Small Business Tools: The Importance of a Good Printer
The Epson WorkForce 840

by Kris Bovay
(BC, Canada)

Effective front office management for most small business owners includes ensuring that the right business tools are available to support business needs. That means having an excellent phone system; computer hardware and software; printer; copier; fax and scanner.

In our office, these tools are necessary to get the work done.

Note: This product review is based on an actual, operating experience with the Epson WorkForce 840.

We recently replaced our printer, copier and fax, and scanner (three pieces in all) for the Epson WorkForce 840, an all-in-one inkjet printer; it's been a real efficiency improvement and it has saved our office some much needed workspace.

What we like about the Epson WorkForce 840 – in addition to its all-in-one features – is that it’s a compact unit that provides good quality inkjet printing (with duplex capability) and copying. It also provides scanning and faxing features.

The printer is fast and outputs clean, crisp copies. The WorkForce 840 comes with two paper trays; it also has an automatic document feeder.

Most small business owners, if they're like me, will buy a printer and work with it until it stops (working that is). Our old laser printer was an 8 year old unit that really had to work hard to print cleanly – the unit was old and tired and you could almost hear the roller grind to push the paper through. The difference between it and the new Epson WorkForce 840 is like night and day.

The same day that the 840 was delivered we had to print a customer presentation document (five copies of 27 pages each). Because we wanted to produce it in color (and our old printer was black only) we had planned to email the presentation to a local copy shop. Instead we were able to set up the unit within the hour and print five full color, collated sets and still make the customer meeting on-time.

In addition to excellent color quality, the WorkForce 840's two paper trays each take 250 sheets of paper which means it can print a large document without constantly re-loading paper. Furthermore, the ability to automatically, and quickly, print double-sided is a good paper saver and it runs double sided easily and jam-free.
In our business office we have a number of desktop pcs and laptops so the WorkForce 840's built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet capabilities is extremely useful for effective networking; the Wi-Fi was easy to set up (even for me).

The Epson WorkForce 840 features include:

• Capability for both legal and letter size printing


• Two 250 sheet paper trays


• Automatic document feeder: with one and two-sided capability


• Five printing modes: draft, text, text and image, photo, best photo. Selecting the best fit mode will help to match the quality and speed to your specific needs, and will also conserve ink cartridge use.


• Three scanning modes: office for easy document scans; home for photos and graphics; professional for complete scanner control


• Runs on both Windows and Macintosh Operating Systems


• Fast speed, fast drying ink. Excellent quality reproduction - up to 5760 x 1440 dpi print resolution.


• 3.5-inch LCD display on tilting control panel



memory card slots on the front of the printer


• Instant drying DuraBrite® Ultra all-pigment ink – good color depth and no drying time (a good quality inkjet that is smudge free and water resistant)

Small businesses need good tools to be productive: the Epson WorkForce 840 printer provides functionality, features and benefits that meet office print production needs.

Visit Front Office Management for more information on managing your office.