work printer it seems a tad on the loud size compared to both the laser and ink printers we use at work. [-To be fair, my unit was broken, so maybe thats an unfair assesment.]

   Fourthly… no usb cable included. Give me a break. I know certain A/V companies can get away with it, and have found selling ‘premium’ cables a huge revenue area, but this is a printer. It should have absolutely come with everything needed to set it up.

   [Lastly, my printer stopped working after its 2nd page. This is clearly marketed as a work grade printer. And it worked twice for me... now nothing but incredibly loud grinding noises when it tries to print a page. It should be commercial grade. Being in sales, I could lose deals not having materials when needed. After spending an hour on the phone with various customer service reps (apparently no one could find the proper support dept), I was told since they closed in 45 minutes, they'd most likely get to me on Monday. I explained I had a deadline and really needed to get the problem sorted out today, he said he'd note that... but no call back.]-See Update.

   UPDATE:
   
   A very helpful person from Epson contacted me yesterday and overnighted a replacement out to me.
   
   After talking to several of my employees who saw the printer delivered, they said the delivery guy threw it onto the ground. (See comment 1, it’s HEAVY). I can’t fault Epson for that. And any company that will overnight you a replacement is pretty ok in my book! And the initial pages printed well, so I will update if I have any new problems…

   Someone commented that the USB situation is pretty common these days in the industry. Thats a bummer, but as my parrents used to say, just because everyones doing it, doesn’t mean its ok!

   All in all, I’m going 4 out 5.

4. 

   Z~ on December 18, 2009 at 6:56 am

   The Workforce 1100 should of been named the Work “Horse” 1100. This printer is a beast and reliable. It measures over 2 Feet in length and 12.75 inches high. Very easy to install, just plug it in, insert the ink cartridges and follow the software instructions on connecting the USB cable. THIS UNIT DOES NOT COME WITH A PRINTER USB CABLE. I recommend the Belkin F3U133-10 Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Cable (10 Feet) or the Belkin F3U133-06 Pro Series Hi-Speed USB Cable (Six-Feet), both are very affordability priced.

   The printout quality is unbelievable great. I have attached a photo on in the image gallery to show you how a photo printed on heavy cardstock comes out clean and with no streaking, color bleeding or horizontal lines like most inkjets printers do. The print speed is quite a bit faster than the average inkjet printer and the quality of the print exceeds any other inkjet printer I have ever used. It is extremely quiet even though it is so large. Since it has some weight to it, it sits sturdy with no vibrations.

   Energy Star qualified which means it help help with energy costs, states it uses up to 70% less energy than a laser printer. The ink is affordable and does last for some time. I currently own the Epson Stylus Color CX5000 All In One Printer and the ink lasts for several months with continuous use.

   This printer will print on the smallest index cards up to wide format projects with 13″ wide paper. This may sound foolish but one thing I really found convenient is how easy it is to slide the paper guide to the edge of the paper inserted in the tray. It slides smoothly without any hesitation.

   If you are looking for a color printer that will be able to print any project you wish to tackle – from spreadsheets, pie and bar graphs to posters and signs – this is the perfect printer!

   UPDATE: Thanks to the research from another Amazon user (see comment section), you are able to use both the 68 and 69 series ink cartridges. According to the Epson website you will be able to get 50% more prints if you are using the 69 series. This works out great for me since I have an all-in-one Epson printer that uses the 69 series and now I can just use one ink series instead of purchasing two different types.

   Ink cartridges:
   
   Epson 68 Series DURABrite High Capacity Color Multipack (T068520)
   
   Epson 68 Black Ink Cart Hi capacity Dual Pack
   
   Epson 69 Series DURABrite Ultra Color Ink Cartridges – Multipack (T069520)
   
   Durabrite Ultra 69 Series Ink Black (T069120)

5. 

   Dave Millman on December 18, 2009 at 8:33 am

   I needed a large-format inkjet that could do a great job on book covers, at a reasonable price. The Workforce 1100 handles the task extremely well.

   I tested it with Inkpress Fine Art Rag Cool Tone, 300 gsm, 24 mil, Double Sided, 13 x 19, (25 sheets) and two other Inkpress stocks. The results are amazing. The old saying may advise, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” but my books look utterly fantastic.

   The 1100 handles up to 13 inch wide stock, so you can use the large 13×19 sheets if you need. That’s big enough to print full-bleed 12×12 scrapbook pages, if you have scrapbookers in the family. In my case, I can create a full-bleed cover for an 8.5×11 inch book by using the 13×19 stock and trimming the edges after printing. Alternatively, you can use the same 13×19 paper to create full-bleed tabloid brochures, or even full-bleed data sheets (cut into two 8.5×11 pages).

   The printer uses separate ink cartridges, which saves money. You don’t toss out yellow and magenta ink when the cyan ink is gone.

   Overall, a great printer if you want large format inkjet output. But you should be cautious that the paper stock you use measures up to the printer’s capability:

   We like the results with Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper for photos and glossy single sided materials. If you are creating covers, brochures or data sheets, invest in a heavier stock. Your document just won’t feel right on regular office paper stock. In general, the larger the sheet, the heaver it needs to be to to not feel flimsy. I strongly recommend against using regular office paper for 11×17 printing, unless presentation and feel just don’t matter.

   Evaluate what the color of the stock can do for your project. For example Inkpress sells “Inkpress Rag, Warm Tone Double Sided, Cream White Matte Inkjet Paper” to impart a warm, almost antique look to some covers.

   I’ve mentioned full-bleed a couple of times. This means printing color right off the edge of the page. You can create a full-bleed 11×17 brochure (folds down to four pages, 8.5×11) by printing a 12×18 image on 13×19 stock, then trimming the edges. The specs claim that this printer can print borderless 13×19 sheets, but I haven’t tried it.

   Five stars for completely solving my large format printing problem.

   Addendum two days later: It’s quieter than our previous HP & Epson inkjet printers. I don’t understand the noise complaint mentioned by another reviewer.

   Final update, three weeks later: We’ve now produced several book mockups using the 300gsm weight Inkpress paper for covers, and some two-sided presentation paper stock from HP for the inside pages. Results are spectacular. For this project, on both the covers and inside pages, photographs are indistinguishable from pages printed on 6-color inkjets. This printer is ideal for all of our large-format business and book mockup projects.