Epson - WorkForce Pro WF-7840 Wireless Wide-format All-in-One Printer

I'm very excited about this printer, so far! 5 stars for fantastic color matching (see photo), speed, and the wide range of print sizes it offers. Minus one star for somewhat unclear error messaging and imperfect photocopying. For instance, when I put 13 x 19 paper into the rear feeder and selected A3+, the printer was happy, but when I added a slightly smaller document onto the flatbed scanner and pressed "copy," it kicked back an error saying I can't copy to that paper size. After fumbling around to figure out why my large-format printer was saying it can't print on large format paper, I finally digitally changed the paper size to A3 (keeping the original oversized paper in the feeder), and it worked fine. I'm docking the score because it was an unnecessary and confusing error that wasted time. I've also had trouble enlarging standard copies (enlarging a business card onto 8.5x11). The option to enlarge is always greyed out, so I'm not sure what the trick is there. I'll read the instructions eventually, but something as simple as enlarging a copy shouldn't require it. One major bonus: I'm very happy with the ink cartridge yield! I've printed 20-30 color and B&W documents over the past few weeks, then printed the large-format full-color doc in the attached photo--all from the original cartridges that came with the printer. I still haven't seen a low-ink warning, even after the full-color copy, so I'm very impressed there. Regarding the attached photo: The original is a folded poster that came with an oversized puzzle. It's printed on very thin paper, so it's starting to tear and wrinkle. For preservation, I copied it onto Epson's A3+ Matte Premium Presentation paper, and as you can see, the color match is nearly perfect! Certain sections of the print are somewhat blurry (see the lower left 1/6th), which I'm assuming is because the original image is folded into 6 sections and that corner probably didn't lay flat against the glass. Maybe in the next version, the printer's foam backing needs to be a few millimeters thicker to compensate for damaged originals. However, note that not one of the wrinkles showed up on the copy. Nice! Overall, I'm very glad I bought this printer. It's going to be lifesaver for printing client proofs before sending to the packaging printer.

After 30 days of high production, I am pleased with the performance. The ink cartridges have lasted longer than I thought, while printing high quality graphic art cards. So happy with the wide format 11×17 scanner for artwork. Some how the initial configuration got a wrong IP address, but it is still functioning and all home devices can access and print.

Overall this printer is fantastic. We’ve had a few issues with the wireless connection holding and down loading drivers. The print quality is really good for the price, and the overall capability for a small office works perfectly.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7840 inkjet printer offers an impressive set of features. It is a Multi-Function Printer (MFP), which includes printing, copying, scanning and faxing functionality in a single device. Most notably, the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7840 incorporates wide-format printing, with paper handling capabilities up to 13”x19” (B+/Super B aka A3+/Super A3, which allows for printing a full bleed B/A3 with printer’s marks in the 1” margin). Very importantly, the WF-7840 also offers full-duplex scanning, copying and printing. The WF-7840 has two, 250 sheet cassette paper trays, which can be configured for sizes up to 11”x17” (ledger/ tabloid), and a rear-feed tray with a 50 sheet capacity for up to 13”x19”. Borderless printing is available on paper sizes up to 11”x17”. Scanning or photocopying from either the flatbed or the 50 sheet capacity, full-duplex (2-sided) auto-document feeder (ADF) accommodates sheets up to 11”x17”. The WF-7840 supports 4800x2400 dpi print resolution. The scanner optical / hardware resolution is 1200 x 2400 dpi, with a maximum interpolated resolution of 9600 dpi. Input color depth is 48 bit, and output color depth is 24 bit. Interfacing with the WF-7840 includes the Epson Driver and Utilities Package software for printing, scanning and faxing, front panel controls with a 4.3” color touchscreen, and the Epson Smart Panel App for smartphones. The “Epson Connect” service assigns an email address to the WF-7840 to allow printing via email. The WF-7840 handles a wide variety of paper and card stock. The ADF is limited to plain paper of 17 lb. – 24 lb. weight. Printing on card stock of 25 lb – 68 lb basis is supported. The WF-7840 is large and heavy. It measures 20.3” wide x 17.7” deep x 13.8” high, and weighs over 45 lbs.. Additional space is required for actually using the WF-7840. The automatic, power extendable/retractable output tray, when extended, results in an increased overall depth of 38.4”, and the rear paper tray, when extended increases the overall height to 20.5”. The Epson Driver and Utilities software and the User Guide are supplied on a CD, and are also downloadable from the Epson website. The installation utility provides step-by-step guidance. It automatically downloaded and installed the Epson Fax Utility, which includes the option of Received faxes being saved to the PC, rather than being automatically printed or saved to the memory (6 MB / 500 pages) of the WF-7840. The WF-7840 fax functionality is robust and flexible. Epson’s specifications list a print speed of 25 Pages Per Minute (PPM) for single-sided black only, and 12 PPM for single-sided color. Double-sided printing is 16 PPM for black, and 9 PPM for color. Epson does not list the First Page Out Time . Photocopying speed is listed as 23 Images Per Minute (IPM) for black, and 10 IPM for color. Advertised printing speeds are based on ISO/IEC Standard 24734 and copy speeds are based on ISO/IEC 29183 which specifies detailed parameters for testing the performance of copiers and multifunction devices. Actual printing speeds are dependent upon what is being printed. Typically, more complex content on a page results in a longer print time. In use, the WF-7840 printing speeds were excellent for both single and double-sided sheets. Time for first sheet out, even for a very complex graphic page, was just seconds. Epson recommends a monthly duty cycle of 2,500 pages. The WF-7840 uses Epson 812 series ink cartridges. The 812I (Initial) ink cartridges which are shipped with the printer are intended for setting up the printer and “charging the printhead” (priming) and a period of initial use thereafter. 812 Standard cartridges are advertised to yield 350 pages for black ink, and 300 pages for color inks. 812XL high capacity cartridges will yield 1,100 pages for black and colors. 812XXL ultra capacity will be available for black ink only, and will yield 2,200 pages. One of the attractions for procuring a large-format ink jet printer versus a large-format laser printer is the significant cost difference. Ink jets are far less expensive than large-format laser printers. A full set (Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) of ink jet cartridges is typically significantly less expensive than a set of color laser toner cartridges. However, the true cost of printing is the Cost Per Printed Page. Based on the page yields advertised by Epson (based on ISO pages) the cost per page for Standard ink cartridges is about $0.20/page. XL ink cartridges lower the cost to about $0.12/page. However, if all of the ink in the XL cartridges will not be used prior to them drying out (or within their six month usable lifespan, once opened), selecting the XL cartridges can prove to be false economy. These costs per page comport with the costs for many laser printer toners. However, laser toner has the advantage of not drying out within six months of the cartridge being unwrapped, as inkjet cartridges do. Laser printed pages also are less susceptible to printing defects including wet ink bleed or smudging due to handling or moisture. The 812 series ink dried reasonably rapidly and did not become smeared, with the drying time setting on “Standard”. The WF-7840 is substantially less expensive than a laser printer with similar features, particularly business related features such as large format capability, auto-duplexing and ADF. However, the ongoing cost of operation is actually comparable. Resultantly, the WF-7840 is a very attractive, cost effective alternative for large format printing, particularly since it performs all MFP functions so capably. The performance of the WF-7840 fully met and exceeded the very high expectations established by the impressive specifications, features and functions described by Epson. Cold startup of the WF-7840 takes a couple of minutes, but waking from “sleep” is instantaneous. The drivetrain gears, belts and pulleys are somewhat noisy. The setup and configuration options are numerous and can be accessed through the touchscreen menus. Epson provides guidance and help screens when using the touchscreen. The WF-7840 print quality is outstanding! Close inspection, including under magnification of Epson Test & Sign-Off Print Samples confirmed the excellent print quality. The same samples were also printed on a color Laser-Jet for comparative analysis. Pantone color matching was not performed, but color accuracy with the WF-7840 prints was comparable to the laser. Color saturation and gradation were excellent. Gray scale gradation was similarly excellent. Lines were sharp and definition was excellent. There was no color bleed, or banding. There were no printing defects observable, even under magnification. Photorealism was excellent. Large format prints were of the same excellent quality as smaller sheets. The large format printing functionality is excellent for mechanical, technical and even portions of scaled architectural drawings, as well as other large format documents, when a plotter is not available. Text was also outstanding on the WF-7840, with sharpness and clarity comparable to laser printed documents. Of course, there is a difference in reflectivity between ink or toner produced printing. The output tray is power extendable/retractable and automatically extends when a print-job is initiated. However, the tray only retracts automatically when manually powering down the WF-7840, or with the use of the soft-button (icon) which appears on the touchscreen during printing operations. Scanning operations were excellent and time efficient for both single-sided and double-sided documents. The duplexing ADF performs very well. No misfeeds or skewing occurred. The 50 sheet capacity and 11”x17” paper handling ability is great. The Utility and Driver package installs both TWAIN and WIA drivers. Epson Scan 2 and SmartScan software utilize the TWAIN drivers exclusively. SmartScan launches Scan 2, but provides additional enhanced features and functionality. SmartScan works really well and easily. The WIA drivers when used with Acrobat Pro DC limited scan resolution to a meager 300 DPI, while the TWAIN drivers support resolution up to 9600 DPI. Epson software supports saving scans in the common image file formats as well as producing PDFs and OCR searchable PDFs. Photocopying is of course an operation which merges the scanning and printing functions, and its performance is equally excellent. The WF-7840 supports reduction, enlargement, density adjustment and collation. Faxing is well supported by both the hardware and the excellent Epson FAX utility. Faxing from the scanner glass, ADF or from applications via the 7840 fax driver all function reliably and easily. Incoming faxes can be stored in printer memory, immediately printed upon receipt, forwarded to a shared folder on the network or saved as PDF files on the associated computer. The Epson utility software is very good. In addition to the scanning and faxing utilities, there is also “Epson Photo+” for customizing photo printing. Epson does not have a toll-free telephone support line. Technical support is overseas. If repair or replacement becomes necessary, the customer is responsible for shipping costs of the 50 lb. printer to Epson, according to the warranty terms. The Epson WF-7840 is an outstanding Multi-Function Printer. It has a robust feature-set coupled with very impressive performance. The firmware supports a great deal of customization. Scanning, printing, copying and faxing functions all work great. Wide-format printing and duplex scanning and printing are extremely valuable distinguishing features which make the WF-7840 useful for both home and small business users. Printing quality is absolutely outstanding. The Epson WF-7840 is an exceptional MFP that exceeds expectations! I certainly recommend the Epson WF-7840.

A wise IT professional once told me, “there’s nothing more expensive than a cheap printer.” I should have heeded this advice three printers ago, as I’d grown accustomed to questionable print quality, grainy scanning, and ink cartridges that always dried up when I needed them most. After sending the third strike to its retirement dumpster, I chose to go upmarket. The Epson WF-7840 may surprise with a high MSRP relative to lower-cost options on display at Best Buy, but this kitchen sink of an all-in-one print, scan, and copy solution brings print-shop quality and features to your home or small business. I would like to thank comic artist Abigail Starling, creator of the artwork featured in this review, for giving permission to reprint one of her pieces for use in testing and review. Please visit her website to see more of her work. https://abigailstarling.com/ - Unboxing and Setup It’s difficult to convey how large this printer is. The box seemed oversized at first glance but this 53-pound, 20x17x14-inch printer is in a league of its own. The printer is packaged in a plastic bag with grab handles on both ends, with two persons recommended to remove from the box. I managed it alone but I would advise against this if possible as the unit has a high center of gravity, making it difficult to keep stable when shuffling it around. Though the printer does not include a full manual, only a quickstart guide, the WF-7840’s built-in touchscreen display walks you through setup and initialization on first powerup with graphics illustrating each step. Once complete, a companion app available from Epson’s website (also included on a driver CD in the box) attempts to automatically detect the printer on your WiFi network, but the printer’s setup does not include connecting to WiFi - I had to manually connect in the configuration menu. Once online, Epson’s software handles configuration and adds the WF-7840 to your available printers. You can also connect directly via IP address or network discovery. Of note, Epson does not include a USB cable in the box, so you will need to source one if you plan to use wired printing. Additionally, the 812 series ink cartridges included are only “starter” tanks with limited amounts of ink, though after a couple ink-heavy, large format prints the printer reported high levels of ink remaining. Your mileage will vary greatly with your print volume and quality settings. - Loading & Printing Having two internal trays and a rear feed means three different types of paper can be loaded simultaneously, with both trays offering a 250-sheet capacity of paper up to 11x17-inch (Tabloid) size. After loading, the touchscreen allows you to select the size and type of paper being loaded, with a manual option to enter specific sizes if it’s not a standard one. Favorites can be saved for common loads to expedite this step, and the configuration menu is always available through a touch of the “Paper Setting” button on the front panel. Paper of the maximum print size of 13x19-inch (A3+) must be fed from the rear tray, which has a smaller capacity of about 25 sheets. It is possible to feed larger formats through the rear tray but the sheets must be no wider than 13 inches. When printing, the WF-7840 will auto-select the most appropriate paper source from the loaded options. This can be overridden in the print dialog to specify a tray, but information on the currently-loaded paper sizes and types isn’t sent back to the computer so you’ll need to know what’s available or have the printer take its best guess. When a job starts, the WF-7840’s motorized output tray extends to hold your prints and a tray-retract button lights up on the front panel to rescind the tray; I quite enjoyed this quality-of-life feature. In action, the WF-7840 is remarkably quiet (by printer standards) and very fast. Black and white Letter size prints at draft quality can be shot out at a rate of 26 pages per minute, but even on Normal I was seeing about 10 sheets per minute which is still quite good. Duplexing is available for quick and convenient two-sided printing without needing to re-feed the paper - a feature that I had not realized I wanted in a printer for my home office until I used it for the first time. The touchscreen lists job statuses for all the documents in queue, and the firmware can hold and release jobs on user request under “Confidential Jobs” which is handy for small businesses that will be using this as a shared all-in-one printer. You can also print documents from a USB disk using the port on the front of the printer, adding another print option for those who wish to avoid sending their resume to the printer via the office airwaves. - Wide Format Printing & Print Quality The main draw to the WF-7840 over Epson’s other all-in-one offerings is its ability to print wide-format prints. With a maximum size of 13x19, wide format printing offers considerable flexibility in what you are able to create, with presentation paper output being a major selling point for small businesses. Professional artists may also find use from wide format printing for proofs or even saleable prints - 11x17 and 12x18 are common sizes for prints sold in the “Artist Alley” at pop-culture expos and fan conventions. My test prints for this review were made on 11x17-inch copy paper and 13x19-inch premium matte paper. In a word, the WF-7840’s print quality is stunning. Epson integrates their new “PrecisionCore” print technology here, which prints up to 40 million dots per second with what the company claims delivers professional-grade precision through an advanced print head control unit. The results spoke for themselves - black-and-white printing is as sharp as can be, but what blew me away was printing color images. Though print quality will usually vary based on the paper type used, my test prints came out looking great even on typical office copy paper (20lb, bright white) using “Normal” print quality from a Windows system print dialog. Colors are reasonably bright, resolution is high, and the print area can fill the entire sheet for borderless printing. Ink is not overused, so the sheet dries quickly without the odd sheen or risk of smearing on large areas of black ink. Copy paper will still furl at the corners on such borderless prints, but that’s more a limitation of the medium. I would have been plenty satisfied just from that, but using higher-grade premium matte paper with “High” print quality resulted in one of the richest, sharpest, most vibrant prints I have seen. Not just within the context of personal printers, either - the print output for my test image exceeds that of a professional semigloss print of the same image I used as a reference point. Bold contrasts and subtle gradients are recreated with immaculate clarity. Up close I’m hard-pressed to spot anything beyond the smallest, most insignificant imperfections that disappear from view just a few inches away from the eye. Though I’m sure this print mode burns through Epson 812 ink at an aggressive pace, I would gladly skip the print shop for small batches of prints. Though I can’t convey print quality through photos, I’ve attached direct comparisons to show the difference between the WF-7840’s prints and the professional print of the same image. The professional print was framed and displayed on my wall, but the high quality matte print may be what goes into the frame before I hang it back up.. - Scanning and Faxing A printer this big means, naturally, it’s going to have a big scanner. The scanner on the WF-7840 is huge, allowing for large size copies and detailed scans at impressive resolutions. Both the flatbed and the auto document feeder (ADF) are capable of handling up to 11x17 inputs, and the ADF is a full duplex type so it can read both sides of input sheets. The scan quality is very good, capturing detail and color very accurately, though the output format when scanning to memory cards seemed limited to 600dpi JPG or PDF documents. Full-resolution (1200dpi) scanning eluded me, but this is a niche feature that I’m sure could be located within the printer’s online documentation. Faxing is also supported for the businesses and clients that still rely on this method of communication. The ADF duplexer is supported when sending a fax, though I would highly recommend only faxing from one-sided prints to avoid missing pages on the receiving end. An address book stores common fax numbers and can identify the sender of your inbound faxes. You can also fax PDF documents and images stored on a USB disk from the front panel, bridging the gap from new-school tech to old-school users. - Value & Bottom Line As with all printers, you’ll be locked into using the brand’s own ink cartridges or tanks for the best printing results. Epson competes favorably against competing brands here, as the 812 and 812XL tanks are sold by single color (C/M/Y/Black), with an XXL size black tank available for thousands of sheets. There is also a maintenance cartridge onboard, which is a tank designed to capture runoff from routine ink head maintenance, that will need to be replaced periodically. Inkjets may not be as cost-efficient as laser printers if you print mostly black-and-white pages, but with a modest print volume Epson presents reasonable costs for home users and small businesses alike. The WorkForce WF-7840 is one of the most feature-laden all-in-one print and copy devices I’ve encountered, offering features usually only found on commercial-grade printers that need their own corner of a room and a service plan to operate. With exceptional print quality, versatile outputs, wide format scanning, and a bevy of features useful to small workgroups, this all-in-one really does it all and does it all very well. If you’re looking to cut most of the routine trips to the copy center out of your day, the Epson WorkForce WF-7840 comes highly recommended!

Very professional quality printer. Easy to set up! Connected to all my devices wirelessly with ease. Recommend! I like super B paper option for large 13”x19” prints

I have had the opportunity to use and own various Printers designed for home office and small businesses over the last few years, but none of them have been as fully featured as the Epson Workforce series. The unit comes packaged well and includes a full set of four ink cartridges (B, C, M, Y), which are a bit larger than conventional small printers. There is now USB or Phone Cord included, so keep that in mind if you are requiring them for your installation if not using wirelessly. The setup process is like many and requires the use of the touch screen on the printer itself. It walks you through selecting your country, language, and basic printer settings. Keep in mind you will need to set aside a few minutes (approx. 10) for the setup to fully complete. The printer begins with a quick check of the scanner bed, and a run through of testing the print heads without the ink installed. If you are unsure how to load paper, or the ink, the touch screen will even provide you a quick walk through of installing them. The printer is about the size of most business class home printers, has two paper trays, and manual feed tray in the rear that pulls out, a scan bed, and a scan feeder. The benefit of this scanner printer is it allows scanning of two-sided documents, which is a great feature for those scanning two sided documents. Set up of the two-sided scan can be done using the intuitive menu options displayed on the touch screen when scanning is selected. You can even scan to a network drive, if you have a NAS storage solution on your network, which I am lucky enough to have. Once you have installed the ink and confirmed the paper size settings for both feed trays, you can then go through the settings menus to setup “Epson Connect” for cloud-based settings. If you have never had an Epson Connect account before, you will need to specify an email address and password, or log in using the printed QR page from the printer. Keep in mind, the paper printed with the authentication code is only good for 1 hour. This provides you plenty of time to get logged into your email account and setup the appropriate Epson connect account. Otherwise, you will just log in to your existing Epson account to being setup using a web portal. I found adding Dropbox and Google Drive accounts were relatively easy, but if you’re not sure how to do this or have an IT team / IT minded friend available to you, feel free to get them involved in the setup process. Epson connect had most of the major cloud-based services available, including Google Drive, Dropox, OneDrive, Box, Evernote, and even email addresses for scan to emails. I was able to complete the Epson Connect process using my iPhone with Safari, so there is not a ton of effort required outside of knowing your username/password for the services added. Scan functions work incredibly well, with single side scans at 300 dpi finishing in about 5 seconds, and two sided scans (using the feed tray on top) taking about 5 seconds per side (12 seconds total if including the page loading). The upload to cloud services was QUICK! I mean super quick! By the time it was done scanning the entire set of pages, it was almost immediately available on the service. In the case of Dropbox, I found the scan pages within about 2 seconds of finishing the scan. I have a feeling it’s uploaded simultaneously when scanning, compared to other manufacturers that don’t start until the scans are complete. I found this incredibly useful for business documents, allowing me to scan, collect my documents, and have them available once I got back to my home office desk. It was the same with Google Drive and with my internal network-based scans; albeit limited by your own network speeds. Either way, this was much more convenient than others in the same space, and I can’t express how awesome it was to see immediate results. Printing was just as great, with most pages printing in mere seconds, and higher quality prints being done in record time as well. I do want to point out a great feature not found on other office printers, is the tray automatically comes out when you print. That’s right, you no longer have to worry about having the collecting tray pulled out, the printer just rolls it out on its own if it’s pushed in. This is great for offices with multiple users and doesn’t require you having to walk to the printer to pull the tray out. The printed documents will simply be waiting for you, saving you a walk to wait for the prints to complete. If you’ve setup the Epson Connect service, you can also send emails to an assigned email address, which can be modified online, to print remotely. You can even print from the cloud directly to the printer, which does require set up of an authentication password. I found print from cloud to be just as quick and is only limited by the bandwidth available to you from your hotspot or network connection remotely. The fax machine gets just as many points as the rest of the functions on the device, with scanning happening quickly, while the unit dialed out and began uploading. Scan quality on the other end is dependent on the destination printer, but with a quick send to my Dr’s office, I can confirm the quality was great! The pages looked like normal copied pages, which work well for those receiving faxed electronically. Scan to email was also very quick! Once you have assigned a recipient email address, the scan begins and is almost immediately received. I tested this using my own personal email address, and the quality was as expected in a PDF file. There is so much I can say about this printer, such as the two feed trays holding a ton of paper, the feed trays allowing for prints to longer page sizes, and I would barely scrape the surface! If you have the appropriate Epson software installed, you gain even more options for print settings for your personal needs. Overall, this is an EASY recommendation to make for small businesses or home offices. Given the newer focus on work from home, this will add just as much functionality as your office printer, with the convenience of home access!

DAY 2 of use... spring in the back paper feeder broke and is tearing paper up as it goes through the feed. I maybe printed 40 pages so far USING PLAIN PAPER!! What a waste of money.