Epson WF-7620 disappointment

[A. Wayne Webb]

So, I loved my Stylus Photo 1400 so much I decided to add a WF-7620 to the mix. Mostly because using Adobe Creative Suite CS4 I on occasion print books. The 1400 handles presentation prints beautifully. It fails miserably at printing books, i.e. two-sided printing. The color matching is superb. However, when printing two-sided you end up wasting a lot of ink and the specialized Epson paper. For instance: recently while printing 5 copies of a 60-page book, I wasted a pack and a quarter of Epson's Premium Presentation Paper Matte double-sided. Yes, I only use Epson paper. When printing on the reverse side it would often jam and the printer would lose the page count.

So..., having decided to spend the bucks and add the WF-7620 to my collection of printers I spent the nearly $450.00 for it and a full set of XL cartridges. The setup was a breeze. And then the fun began.

Opening my InDesign book I decided to print a copy. Imagine when I found that the WF-7620 has no ICC profiles from the manufacturer. Additionally, when selecting the paper type Premium Presentation Paper Matte option in the Printing Preferences I find that the printer cannot print on Epson's double-sided paper.

My conclusions:

1. If your needs are geared to home use this printer will likely suffice. Here is a summarized list of the reasons:
   
   • If your needs are limited to printing your e-mails and a limited number of photographs, i.e. household needs, it is not a bad printer with the only caveat being that you will need to know how to manually adjust the colors in the printing preferences. Otherwise they may be off depending on the colors from your original device, be it an old print or from your camera.
   • The duplexing abilities of the ADF / scanner will suffice for the average user. Actually the duplexing while scanning is a bonus.
2. If, however, your needs are geared more towards the professional end of the spectrum, RUN screaming into the night. Here is a summarized list of the reasons:
   
   • There are no ICC profiles. These are a must IF you want professional looking prints.
   • The printer will not print double-sided using Epson's own paper. That is asinine!
   • Admittedly the ADF / Scanner leaves a lot to be desired, and should not replace a dedicated desktop scanner.
   • However, scanning from a page output from the printer using the scanner demonstrates obvious problems. Even at the highest setting the scans show JPG "squigglies" as well as dithering. A PDF sample can be viewed here

.Recommendation:

1. If you are interested in quality, then this printer is not for you.
2. If all you want is to print e-mails and the like, then go for it.