Epson WorkForce 1100 Printer Review

Speed and Output

As stated previously, this WorkForce handles many different paper sizes with ease. A simple slider, shown in Figure 9, is adjusted to the width of the paper. The large paper trays easily handle the larger sizes of paper.

Figure 9: The paper size adjustment slider.

The printer produces excellent output. Text is crisp and clear. Colors are clean and vibrant. No matter what program we printed from, the WorkForce performed admirably.

Although it is not marketed as a photo printer, this WorkForce prints excellent photos, especially when printed on Epson Photo Paper.

The WorkForce 1100 uses Epson’s lower cost DURABrite Ultra ink rather than the more expensive Epson UltraCrome Hi-Gloss 2 inks. This, of course, lowers the cost of ownership. Fortunately for the end user, the prints still look great.

This Epson has a "smart" nozzles technology that delivers droplets in as many as 5 sizes, some as small as 3 picoliters. Although some printers can deliver smaller picoliters, we felt the output from this printer was amazingly good.

Epson markets the printer output as being smudge proof and waterproof. We found that the color prints from this printer can be touched immediately with no smearing or smudging. We even poured water over the printed pages with no changes to the print and/or colors. Epson also claims that these pigment inks are long-lasting, with longevity of up to 105 years under glass.

The WorkForce 1100 is also speedy. It is rated for laser quality print speeds of 13 ppm for black and 5.5 ppm for color. The printer doesn’t waste much time in getting ready to print as some printers do, so in many cases, it seems especially speedy. We printed an 11” x 17” (28 x 43 cm) photo in about three minutes which is pretty speedy compared to some photo printers.

The ink cartridges for the WorkForce 1100 come in two sizes, regular and high capacity. If you print a lot of large color documents, you will want to get the high capacity cartridges.

If you care about the environment, you will be happy to find that this printer is Energy Star compliant.