- World''s Fastest one and two-sided print speeds
- Professional prints up to 13" x 19"
- Two 250-sheet trays for different paper sizes/types
- 40% lower printing cost than color laser
I sometimes telecommute from my engineering job, and when at home I often do CAD (computer aided drafting) for making, reviewing and updating engineering drawings. I also have a small micro-publishing business for sheet music. Both of these make the ability to print on wide format paper desirable. By wide format, I am referring to paper larger than normal ''Letter (8.5" x 11")'', ''legal'', or similarly sized European paper standards. The most common for me is 11" x 17", often called ''planograph'' size.
Printers that can operate with these paper sizes tend to be professional models that are large, heavy, and very expensive ($2000 and above).
I used to own a used HP Laserjet 5100, which did the 11x17 paper, was fast, but did not have duplexing (double-sided) capabilities built-in (i.e. manual duplexing only). My biggest problem was space...it was so large and heavy that I had no space for it on a day-to-day basis, but it was so difficult to move to a storage area when not in use. Also, it got old and cranky after half a million prints, and toner got expensive. A lot of expense and bother for a printer that would be used occasionally.
After scoping around, I decided that my next wide format printer would be an inkjet type instead of a laser. Epson seemed to have the best machines of this type, at least in an affordable price range of less than $200 street price. A friend had an older Epson wide format in his factory and was quite happy with it. And I was a satisfied owner of an Epson Workforce 40 injet printer (see my Amazon review of that one too), so I thought highly of the Workforce series.
The WF-7010 is Epson''s stand-alone wide format injet printer. It is intended for small offices, and is equipped with Ethernet 10/100 and high speed USB 2.0 connectivity. Since Epson apparently feels that WiFi is not commonly used in offices, where they prefer wired connections for security and other reasons, this printer does not have wireless connectivity. It is a large printer at about 22" wide x 16" deep x 10" tall, but it is fairly light weight at about 25 pounds; it is light enough to be easily carried from place to place if desired, and would not overwhelm a light-duty shelf or small table. It does not shake a lot when in operation, so table sturdiness should not be an issue. Depending on the paper sized used, the printer''s front-to-rear depth can grow to accommodate the extra paper lengths.
The WF-7010 comes with two paper trays; according to some older reviews, the trays cannot both accept the same sized paper, but on mine both trays are identical and can accept any allowed paper size. I have tray 2 (the lower tray) set up for 11x17 paper, and this makes the printer''s total front-to-rear depth about 22.5". Tray 1 (the top tray) is set up for 8.5 x 11 paper and in this configuration it fits flush into the printer and does not add to the overall depth. The paper exit tray pulls out of the front of the printer and telescopes to a maximum that makes the overall printer depth about 27"; if you are not using the largest paper sizes, you don''t need to telescope the exit tray so far out. Each paper tray has a retracted mode and an extended mode. For sizes up to ''legal'', the trays can remain in retracted mode. For larger size papers, you press a button inside the tray and this allows it to telescope into a larger tray. It clicks into a detent so that it is locked in the larger tray size until the button is pressed again to allow it to retract into the smaller tray size.
The trays are all-plastic, but are adequately strong and they can hold up to half of a ream of paper each (250 sheets), for a total paper capacity of 500 sheets. Each tray has internal sliding partitions to keep the paper centered in the correct position. Both trays have a removable gray-tinted plastic dust cover; these are not much use when the trays are in their retracted mode (where they fit fully inside the printer), but they are nice when the trays are in their extended mode where they partly extend outside the printer. Note that, unlike many laser printers with extended sized paper trays, the extended WF-7010 trays protrude from the front of the printer instead of the rear.
The WF-7010 has limited duplexing (automatic double-sided printing) capability. When printing to ''normal'' sizes, and to regular paper as opposed to envelopes and such, it is fully auto-duplexing; it prints on one side, automatically pulls the paper back in and flips it, prints the other size and ejects it, then repeats for the next sheet. For larger papers, such as 11x17, I noticed an oddity. When I first got the printer, it allowed me to select duplex for even the larger papers, but it would print all the odd numbered pages normally, then instruct me to move the printed sheets from the exit tray to the paper tray and press a ''resume'' button on the computer screen, and then it would proceed to print the second side of each sheet...this is not an uncommon way of providing a semi-automatic duplex capability. But the printer driver prompted me to upgrade the printer firmware, and after I did that the option for selecting duplex on larger paper sizes is now grayed out and I cannot select it; it still works fully automatically on normal paper sizes.
Epson says that the speed of the WF-7010 is fastest in its class, and they list 15 PPM (pages per minute) for black and white and 8 PPM for color. I ran a 4 page text document, on 8.5" x 11" (i.e. ''letter'' sized) paper, and clocked the printer at 15 seconds for single sided and 27 seconds for duplex. This equates to 16 PPM for single sided and almost 9 PPM for duplex. Printing color does seem to take about twice as long as printing in black-only, but I did not clock its speed.
Epson says that the minimum paper size for the WF-7010 is 3.5" x 5", and the maximum ''user defined'' size is a whopping 13" x 44" (normal largest size is 13" x 19", or 2 inches larger in each dimension than 11 x 17 paper). This bit about 44" has me a bit boggled. The user manual that gets installed on your computer along with the printer driver does not mention such a large paper size, and says simply that the maximum is 13" x 19". But the printer is capable of doing multi-sheet posters, where it automatically tiles larger images onto multiple sheets of paper, in any of these user-selectable layouts: 2x1, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4. And when you are selecting the desired paper size in the driver, it does allow selections of up to 13" x 44", but it does not explain how to feed such a large size as 44". As a test, I randomly selected a photo and printed to to the WF-7010; in the driver I selected ''multi-sheet'' and selected the 4x4 option, and also selected 11x17 paper from the tray. The printer produced 16 sheets, and when I laid them out on the floor I saw that it had indeed tiled the photo to a total size, with all 16 pages included, of 31" x 40". I had not set the printer driver to print all the way to the edges of the paper (which it will indeed do), but it is obvious that the WF-7010 can be used to produce very large multi-sheet tiled posters and such. To resolve the 44" question, I called Epson technical support; I was able to reach them without delay on a Saturday (this is better them most companies offer). The default tech support person did not know the 44" paper question''s answer, so the problem was referred to a ''level 2'' tech, who also did not know and had to put me on hold for several minutes. He came back and stated that the WF-7010 does indeed allow printing on roll paper up to 13" wide and 44" maximum length (e.g. for printing banners), but it is a very manual operation; the lower paper tray (tray 2) is removed from the printer, and the long paper is inserted into a slot in the rear of the printer''s internals and hand fed until the printer grabs it. I don''t have any long paper handy, so I have not verified this feature.
Some other points:
The printer driver auto-selects the correct tray for the paper, as long as you take the time to tall the driver which sizes of paper are inserted into each of the two trays; this is done through the Windows or MAC printer configuration and instructions are included in the user guide. Otherwise, you will have to manually tell the driver every time you want to print using different trays.
The printer does NOT come with any data cables; you must buy your USB or Ethernet cable separately.
The printer does come with four ink cartridges in black, magenta, yellow, cyan; these are the T127 type. The printer accepts either the normal capacity T126 or the high capacity T127. I think it is nice that Epson chooses to supply the printer with the high capacity cartridges, which are specified to produce approximately 945 sheets from the black cartridge and 766 sheets from the color cartridges. The OfficeMax where I bought the printer told me that the cartridges provided with the printer are "low capacity good for only a few copies", but I see no evidence of this. Epson''s website states that the printer comes with full T127 capacity cartridges, and my experience with my other Workforce printer suggests that the included cartridges are the same capacity as what would be purchased when it comes time to replace them.
The printer has a basic control panel without a display. It has five pushbuttons and seven LED lights. The buttons are Power, Ethernet information/setup, paper feed, ink cartridge access, and delete print job. The LEDs are Power, Ethernet activity, paper misfeed/user action required, and ink low/ink out for each of the four cartridges.
The printer works just fine with the cover open, so you can see what it is doing.
The paper feed & duplexer assembly can be detached from the rear of the printer for cleaning and/or removing misfed paper. It detaches by pressing two recessed buttons no tools are required.
The Workforce series is fast partially because it prints such a wide swath on each pass of the print head. Instead of the narrow band of perhaps 1/4" width that most injet printers lay down, the Workforce lays down about 1" on each pass. This is due to the head design, which includes the wide nozzle; the ink cartridges do not have nozzles, as they are simply ink containers that feed the ink head. This means that when you replace an ink cartridge, you are not replacing the ink head itself. On some printers, this could mean problems due to possible nozzle clogging, but Epson has worked out the Workforce head and ink formulation so that this is not an issue. In my experience, and that of associates who also use Workforce printers, the printers have never been disabled due to chronic nozzle clogging. Indeed, I have only once, with my older Workforce 40, had to run a nozzle clearing operation after the printer sat unused for many months, and running to operation once did the trick.
The printer will print on all the usual paper types, such a bond, coated paper glossy and matte photo papers, envelopes. Its print quality is typical of most other contemporary inket printers, but faster as previously mentioned.
Build quality is good, and the printer feels quite solid.
The printer is quiet, but not as quiet as a typical laser printer.
Buy Epson WorkForce WF-7010 Wide-Format Color Inkjet Printer (C11CB59201) Now
PROS -fast on text documents, will print up to 13 x 19 inches (approx 33 x 48 cm), two paper drawers & large ink cartridges, two sided printing
CONS -photo printing not great, no wireless connection, nozzles susceptible to clogging, setup snags, no cord included, no PictBridge interface.
SUMMARY -it does what it says, but consider other models also.
This is a basic stripped-down printer (no wifi, no scanner, no USB cord, etc.) that has the advantage of being able to print on large paper. This makes it easy to print off a poster about something, a large map to put on a wall, personalized gift-wrap, a large page which is folded to make a custom letter-sized folder, etc. However, if you need a large format printer, there are others in this price range to consider (from both Epson and others) which provide more features and/or better quality photo printing.
It prints text documents fairly quickly, however, it prints photos rather slowly.
If you want a quality photo printer, this is not the printer for you. When I printed the same photo on my years-old HP printer and this, the Epson photo had weaker colors, and fuzzier edges and lines, and slightly different (worse) color balance, no matter what paper was used (I tried premium papers from both Epson and HP). At a glance, my not-too-discerning partner immediately noticed the difference between the photos printed on the two printers.
The "DuraBrite Ultra" ink that this printer uses is their basic general purpose ink (it is not one of the special inks for artistic applications -search for "Epson Ink Solutions" if you want to know more.)
>> Documentation:
The behavior of the printer setup didn''t match the documentation (I am using Mac 10.6.8). After installing the ink cartridges, it was supposed to begin the priming process, but after about 15 minutes (during which I was prowling through the software and documentation) I checked the status, and it said that the cartridge types were not recognized. That was fixed by turning the printer off and then back on. Again, when printing the first test page, it hung (with a communication error), again remedied by a power cycle.
There were other important things lacking (or mismatching) in the documentation:
Apparently small-sized papers go only in the top drawer, according to the marks in the drawer itself, and the software size options for drawer 1 versus drawer 2.
The printed instructions said to shake the cartridges, tear open the plastic, and install the cartridges. Hmmm, there are some little yellow plastic strips which say to remove them, the instructions don''t mention them, but I guess I should. Then later the online documentation said not to remove anything or ink would leak. Huh, which is it? (It seems to be working fine, with the strips removed as they themselves said to do).
And, there are a bunch of important things buried in the bottom of the the outline structure of the documentation. Things like how to set the paper size in the two drawers, how to turn on or off paper-size mismatch checking, etc.
SECRETS OF PRINTING IN BLACK: One of the really important things to know about this printer is how to force it to keep printing in black, even if you run out of a color: bring up the guide and search for the "Expended Color" for details. Otherwise, once you have run out of any ink color, all printing is disabled.
>> Concern About Nozzles:
I have avoided Epson printers for years, because of prior bad experience with constantly clogging nozzles. With Epson printers, you don''t get a new print head with each ink cartridge replacement while this is cheaper in the short run, it can cause problems in the long run. In the past, I would have to constantly run nozzle checks, have to waste ink "cleaning" them, and have to resort to alcohol on a q-tip because Epson''s own print head cleaning procedures were not adequate.
Basically, before printing anything, you should run a nozzle check to make sure none of them are clogged. Every time. Sure enough, with this brand-new out of the box printer, a nozzle was clogged. Often this will fix itself with another nozzle check, but it did not, so I had to waste ink by running the nozzle clean procedure which did fix it.
But then later in the same day, before printing another photo, again a nozzle check showed another clogged nozzle, but this time, a second nozzle check fixed it. It remains to be seen whether this current printer will have constant nozzle problems, or whether Epson''s priming and cleaning procedures have been improved over time.
Read Best Reviews of Epson WorkForce WF-7010 Wide-Format Color Inkjet Printer (C11CB59201) Here
My six year old and I just installed our new Epson printer and I''m definitely no computer genius, so it was easy, to say the least. This thing is quite large, which is to be expected from a printer that can print 13x19" copies, so finding just the perfect place to put it took some rearranging of furniture. The six step set-up process was very easy. We''ve had a few bad experiences in the past trying to use the installation cd that comes with devices. So, we went straight to the Epson website, downloaded and installed the printer driver with no problems. The printer uses one black and three color ink cartridges. The color ones look about half the size of the black.
The printer only comes with the power cable. You have to provide your own USB cable to connect it to your computer or your own Ethernet cable for networking. Luckily we had a USB cable amongst years of saving cables from other devices.
We''ve made a few test pages and are extremely pleased. The copies are crisp even on cheaper copy paper. We''ve found it is much more cost effective to print our photos through an online site and pick them up in store as opposed to buying photo quality paper and ink cartridges on top of ink cartridges.
Many of my crafting friends have different models of the Workforce, so I''m planning on using mine in concert with my craft hobby by printing images on fabric, printable vinyl, and transfer paper. I was able to print on fabric with ease by ironing freezer paper onto the back and printing on the regular settings. If you are planning on using this for a craft where you need to know which side the printer prints on the paper, by default, it prints face down. I needed to know to print on the fabric and just had to figure it out by marking the paper and testing it. You would have to know to print on transfer paper as well. I uploaded a picture of the printer and the printed fabric to show how large it is and how well the fabric turned out. I''m extremely happy with this printer already and can''t wait to try everything else I possibly can on it.
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I have had several printers over the years, as I''m sure you have. I can''t say that this is the best printer I have seen, or even owned. It is not a laser printer, so I didn''t think it was fair to compare it to printers in different classes. I also did not compare it to multi-function printers. Of the several of those I have owned, most were below average scanners and only print standard size paper.
This printer is really designed for a workplace that needs this special functionality. As many people have said, it is big. I knew that when I ordered it, and I knew that it had to be big to handle big paper. That ability alone sets it apart from most printers.
I have to admit, I am not an expert in printers and specifications. I am interested in how well it does what it should do. I found the printer very easy to set up. The paper trays hold 500 sheets, so it doesn''t need to be refilled often. It is easily the fastest inkjet printer I have owned, and the duplex works perfectly. I have probably printed 100 pages so far with no jams.
One of my favorite features is the type of ink cartridges it uses. They seem to last a long time and they are much less expensive to purchase. I gave away my Canon PIXMA iP4700 (which was an excellent printer) because it was so expensive to buy the small cartridges. This will not print photos as well as the Cannon, but it is not designed for that.
Bottom Line: This printer will not appeal to everyone, but it was not intended for a broad market. For what it was designed for, printing large double-sided document fast, I think it is an excellent printer.
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Okay, so the PROS first:
This feels solid, not cheap plastic like my other printer. Both the top and the paper tray drawers also feel solid, not floppy, which is a noticeable problem if you look at printers in a chain store (some of the drawers feel like they''d break off easily). So, that makes it feel like quality. It looks good.
It comes with a sample pack of paper, which is helpful (see below on why). The ink cartridges are extra-large capacity so they don''t need to be changed as often, and single color replacements are possible (see more on that below too).
CONS:
First off, I had trouble even at Office Max finding paper for this beyond the sample pack. Not sure why, but that may be an issue for you. Also, I used to think single color replacements were great, and that they''d save money. Not so, because if one color (say, cyan or magenta) is running out, it''s not going to compensate. You will get a warning and then none of the colors, not even black, will work. I haven''t run out on this model yet, of course, but my previous one did and being out of one color didn''t save me, it still required a trip to purchase the color before I could do more b/w printing. Argh.
The other thing is you are tied to an ethernet cable instead of wireless. That''s sort of outdated, I think, at least if you are using a laptop at home. In an office, maybe not such a big deal. But this isn''t big enough for an office.
Take a look at the 7520 before you buy, it has more options and wi-fi.
Also, the heavier cardstock has a bit of a bleed on color prints, not terribly noticeable, but I printed some pics of close up jewelry and it was enough that I noticed on the finer details.
It''s not a laser, so the images aren''t laser color, but pretty good. The ink is supposed to be instant drying, but I did notice on two-sided pages that it still felt like it would smudge, not that it did. Like there was a heaviness to the page after. But, that said, I don''t plan on doing many two sided prints so it may not be an issue.
As far as usage, I''m usually pretty comfortable with installing and using stuff like this, but figuring out the printing options wasn''t that easy. Took me awhile with the manual to figure out how to orient some of it, so it wasn''t "instinctive". Then again, I haven''t had a two-sided printer before either. I think for a small business, this might be very helpful. However, while it says 2 reams of paper before running out of ink, that isn''t really very much. Normally, as a student and mom, I use about a ream a month, so....ink expenses could run up.
All in all, I like it. For home and student use, it would be great, especially a kid doing colorful school projects. For a small office/business, no. And really, couldn''t they make them in white once in awhile? It looks dusty fast.
