New Epson Wide Format Printing Issues


Designers_Edge
 Share

Recommended Posts

I invested in a new Epson printer an all-in-one wide format WF 7610.  I am experiencing extremely SLOW printing speeds when I send the layout file to print with each page taking approximately 7 minutes to print--I timed it.  

 

All drivers & software have been updated,  I have both the page setup correct and print layout correct and the print quality for the printer is "normal".  Have been on the phone with Chief and we've doubled checked all my printer settings, but they aren't familiar with Epson.

 

Has anyone else experienced this issue?  I replaced an HP wide format all in one with the new Epson which is Apple compatible since the drivers in my HP were so old.

 

Not sure now if I need to return it.  Thanks for any input.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any suggestions for a new wide format printer that works well with Chief?  Spent an hour with Epson customer support and we are able to print at reasonable speeds on tabloid paper from other applications both an 11 x 17 photo and also an 11 x 17 document, so it appears that this printer isn't working well with the X7 program.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brother MFC-J6920DW prints just as fast on a PDF as directly from layout. Great on speed, quality and ink. Warns you about low ink and then stops on empty. Full 11x17 scan bed. Double sided printing and autofeed 11x17. Only possible drawback for some is that max paper size is 11x17. I don't ever plan for 12x18 half sized prints anyways. The locals who ask for anything less than full size only want 11x17 so it does not bother me. It is by far the best all in one I have ever owned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sharon,

 

I have it in the back of my mind that .pdf's, or more particularly, rotated .pdf's contained in a layout caused printing problems at some time.

Maybe someone else can add more detail.

 

Do you  have .pdf's or rotated .pdf's in your layout? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you all for answering.  Let me say that I just got this and set it up and spent yesterday doing a test run on various functions to make sure it is the printer for me.  One of the things I did was print out layout documents for a project I did several months ago to see how the printer would handle it.

 

Yes, I did have imported PDFs in the specification page for some appliances.  However, when sending the very same layout file to my old HP  all in one wide format, I did not have speed issues, even with the imported PDF files.

 

Alan, thanks for the input on the Brother All in one- does the document feeder work well without jamming?  That was a persistent issue with the HP and also very slow scan speeds.  I will say the Epson scan speed is like lighting--I was dumbfounded by how fast it scans and also copies from the ADF or the flatbed itself.  Just wish I could say the same about the print speed.

 

I did send the layout to PDF and printed and it was much faster-approximately 45 sec for a tabloid page with images.  Is this the work around?  Draft does not seem to be an option with this printer because in draft mode-the text is so light that one can barely read it.  Seems like with all of these there's always some draw-back.

 

Greg, would love to hear any advice.  I have the new 27" iMac retina with the i7 chip.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was looking for a wide format printer and I'm glad I saw this post. I was debating Epson (in question) or HP Officejet 7612 Wide Format e-All-in-One... I wonder if anyone is using or used HP one with CA?

 

With that said, it makes sense to print to PDF and after to the printer. Some files if I try to print are printing slow but the min you do it through PDF it moves much faster.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Greg, it may have been the 7 year old HP I had which was the 7500 all in one, but from day 1 there were issues with the paper feeders both from the tray but especially from the auto document feeder.  I would have to open it, make sure I place the paper in further and at times it would grab 2 pages--frustrating when scanning to PDF.  Also it could not do double sided printing.  Many now do so.

 

The other issue is the software that comes with the printer, the Epson software gives you so many options for both the printer and the scanner.  The dialog box is not intuitive out of the box as it pops up in the simple version, so you need to find the "more detail" option to open up lots of options and these change with the document being printed--photo, text etc.  Lots of paper sizes to chose from.  

 

I would love to know the time people are getting on say printing out a single page tabloid size floorplan on their printers.  As I said earlier, I timed a print-out test of the single page PDF version and the print speed was approx. 40 seconds for 1 page.  So, at this speed, it would take approximately 10 min to print out a 12 page document at "normal" print quality.

 

Joey, any input on the approx time you printer takes?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have the Brother machine as well and it's performed admirably for me.

Mine is 3-4 years old so it's an MFC6490 but they still have comparable models. 

 

I like it for all the same reasons as Alan - good on ink, simple interface, trouble-free, 2 paper trays so I can keep 11x17 in one and letter size in the other...it's also my fax and scanner so it keeps my desk more streamlined.  Perfect for the small office.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brother MFC-J6920DW prints just as fast on a PDF as directly from layout. Great on speed, quality and ink. Warns you about low ink and then stops on empty. Full 11x17 scan bed. Double sided printing and autofeed 11x17. Only possible drawback for some is that max paper size is 11x17. I don't ever plan for 12x18 half sized prints anyways. The locals who ask for anything less than full size only want 11x17 so it does not bother me. It is by far the best all in one I have ever owned.

Alan I was about to order this printer but read some bad reviews complaining about flimsy construction (although all are plastic today),

poor print quality and muddy color printing.

 

Obviously you have had a better experience. So you are quite happy with your purchase?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My needs with this printer are notime for very high quality output. This printer was under $300. Based on that, I am happy with it. The construction seems similar to others I have owned (HP or Epson). Yes, the color quality is a B or B-. Having 2 trays that I can load with about 50+ sheets of paper is awesome. The big trigger for me was getting an 11x17 scan bed so I could scan full sized sheets in 2 pieces when needed. That saves me a trip to the ups store.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My guess on the slowness is the DPI of the printer. Which for this one is very high. Because Chief is trying to print at the native DPI of the printer it can produce a large amount of data for certain operations.

 

If you drop the DPI for printing down that could improve the performance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share