August 12, 2010
Epson Workforce 1100 Color Inkjet Wide Format Printer
Posted by: kk : Category: Printers & Ink
- Wide-format prints
- Speed through critical documents
- Protect important documents
- Print more, change cartridges less often
- One printer for everyday projects, large-size prints and more
Product Description
Epson Workforce 1100 Color Inkjet Wide Format Printer
Epson Workforce 1100 Color Inkjet Wide Format Printer
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5 Responses to “Epson Workforce 1100 Color Inkjet Wide Format Printer”
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August 12th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
I am a very happy owner of an Epson Workforce 600, so I was excited to receive this wide format printer for review. Like other Epson Workforce series printers, the 1100 has a fast printing mechanism and quality that rivals laser output (depending on the paper stock).
Is this printer for everyone? Definitely not. First it’s big (although not as large as a wide format laser), so those with tight space may want to think about whether they really need to print on paper wider than 8.5 inches. It also lacks a network interface, so it must be tethered to a computer or a compatible third party print server.
Epson is not marketing this product as a photo printer. While the image quality of the 1100 is excellent, those looking for wide format photos should consider a photo printer designed for that purpose. Photos will print on the 1100, but there are better printers on the market that will produce more vibrant photo prints.
The Workforce 1100 is great, however, for businesses looking for a little more flexibility in the size of prints they can make without having to invest in expensive hardware and consumables.
PROs
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1. As fast as an entry level to mid-range laser printer.
2. Excellent print quality.
3. Uses standard epson ink cartridges.
4. Very reasonably priced.
CONs
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1. It is disappointing that a printer marketed to business lacks network connectivity.
2. Not designed for photo printing.
3. USB cable is not included.
4. Mac Snow Leopard users will need to download device driver software before installing.
Rating: 5 / 5
August 12th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
I was a bit sceptical when purchasing this printer as it has no reviews, but in the end the only comparable model was an HP with bad reviews so I went for it. I ordered off Epson’s site and was shocked that the printer got here the next day. I don’t like the size, going from a normal printer to this…well it took me a hours worth of cleaning to find room for this 24*15 inch printer. After I got it all set up(it was a breeze) I printed one of my scrapbook layouts out. It printed much faster than I imagined and I didn’t even have to wait for it to dry before I could get my hands all over it. The quality is so much better than my old Canon i850, and I loved that printer. I love the ease of use and ability to go to online support(or to order ink) straight from the software.
The ink is very affordable even from Epson’s site. When choosing a printer I now always look for the separate color ink tanks and love the fact that this printer came with not only 4 cartridges but 5. I also like that even from Epson you can order high capacity or standard cartridges.
Now to the part I don’t like. I have tried a few different brands of printer paper. And all of them gave me a reflective black which I personally can’t stand in my photos. The only two brands which didn’t do this(of my tests) were Print Works High Gloss and Epson. I mainly use Matte finish which looked great with all the brands I tested.
The final scoop. I recommend this printer to anyone. I paid 125 dollars for this printer(used a coupon) and I know that I will get my monies worth out of it. I find it great for scrap booking(beats sending spreads out for 1.99 a piece) The problems with non-epson paper gripes me but all in all I find the purchase and up-keep on this printer very affordable.
Rating: 5 / 5
August 12th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
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.
Rating: 5 / 5
August 12th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
First, be aware that the Workforce 1100 is a four-color printer, not a photo printer, and none of my comments reflect any expectation that it should produce output that looks like a photo printer. I expressly buy four-color printers so as to best simulate the four-color offset printing processes (i.e.: a printing press) which the art I create in Adobe Illustrator will eventually be reproduced as. If you are looking for a printer capable of the seamless, continuous tones that photographs contain, buy a six- or more-color printer designed for that purpose–not the Workforce 1100.
Understanding the limitations of a four-color printer, I was still disappointed with and ultimately returned this printer. Its failings, in my experience, can be summarized by two phrases: “ink-sucking” and “clog-o-rama.”
For years, I nursed along a series of ancient Epson 740 printers, which–when they worked–produced remarkably smooth and bright output on any paper. The 740 is a scrappy, hardworking printer, but its printhead was prone to clogging frequently and randomly, and cannot be user replaced. Running the print driver’s head-cleaning routine sucked a lot of ink and didn’t always work, but by using refilled ink cartridges I was still able to print for about one-fifth the cost of people using newer printers. Unfortunately, the 740s eventually all gave up the ghost and it was time to buy a replacement.
I’d been wanting large-format output on my next printer for a long time, and the Workforce 1100 fulfilled not only that requirement (and my four-color preference) but had a very reasonable purchase price.
This large printer has a solid, sturdy feel for the price, and installation of its software on OS X went quickly and smoothly. (As other reviewers have noted, it is odd that a printer apparently targeted at business users has no built-in networking option, though you may be able to share it from the computer it’s hooked to via USB with the help of printer sharing features on OS X or Windows.)
The trouble began when I actually started printing. The output looked good at first–about the same as my old 740s, but with the added bonus of large-format output. But after literally only about fifty pages, rows on the printhead started to clog, requiring multiple ink-wasting cleaning cycles and the replacement of ink cartridges just to continue the cleaning process. And just like the old 740s, the Workforce 1100 pumps ink through all the printhead colors when cleaning–not just the one that’s clogged. It eventually unclogged via cleaning cycles, but reclogged soon after.
I apparently naively thought that 15 years of research and development on printing by Epson (since the time they’d made my earlier printer) would have resulted in a cure for the frequent clogging and heavy ink consumption that I knew was part of owning the older Epson printer. But I’m beginning to think it’s less of a technical hurdle to be overcome by Epson than a designed-in strategy for selling ink–lots of ink. In my experience, the number of estimated pages of color printing listed on this printer’s box is laughably optimistic.
Well, Epson: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” I packed the Workforce 1100 back in its original box and sent it back for a refund just before the official return period ended. I am now an HP printer owner and have had none of the problems I experienced with the 1100, let alone all those years with the 740s.
If you still want to take your chances on this printer, I strongly suggest you keep the original box close at hand, as well, and keep an eye on the calendar so you don’t miss the chance to return it in case you find, as I did, that the specs that look so good on paper end up not looking so good on a desk heaped with expensive ink cartridge empties.
Rating: 2 / 5
August 12th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Looking for a large format, yet affordable printer to support my Architecture school needs, I opted for the Epson Workforce 1100 which I bought on October 2009, on a price 20-25% higher than the current – which was very competitive at the time…as it now sells for $160, I would class this printer as a very good deal.
Note: A USB cable is NOT included – like with most USB printers…don’t do the mistake to buy an expensive cable. Data cables nothing like audio cables…HDMI, Firewire and USB devices do not care for gold plated connectors and heavy weight copper strands…paying more than $2-3 for a 6′ USB cable for this or any USB printer or even data transferring devices like USB HDDs is a rip-off…in many countries these sell for as low as 90 euro cent and are given away by the stores when you buy anything above a $40 printer or something…I cannot understand how large electronic stores in the US are convincing so many people into buying $20-30 cables to connect devices costing less than double that…
INSTALLATION
Installing the printer is easy, although the printer’s driver could be refined with more features, like assisted mosaic printing of large format drawings into smaller paper stock etc…features available on office oriented printers in the late 90s, early 00s is a shame to be gone now…
Also should you install a second Epson printer, driver conflicts might occur unless you download the latest versions of both drivers: had that problem with both Vista and Win 7 64bit laptops that refused to recognize the WF 1100 after the installation of an Epson NX415 All-In-One…downloading the latest driver from the site cured it, but the frustration and time lost trying to figure out what was wrong surely took a lot of points away from the driver installation procedure developers.
PRINT QUALITY
The high quality and crisp detailing you would expect from a new Ink-jet printer. Nothing to write home about, but that’s not this printer’s mission. You should also notice that print quality is highly determined by the quality of the paper stock used: regular copier paper will allow for more bleeding of the ink and result to less crisp and less contrasty prints. Quality ink-jet paper really helps the printer perform better, but I tend to use the “cheap” or recycled stuff for most of my test drawing prints and text prints.
The difference from using good quality, heavyweight photo paper when printing photos is of high importance, but that’s indifferent from any other ink-jet I know off…nonetheless, if you are trying to find in this printer the photo print quality achieved by the 3-4 times more expensive, multi-colored Epson R series or equivalent models from Canon and HP, you might be a little disappointed…should that be the case, the Epson R1400 might be the best value photo printer capable of up to A3+/11×17 (or 13×19) size prints. Keep in mind that both the printer and the inks are a bit more expensive, on top of the cartridges being smaller too…
PAPER FEEDER
Quite reliable…I had 3-4 pages stuck out of a total of roughly a 700-800 sheets of 8.5×11 and 11x17s fed through the printer, and at least half of those were due miss-aligning the sheet in a hurry when the printer run out of paper…I wish it had a bypass feeding slot like some old HPs for really heavy paper stock…
INK USAGE…
…the printer has 5 cartridges. 2x black ones that are both used when printing and sold in pairs, and 1x for each of CMY colors. The printer is quite versatile, accepting all 68/69/88 – with the 68 being the high capacity version, claiming 50% more ink than the 69…price is like 15-20% higher than the 69 series equivalent, so I’ve stayed with the 68s. The Print quality achievable by each ink “type” is supposed to be the same, as all use the same ink – only quantity varies.
Ink consumption is a bit on the high side, and as with all printers using this line of inks, colors do get consumed slowly even when you are printing B&W prints, despite specifying through Epson’s own driver properties that you wish of a black ink only print…especially the cyan. Black prints are decent to pretty good (paper kicks in), and printing text is blazing fast (and loud – I use the “quiet mode” that slows it a bit so that the printer won’t hop around of excitement), but the black output is not as “true black” as the pigment black inks other manufacturers use, or that of good laser printers (take not that many laser printers also produce slightly “Washed-out” blacks).
We are not talking ridiculously low ink life, but if you are printing a lot, especially color graphics with high page coverage on 11×17, make sure you have at least a spare ink set close by…when making large graphics or photo prints, speed is considerable slower, but still pretty fast. Just remember that the average text sheet is @ 5-8% ink coverage, and photos / graphics can be up to 100%…
Rating: 4 / 5