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186 of 190 people found the following review helpful.
One Outstanding Printer
By W. B. Halper
This is the best printer that I've ever owned. Period. Considering how many printers I've gone through, that's saying a lot. Let's go through the various pieces and I'll show you why I like it so much....
Print Quality - It's rather trite, but the number one job of a printer is to print. The print quality of the Artisan 837 is outstanding. Using decent quality paper, the output is sharp and clear. Small point type is very readable and fine lines are clearly defined. Normal single-sided printing is very fast. Two-sided printing is considerably slower, as the printer waits for the ink to dry before printing the second side.
Photo Printing - The Artisan 837 adds two more color cartridges to the standard cyan, magenta, yellow and black mix. By including a light cyan and light magenta cartridge, it's possible to produce prints with subtle shades and smoother color gradation. More expensive, dedicated photo printers (e.g. Epson R1900 or R2880, Canon PRO9000MkII) add in still more ink colors and can produce larger prints, but this printer produces excellent prints for all but the most discerning user. There is one application where I wouldn't recommend this printer - very high quality black and white photo printing. If you plan on producing high resolution B/W prints, you should look at the Epson R2880 or the Canon Pro9500MkII. Those units have light black and other cartridges designed specifically for that application. Outside that, though, prints from the Artisan 837 are truly stunning. Like all photo printers, the print quality depends on the quality of the original photo, the paper stock and the print speed. The advertised 10 second 4x6" print speed is for premium glossy photo paper in draft mode, but even that produces a pretty good print.)
Paper Tray - If you're tired of pulling the paper tray and adjusting the guides every time you want to print a photograph, the Artisan 837 has a solution - the paper tray simultaneously holds both photo and regular paper in two different sections. At my house, I'm keeping 4x6 photo paper loaded in the top section, while the bottom holds standard printer paper...the printer automatically selects the correct paper depending on what's being printed. The downside of this arrangement is that the tray has a fairly small capacity, only holding 120 pages of normal 20lb paper.
CD/DVD Printing - I don't use too many CDs and DVDs anymore, but when I did, I used a Black Sharpie marker to label my disks. (Except when I was feeling ambitious and had time to burn. Then I used LightScribe disks) No more. The Artisan 810 has an integrated tray to feed printable CD's into the printer. Just about anything that you can think of - Illustrations, photos and/or text - can be directly printed onto the disk's surface. Even if what you're printing is just a list of file names, it's better than writing them out by hand. One of the included software programs formats text and pictures to fit on the CD's surface. It's nothing fancy, but it works.
Scanning - Direct to PC or USB - Buttons on the touch screen display allow you to select the destination of a scanned document. The scanned image can be sent to any computer that has the Epson drivers installed. The file can be saved in .jpg or PDF format. OCR software (ABBYY FineReader) is included in the software package to convert scanned documents into editable text. Like most all-in-one units, the scanner only scans one side of the page.
Document Feeder - Swinging the feeder input tray closed also lifts the feeder's output tray to make a smooth top...cosmetically it's nice, but more importantly, it also reduces the chances of paperclips and other office debris falling inside. I've copied a 30 page document without a problem...the maximum thickness of the paper stack is spec'ed at 3mm, or roughly 1/8"
Faxing - It works. Outside of color faxing, which isn't really new, there's nothing too exciting here...punch in the number, hit the button and off it goes. You can store far more numbers than you're likely to ever need in a speed dial directory. You can also assign numbers to various groups, so you can easily send the same fax to multiple locations.
Copier = Scanner + Printer - As I mentioned above, I've copied a 30 page document without a problem. Along with two-sided printing, you can also automatically copy both sides of a paper. With CD printing as one of the features, the Artisan also incorporated a CD/DVD copy mode. You put the original CD in the middle of the glass and hit the dedicated "Copy CD/DVD" button. The firmware is smart enough to correct minor centering issues.
Touch screen controls - Between the keypad, function select buttons, various setup and navigation buttons and everything else, most multi-function machines have a ton of buttons on their front panel. By using a touch panel that just displays the necessary buttons, the Artisan 837 considerably simplifies the user interface. The displayed buttons are bright, readable and large enough to easily use. The viewing angle for the panel is not very large; however the assembly can be tilted upwards to make it easy to read when you're standing over the printer. One concern that I have has to do with the tilt mechanism...it can easily move up, but you have to push a release to get it to rotate back down. The latch seems very flimsy and I'm pretty sure that it will break when someone inevitably pushes down on the screen without pushing the release.
Ink consumption - With 6 different ink cartridges, ink can get expensive. As always, your ink usage will depend on what you're printing. Standard business correspondence uses virtually no ink when compared against glossy photos. Single page business letters seem to run in the 10-12 cents per page range; 8x10" color photos might as well have a direct line into your local ATM. There are both standard and high-capacity versions of the cartridges available - I always recommend getting the high capacity version. Cartridges are available individually and in multi-pack boxes. I also recommend that you keep a spare set around at all times. The printer stops printing when any one of the cartridges runs dry and that inevitably happens Thursday at 11:30pm when the kid's trying to print out her homework.
Connectivity - Both wireless (802.11 b/g/n certified) and wired networking is supported, although you can only use one at a time. It was very easy to configure the networking and I had the printer up and running inside of five minutes. It would have been even faster if I'd read the instructions. Even a non-technical user should be able to quickly get it installed and working. If you're going to be using the printer wirelessly, plan on initially use a wired connection to get it configured...you can do it through the front panel, but it's a lot more button pushes. Once the printer is up and running, you can disconnect and move it to wherever it's going to live. The Epson advertising says that you can print directly from various wireless devices...I haven't tested that feature yet, but with the right software, there's no reason that it shouldn't. I'll update this review after I've played with it.
Memory Card + USB port - Nothing too special here. Like any other printer with a display, you stick in the memory card, select the picture you want to print and go. The USB port was designed to supply enough power to allow it to be used as a charger for iPods, cell phones and similar devices. You obviously need to supply the correct cable.
Extras - Coloring Page, graph paper and lined paper printing - Not exactly a reason to purchase a printer, but nice extras - The Artisan 837 can print lined notebook paper and graph paper. Since most office supply stores use notebook paper as a loss-leader to get customers in the door, I wouldn't plan on using this to fill up your binder. On the other hand, it's certainly convenient if you need a couple of pieces quickly. The ability to turn a picture into a coloring page is another extra. Kids get bored on a car ride? Print out some pages and have them color them in. Just don't leave crayons on your back seats and park in the sun. Trust me.
So...My Conclusion?
This is a really good, general-purpose, all-in-one printer for a family or home office. It's fast, has excellent print quality and a well designed feature set. It was obviously designed by an experienced engineering team. This is my eleventh all-in-one printer, the sixth one that I've reviewed for Amazon, and the second one that warrants five stars...an older Artisan model was the first. Highly recommended.
194 of 201 people found the following review helpful.
Best Printer/Copier/Scanner/Fax I've Owned, great with OSX 10.7, 10.8 and Win7
By Mike Testa
I just received my Epson Artisan 837 (with $3.99 Amazon Prime 1-day shipping) and installed it yesterday. The bottom line is that Epson has a winner, I made the right selection for me, and I highly recommend this product! The printer itself is beautiful, sleek, and not too large for my cabinet-top. The printing, copying, touch panel, optics, firmware, flawless setup process and level of automation were extremely well engineered. I was able to eliminate three other disjointed components plus a separate wireless print-server and all associated cables, power cords, etc with this multiple function component. We never needed a USB cable for anything-wireless worked perfectly, even for a firmware update.
I'd been researching multiple function printers for a few months and had settled on either the newly announced Canon PIXMA MG8220 or the newly announced Epson Artisan 837. Both have excellent features, specs, reviews and capabilities. I wanted to replace my standalone Epson scanner, standalone Brother black and white laser printer/fax/copier and my standalone HP D5360 color text/photo/direct to CD & DVD printer, all with a single multifunction printer. They both would enable me to do this, but what pushed me off the fence was the auto-document feeder, which the Canon doesn't have.
Make sure you remove the blue tape used to secure the 837 during shipping. There's even some tape you can't see, such as in the paper tray. By the way, some reviewers criticize the paper trays on both the predecessor Epson Artisan 835 and Canon printers. Indeed, the plastic is thin, but no more flimsy than many of my other printers and I have no qualms that it'll break unless I physically twist it.
Setup was amazingly simple, fast and automated, using the printer's touch panel. It walked me through the process when I powered up, including connecting to my wireless network. I don't broadcast my SSID so it let me input my Network name, then it proceeded to verify connectivity as "excellent"! It prompted me to install the ink cartridges and after about seven minutes had primed them and was ready to print.
Next, I installed the most current drivers for my OSX Lion Macbook from Epson's support website. The first note on the installation guide says to not use the included CD if running Lion. I never had to connect my Macbook to the printer with a USB cable at all. Once Lion drivers were installed, I let it find my Artisan 837, I configured my options for printing (duplex) and provided my header info and configured my Macbook for faxing. Last, I printed a test page to confirm everything was completed--all was perfect. Then I inserted the CD and installed the Print CD app, User's Guide, and ABBYY FineReader (everything except the drivers).
I installed the drivers and fax setup on my wife's Windows 7 notebook using the CD. The Epson app scanned and found the Artisan 837 immediately, made the wireless connection, and proceeded to ask me if I wanted to automatically update the firmware (I did).
I've printed photos, text and graphics so far and the results are truly spectacular, as are print-outs from the copy function. The scans were fast and very sharp. I haven't printed directly to a CD or DVD yet, nor have I used the fax (other than to test that the fax configuration is correct) but I'm confident both will be perfect as well, based on other reviews. If not, I'll post an update.
** Updated review title to include great support for OSX 10.8 also.
128 of 134 people found the following review helpful.
Breathtaking Photo Quality But Not a Perfect Experience
By Paul Cassel
The Epson Artisan 837 is advertised as being an extremely fast (the fastest?) printer to produce 4 x 6 prints. It's also a regular printer, a fax machine, a copy machine, a printer to DVD's and CD's, a scanner and perhaps it washes the dishes as well. This review concentrates on regular printing, setup and photographic printing. I didn't test faxing and the other features seemed to work as well as any of the other all in one printers on the market.
The setup instructions are either wrong or at least I got them wrong. I wanted to set this machine up WiFi only. The instructions said to use a temporary USB cable for setup and I'd be prompted to remove the cable after setup. When I started setup, I was confronted by several choices for connections: wireless, USB, LAN - what I'd expect. I chose USB per the instructions. However, when I got to the end of the setup, the USB worked fine but I wasn't prompted to do anything. I spent a good deal of time wondering how to get the WiFi working without success. Giving up, I called Epson support and spoke to Ram. The good is that Ram answered almost immediately. The bad is that he said I messed up and should have chosen Wireless from the get go and within Wireless there is a USB choice. Who knew?
Running setup again put things to right but I was a bit annoyed at having been made to feel a dunce by the instructions. Even so, not all was right. I was given no choice about the setup installing a bunch of 'offers' which turned out to be me being subscribed to some email. Opting out and removing the needless installation bit junk wasn't difficult, but took some time. There was really very little you can do to customize the install except to edit it afterwards including your registry to remove auto start services I didn't need and you may not need either (such as fax).
Normal printing seemed a bit slower than other similarly priced printers but the results were pretty good, of course depending greatly on paper quality. I tried some very poor quality paper and the results were accordingly. You don't need expensive paper to get good conventional printing, but you do need hard paper. This is not unique to the 837 but the nature of all printers with ink jets being most sensitive.
My major test was photo quality. I expected decent results but not what I got. First, a bit of background. I'm a professional photographer using a calibrated monitor and CS 5.5 (Photoshop) running on a 12 gig RAM very hot Intel I7 computer. I printed two samples and compared them with prints from the pro lab I use to print my for sale photographs. I used the best settings (slowest) and the photo paper supplied by Epson with the printer. I got some extra paper to do more extensive testing as well.
I tried a full color print and a gray scale. The gray scale contains all 10 Zones. To my shock, the results from the Epson Artisan 837 matched the results from the pro lab. This is why I bought more paper. I thought this can't be. It must be a fluke but time and again I was able to produce wonderful prints. The color was spot on. The gray scale (using the gray scale setting) was just magic. In fact, I never produced a print which wasn't darn near or actually perfect including the color balance. It took the machine about one minute to do each 4" x 6" at maximum quality.
The only issue I had with the prints (4" x 6" with border) was that the border contained smears of black ink which didn't intrude into the picture area, but which ruined the white border effect a bit. Still, I'm one happy camper with this.
One issue which may be a problem is that after only a half dozen 4" x 6" prints, the graphic showing ink capacity is visibly down - if only slightly. I do not wish to conduct an ink life test because I may do it unfairly as I'm not an expert in this area.
I am somewhere beyond thrilled with the photographic results from this modestly priced printer. I'm a good deal less thrilled that after my first print, the screen popped up with an offer of some sort or another. I'd easily give this five stars for photo quality. I mean, feed this thing Epson ultra quality paper and it's astounding. I"m removing one star for confusing setup, loading my system with unwanted 'offers' and the black smears on the photo borders.
If you are a photographer who is serious, this machine will probably work wonders in proofing or, depending on what your lab charges, making modest sized photos. Now, if it could only make photos from 60" reels...but Epson makes another model for that at over 20 times the cost.
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Insufficient instructions
finally
