It seems no matter how many printers I test, they always seem to get better. Each year more features are added and each year the print quality gets better. This year Epson has come out with a couple of new, top of the line, Artisan all-in-one printers. Today I am looking at the Artisan 700 — a multifunction printer that can print photos, CDs and DVDs, scan and copy.
Features
- 4 in 1 with WiFi: Print / Copy / Scan / Ultra Hi-Def Photo
- Auto Photo Correction; preview on LCD
- Professional quality CD/DVD printing
- Two-sided printing saves paper
- Ultra Hi-Definition photos last 4x longer than photo lab prints
- Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking
- Two paper trays always ready to print photos and documents
- Print personal note paper & greeting cards
What would a printer be without the ability to print? Well this printer can print on just about any type of surface meant for printing, from photo paper, to printable DVDs. With the optional duplexer two-sided printing is a snap.
This printer also uses Claria Hi-Definition Ink which is currently one of the best and longest lasting inks you can buy. Because of this the photos that this printer prints will last 4x longer than photos that are printed in a photo lab.
Being able to print doesn’t do you a lot of good unless you can connect to the computer that has your documents and photos. Have no fear, there are at least 5 ways to get your photos and documents to the printer. First, you can connect it directly to the computer with a USB cable, this is good if you only have one computer. If you have more than one computer and a network, then you can connect to the network with either an Ethernet cable or via WiFi. The printer also supports a Bluetooth adapter, so if you have a phone or camera with Bluetooth then you can print directly from those devices. Finally, the last way is to plug in a memory card or USB stick into one of the many memory slots.
Not only can you print directly from a memory card or a USB stick, but the printer can enhance and fix those photos if they have problems like red eye or are too light or dark.
The printer has a built-in paper tray that functions like two paper trays. The bottom part of the paper tray is for larger paper, it can hold up to 8.5″ x 14″, and the top tray can hold up to 5″ x 7″ paper.
Design
The printer is very compact. On top is simply the scanner, the maximum size that can be scanned is an A4 document.
Scanner
In front are the main controls for controlling the printer. In the center of the controls is a 2.5” color LCD screen. This is a very high resolution screen, and is great for not only displaying the menus and options, but also for showing photos that will be printed. If you are printing from a memory card or USB stick then you can use the screen to preview the images and see what they will look like before they are printed. However, the screen is small enough that you will have a hard time seeing any details.
Control Panel |
Copy |
Print Preview |
To the left of the screen are 5 buttons. The top left button is the power button and obviously used for turning on and off the printer. Below that is the CD tray button, and it is used for ejecting the CD tray so a CD can be placed on it. The top right button has two purposes, and both of them are for use when displaying photos from a memory card. One of the functions is for setting the crop on a picture. You can use this to select the part of the picture that you want to print. The second function is to change how the photos are displayed. By default the photos are shown one at a time, but if you press this button twice it will change to a thumbnail view so you can see many of them at the same time.
Crop |
Thumbnail |
Below that button is another, and this one is used for setting auto correct on and off. This will instruct the printer to choose the best settings for your photo and use them when the photo is printed. If however, it does not choose the best settings, you can always override them by choosing your own settings. These settings can be found by pressing the menu button and scrolling over to the photo settings.
Auto Correct Off |
Auto Correct On |
In the middle of these four buttons is another larger button. This button when pressed will move through the 4 main options that this printer has, photo, copy, scan and setup. As you press the button each item is highlighted by a small graphic on each corner of the button. At first glance it looks like you should be able to press each of the corners and go directly to each item, but that is not the case, pressing the button just moves to the next item in order.
Photos |
Copy |
Scan |
Setup |
On the right side of the screen is another bunch of buttons. The first set of buttons are for accessing and navigating the menus, except for the two in the top corners. Those two are for increasing and decreasing the number of copies made when you use the copy functionality. The next button is a large one and it is simply labeled start, and is for starting the copy process. The last button is a stop and reset button.
The whole control console lifts up. This serves two purposes that I have found so far. The first is to give you a better viewing angle, and the second is to open up a space so you can get to the CD/DVD tray. As you lift the controls up they will lock into place. To get them to go back down you need to press a button which is at the top right of the controls.
Below the buttons is the CD tray, paper output, and input trays. The first one and closest to the top is the CD tray. Pressing the CD tray button causes this tray to come out, but before you can put a CD on it you must lift the controls up. This opens up a space so you can reach in and place the CD on the tray.
DVD tray |
DVD tray |
Below that is the paper output tray. It pulls out so that it can support anything from 4″x6″ all the way up to 8.5″ x 14″.
Output tray |
At the very bottom is the paper input tray. Actually it is two paper trays built into one. There is an upper and lower section, the upper section is for large paper, up to 8.5″x14″ and the lower section is for smaller photo paper, up to 5″x7″.
Paper Tray |
The back of the printer has a spot for a power, USB, and Ethernet cables.
Network and Phone plugs |
Power plug |
If you open up the top and take a look inside there are really only two spots of interest and one is the ink cartridge holders. Almost all of the previous printers that I have reviewed have had the ink located right on top of the print head, but not with this printer. On this printer they are located off to the side. The small green tab that you see is a kind of lock. It is used to lock the print head into place while being transported. It must be moved before you can print. The Printer has a special place for it just above so it does not get lost.
Ink tray |
Lid open |
Print Head unlocked |
Performance
Testing the printer is the fun part. It is where I get to print off tons of different things and see how well it does. Epson sent a full set of standard ink cartridges and I planned on using it all. The first thing I always like doing is printing out lots of pictures. Printing with the 700 is extremely quick, the Artisan 700 can print up to 38 pages per minute and a single photo can be printed in as little as 10 seconds.
The photos that printed are fantastic. As you can see from the images below. I printed off several photos from different printers to compared the quality of each. I printed photos from the Artisan 700 and the R280, both printers from Epson. The first picture is the original from my camera, the second one is from the R280 and the third one is from the Artisan 700. As you can clearly see for yourself they are very similar, but in my opinion the Artisan 700 does a slightly better job.
Kids |
R280 kids |
Artisan 700 kids |
Siblings |
R280 siblings |
Artisan 700 siblings |
One of the features of the Artisan is that it will auto correct photos that are printed from a memory card or USB stick. It can also automatically remove red eye. The first image is the original from my camera, the second one is an auto corrected photo and the third has red eye turned on. As you can see the auto correction works ok, it made some changes, but I am not sure they were necessary. The red eye reduction, also worked reasonably well, except that it was a little aggressive when identifying eyes. As you can see it thought part of the girls mouth was a red eye and it turned it black.
R280 family |
Artisan 700 family |
Artisan 700 redeye family |
Printing documents is also very fast. I was able to print 7 full color pages in 55 seconds. The only complaint I have is that the pages printed in order, which means the first page was at the bottom of the stack and I had to reorder the pages by hand.
Printing DVD is a lot of fun. I bought my last printer, the R280, just because it could print on CDs and DVDs. The Artisan 700 makes the process even better because it is all built-in. The quality is also superb, As you can see from the image it is very easy to see even the smallest detail.
Printed DVD |
Next, I wanted to test text. This is where most inkjet printers have the hardest time. I compared the Artisan 700 against my HP 5L laserjet printer. The first image is the 5L and the second one is the Artisan. As you can see the 5L does a much better job with text. I think you will find that no matter what inkjet you buy, a laserjet is always going to do better with text, that is why I have both.
HP 5L text |
Artisan 700 text |
Last, but not least, is scanning. I have some professional color charts that I like to scan to see how well the scanner performs. As you can see it did a decent job, the colors are not perfect, but they are really good.
Chart Scan |
All during these tests the printer was really quiet. Sometimes I had to watch the printer just to make sure it was printing. To emphasize this fact I have recorded a short video of the printer printing a 4″x6″ photo, pay attention to how quiet it is. The scanner is also really quiet and fast, so if you are not paying attention you will miss it.
One additional plus is that the ink is a bit cheaper than with my current R280. For my R280 it costs about $20 for each high capacity cartridge and for the Artisan 700 it is about $16. However, I could not find any information about capacity so I don’t know if I am also getting less ink.
Warranty and Support
The warranty for the Artisan 700 is simply a two year warranty that covers parts and labor for manufacturer defects. In my opinion this is a mediocre warranty. I would like to see longer warranties for all products, but since I am not in charge I don’t get to make that decision.
Conclusion
I am really impressed with the speed, quality, and how quiet the Artisan 700 is. I don’t think I found a single problem with this printer other than the text quality, but that is a tough area for all inkjets. The price is also very reasonable. It is especially nice that the printer comes with a full set of standard color ink cartridges and two high capacity black cartridges, this is about $90 worth of ink. If you are looking for a multifunction printer that can scan, copy, and print then I can highly recommend this printer. If you need a little more, like faxing and a document feeder you may want to check out the Artisan 800. I am giving this printer my 5 star gold award because of how great it is. I am impressed with it and you will be too. As always compare prices before purchasing. The Artisan 700 can also be purchased from Newegg or Amazon
Gold Award
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Thanks for the information on the Artisan 700, Ryan. Very helpful. I love my Epson R300′s print quality, but I’d never trade up to another Epson as long as Epsons Ink Jets require replacement of a depleted cartridge before it will allow any printing at all (e.g., the R300 won’t let you print black and white if the Cyan cartridge is out). Do you know if this “feature” is also included in the Artisan 700? Also, since I’m guessing the R280 and R300 are comparable, I know you like the photo quality of the 700 slightly better than the 280, but I wondered if you’ve noticed that either has the advantage on text.
Thanks very much,
J. Finegan / Baltimore, MD
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I have this problem with my Artisan 700. My light Cyan cartridge just ran out and it won’t let me print anything (even black and white) without replacing it!
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Did you ever find a solution to this? I am having the same problem. Thanks
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The solution is to add new ink cartridges. It will not print if one of the cartridges is out of ink.
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I have not ran into the ink “feature” yet, I will let you know if I do. Also I have not seen a difference in the text quality. If there is one it is really small.
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Thank you for this review. I’ve been looking at a number of reviews for this printer (also known by the catchy name PX700W here in Europe) but this is the best review by far!
I’m still concerned about the text quality as that seems to be its main weakness – the ability to compare text quality in this review has been great, but has ultimately put me off buying for now. I think the smudgier, greyer tones would get on my nerves too much. Canon printers with similar features seem to have a much better reputation for text reproduction, although the printers themselves are quite a bit uglier (IMO!) and lack some of the Epson’s features. Hmm, it’s a tough decision!
I’ve also read many bad things about the cost of running this printer – I will definitely be considering 3rd party inks if I go ahead!
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Thank you for your comment. I agree with you about the text quality. I have yet to see an ink jet that can match a LaserJet. That is why I have both, my 10 year old HP 5L still works great. The Artisan line of printers is great for everything else. I upgraded my 700 to an 800 and I absolutely love it. It does burn through ink fairly fast, but I don’t use it everyday. For normal printing I go back to the LaserJet which is much more efficient.
I have reviewed several Canon printers and I agree that they are ugly, but they don’t seem to do any better with text. For text it is Laser by a landslide.
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I don’t know if there are any 3rd Party Inks for it.
Epson wants you to use genuine Epson cartridges.. plus the printer uses “Claria High Definition” ink. Who knows how other basic inks would compare?
I’ve had the printer for quite some time now.. and am now starting to to replace the last 2 cartridges that came with the printer (Cyan and Magenta). Infact, I’m still using the (2nd) black cartridge that came with the printer.. its about half way to full.. and I’ve ran more than 500 pages through the printer! It isn’t so bad.. but for printing photos.. you will go through the ink much quicker.
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I am trying to decide if the Artisan is for me. My grandson got hold of my epson printer, and not it won’t recognize the ink cartridges. So I am looking for one to replace it.
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That depends on what you want it for. The Artisan does so much that it may not be a fit for people that are just looking for a printer. However, if you need a scanner and copier then it certainly does a great job combining all that. Also, if you want a fax then you may want to check out the Artisan 800. I have the 800 and I love it.
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I recently had to have my Artisan 800 replaced because the touchscreen lock broke. I contact Epson support and they quickly sent out a replacement. They also paid for return shipping.
Epson also included a full set of Ink with the replacement printer. I thought this was done out of the kindness of their heart, but I later found out that the new printer would not initialize without the new ink. I tried first to install the ink from the old printer, but it kept telling me that they were not correct. Finally after installing the new ink it initialized just fine. After it was all setup I removed the new ink and put in the old and it worked fine. This struck me as a bit odd, but since Epson supplied the new ink I was not going to complain.
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I was wondering anyone knows how to print in black and white only on the Epson Artisan 700. I would rather print in only black and white on certain things and don’t want to burn through the ink. Any help would be appricated.
Thanks
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Hi- Thanks for the thorough, informative reviews! My question for you is that you said the Artisan 700 does a decent job of scanning…I’m a bit torn if I should just get something like the Epson V300 and the R280 as a printer. The Artisan uses a CSI Line Sensor and the Epson V300 uses a CCD 12-line sensor, and I hear the CCD gives a better result than the CSI scanners. Do you know anything about this, or do you think its negligable? It seems to make sense to get an all-on-one, but the scanning aspect is important to me (even though I’m not looking to spend several hundred dollars on a flatbed scanner!). Thanks for any input. Best, Ken
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Ken,
I don’t have a lot of experience with CSI vs CCD scanners, I usually judge a scanner by the quality of the results. So far I have not been disappointed by the results of the Artisan scanner; however, I am mostly scanning family photos. If you are doing something different it may not work for you.
I am also a believer that, you get what you pay for. More expensive scanners usually produce better results.
I hope this helps, and please let us know what your final decision is.
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Thanks for the quick reply! What I’m going to do is go into a store that has the Artisan on display, and scan a picture! My main concern is that I don’t want to get another scanner (like a HP I have) that makes alternating dark and light line “streaks” on anything that is black or dark. I’ll keep you posted!
Best,
Ken
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I have just taken delivery of a brand new Epson PX799W Printer (bought on the web from Amazon). On unpacking it there was a large message re the small ‘yellow material’ to be replaced under the main cover. I did this as I was unpacking. I then started installation and the little display screen lit up. I selected English, I then installed the supplied ink cartridges as instructed and the screen moved onto the third display headed ‘Warning’ referring to the ‘yellow material’. This was already placed correctly. The On/Off, Home and Start buttons all flash and the screen instructed me to switch off. I have restarted the printer on numerous occasions but it never gets past this point. I installed the software on my PC to see if that would help but although recognising the printer the PC display doesnt even register that I have installed the ink cartridges. Help! Is there some way I can reset it to start the process from scratch. Thanks. PS I have written the same e-mail to epson.com but have not received a replay and now the website is aleways “unavailable”.
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I cannot find anything about a PX799W printer anywhere on the internet. However, I assume that because you are posting this on an Artisan 700 review that it must be similar to this printer.
When you say yellow material I am also assuming that you are talking about the little Yellow/Green plastic plug that is on the inside. If that is not correct then please be more specific about what the yellow material is.
If it is the plastic plug that you are having trouble with, then you may want to try looking in the spot where the plug used to be and you will see a little switch. Try sticking a toothpick or something down in the switch and see if you can press it. Maybe that will get it to pop up and work.
Other than that I recommend that you call Epson on the phone. I get much better luck with phone calls, than I do with E-mails.
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Phil, I’m having the exact same problem. It’s really frustrating that I can’t get past that point. Anybody with ideas or help on this?
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Many thanks. Printer was a PX700W (mistype on original message).
I did contact Epson on their on-line tech chat and they were very helpful. They arranged for an engineer to call the next day and he replaced the printer without a qualm. It appears that there was a fault with the machine and the print head was stuck (maybe jarred in transit by courier). New printer now works brilliantly. I am impressed with the both the printer (photo and CD print quality is superb) and Epson’s prompt response.
To Denelle C I recommend you contact the on-line technical support chat facility (link on epson’s website), they were so different from my previous experiences of such facilities!
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I contacted Epson and explained the problem, seems it’s quite a common occurance and basically they told me that it was DOA(Dead on Arrival) they gave me a reference number I took it back to the store I purchased it from and they gave me a new one. Now to set up the new one and hopefullt everything is A-OK!
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I hope we’re both contented Epson customers then!
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I have had the Artisan 700 for awhile now and it just sucks up the color ink even though I have it on grayscale and don’t print much color at all. Anybody have any ideas? The website says it has to use the color inks so they don’t jamb the heads.
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Chuck,
If it is using color ink when you are printing black and white I would think that is a problem with the printer. I understand that it may have to use a little when cleaning the heads, but it should be a really small amount, and very rarely.
I would contact Epson support. They are very nice and should be able to help you. Others have had good success with the on-line tech chat personal and I recommend you try that way first.
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I have to report the same problem with Epson artisan, I print mostly black and white and yet still I ran out of colors very quickly, not to mention it won’t print black and white page if you’re missing magenta color, I’m very very disappointed with Epson and I will not buy again, because I find this a cheat on customers.
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Am setting up a client’s new Artisan 700, and hit the same problem with the microswitch or whatever it is in the print head, and the irritating “Move the yellow material …” message.
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I guess its time to call support so you can send it back.
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Great review. I have a modified Canon IP4000 that I use to print discs; both CDs/DVDs using Taiyo Yuden watershield discs; amazing results that my clients love. The reason I’m looking past it is that it’s modified; every time Apple releases a new OS I have to jump through some hoops to get it to work as a disc printer again. (Canon USA is not allowed to sell printers with disc printing abilities, apparently, so I have to search the web for non-US drivers.)
I’m strongly considering the Artisan series, and notably the 700/800 line (just recently replaced, I believe, with the 710/810). There’s just one detail I can’t find on any review anywhere — can the 700 (or its ilk, but I know you have the 700) handle labels? I mean good ol’ Avery-style sheet labels, like if I’m printing a page of return address labels, or shipping labels, etc.? I’ve got a couple of emails in to Epson but no answer yet, so I thought I’d ask the man who owns one.
Again, thanks for a contributed-to-my-almost-decision-to-buy review.
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Absolutely, I have printed labels with this printer several times without any trouble. You just have to make sure to get the labels that are for ink jet printers and you need software that supports labels.
BTW I upgraded to the Artisan 800 and I love it (I don’t use a fax a lot, but for the times I need one I am glad I have it). Also, I am getting an 810 sometime this week. Give me a couple weeks to play with it and I will have a review for you to read.
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First, many thanks for the quick response. FWIW, I use BeLightSoft’s “Labels & Addresses” program under 10.6 for label creation, and I know the software supports a plethora of Epson printers.
As for the models, I’m on the fence between them — the 710, an 800 (on clearance @ Epson.com) or the 810; I’ll keep an eye out for your next review.
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Well after a few months of buying color ink every month my 700 told me that the ink pads were getting worn out and I should call support. After going through a bit of a hassle with them-they wanted me to remove all old epson drivers from the computer and then do a reinstall of new drivers and I forgot my network password, the machine finally spit out the same message that my computer had been telling me “ink pads at end of life” or something like that. They sent me a new printer that I have had for a month and I still have ink in all my colors without having to set it on grayscale. So I had a faulty machine that Epson wouldn’t recognize until it threw the ink pad message at them.
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I purchsed the Artisan 700 in January 2009 and have nothing but problems with it. From the get go it didn’t work, two of the inks would not connect and I ran out of ink in a matter of days. I followed all the troubleshooting, but nothing worked. Finally, in May I contacted Epson and they sent me a “refurbished” printer to replace my brand new printer I only tried to use a few times. I waited so long, because I kept trying the troublshooting suggestions in hope that it would work. And left it alone for long times after mere frustration. I wanted to throw the thing out the window on a few occasions. I only bought this one because my old Epson (which I loved) broke. When I saw that they sent me a refurbished printer, I contacted Epson through email complaining, but received no reply. I even told them how many ink cartridges I had gone through while the printer did not work. I hoped they would at least give me a coupon for ink discount, but they could care less. After I set it up the refurbished printer I have to admit it printed fantastic pictures. Although, it goes through ink rather quickly. I received the refurbished printer in May, and now in October, I am having more problems. It seems the paperfeeder from the papertray is not catching the paper, so no printing is occuring. I followed all the troubleshooting suggestions and nothing is working. I am really disapointed with this printer and the ink usage is quick, especially because of the price. I hate the fact that the printer will not work if one of the inks is low, even when you are printing just black. I am going to contact Epson again for the problem, but almost want them to just keep the printer and I will go buy another brand.
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I could be wrong, but it appears to me the Epson Artisian 700 printer is designed to print pictures on a daily basis and if you don’t the heads clog. I print a couple of pictures a month and each time I go to print my heads are dirty requiring me to clean them several times. This last time I went to print a picture my black head was the only one giving me problems, but I was required to clean all the heads wasting considerable ink and pad life. Each time I clean a head I seem to use considerable amount of ink therefore I’m constantly purchasing ink. My wife purchased a Brother multifunctional printer shortly after I purchased the Epson and she has not had any problems with it and the pictures are super. I think this is my last Epson, no I’m sure of that!
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i just got a artisan 700 an it keep saying my computer cant find printer what do i do
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Okay since you didn’t provide any details lets start at the beginning.
1. Is it plugged in?
2. Is it turned on? Are you sure? Is the screen turned on?
3. Is it connected to your computer? If so, how do you have it connected (USB, wired or wireless)?
4. Have you installed the drivers?
5. At the end of the driver install it asks to print a test page. Did you do this?
6. Has it ever worked?
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The first copy is beautiful. However, when making multiple copies, lines start appearing and quality decreases.
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My issue is similar to Mary Beth. I was at an event taking and printing photos with the Epson Artisian 710, and all the pictures with black in them had streaks through the black. This was very embarrassing and resulted in a major loSs of money! Very disappointed! Has anyone had this problem? If so what was the cause?
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Seriously, who makes a printer that won’t print black and white unless all the expensive color ink is full? The color ink, when I use it, goes quickly, but I mostly use the printer to print documents which are generally black and white. It’s the difference between a great printer and a great failure. There has to be an answer besides buying ink I can live without. Anyone? Bueller?
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That is precisely the reason I keep around a laser printer. For black and white printing they are much more efficient and cost effective.
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This printer is the biggest piece of crap I have ever owned, It goes through the VERY expensive ink like crazy, I have seen it go thru and entire ink cartridge in a matter of hours, and only from printing 2 papers with Black ink only. It is a rip off.
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The Artisan 700 printer is TERRIBLE. Do NOT buy it. I have had to have it replaced THREE times now within a year! Each time for same reason: paper jam issues, resulting in product error. I am using the appropriate Epson paper. This model is a complete lemon. Additionally, the ink has to be replaced too often, which ends up being very expensive, and it’s ridiculous that you have to keep all cartridges full in order to print at all (including color even if only want to print b&w).
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