Although all-in-one printers that can copy, scan and print have become the most popular segment of printers, there are many other types of printers currently available. One of these specialty types of printers, called wide-format, has the often useful ability to print on large sizes of paper. Epson’s WorkForce 1100 is a new wide-format printer. This specialty type of printer has to be especially heavy duty. So we set out to find out if this WorkForce is a workhorse or a wimp.

Since the WorkForce 1100 can print on paper as large as 13” x 19” (33 x 48 cm), the printer itself has to be quite large. With the paper trays completely folded, the WorkForce 1100 is 24.3″ x 12.7″ x 8.5″ or 61.7 x 32 x 21.6 cm. So it is not surprising that the box it comes in, shown in Figure 1, is quite large. With the printers itself weighing 26.3 lbs (11.9 kg) the box is also quite heavy.

Inside the box you will find one software and driver disk, a “Start Here” Guide, and five ink cartridges, shown in Figure 2. You will note that the printer comes with, and can handle, two black cartridges at once. This lessens the number of cartridge changes that the user must perform. The cartridges that come with the printer are full high-capacity ink cartridges rather than the starter cartridges that come with some new printers. Kudos to Epson on that! No USB cable is included.