Introduction
The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-8550 is an all-in-one color inkjet printer designed for small and home offices. With print speeds up to 20 pages per minute in black and 10 pages per minute in color, the WF-8550 aims to provide fast, high-quality printing for documents and photos. One of the key specifications shoppers look at when choosing a printer is the paper sizes it can handle. So an important question for the WF-8550 is: does it support printing on 13×19 inch paper?
Printing Capabilities of the Epson 8550
The Epson WF-8550 has a maximum paper size of 13×19 inches for printing. This means it can fully print on 13×19 inch sheets without any borders or cropping. The printer has a rear feed slot that is optimized for feeding thick print media like 13×19 photo paper. So you can print 13×19 documents, charts, photos and more at full size.
Some key details on the 13×19 printing capabilities:
– Paper types supported at 13×19 inches – Plain paper, Epson Presentation Paper Matte, Epson Premium Presentation Paper Matte, Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper
– Borderless printing available up to 13×19 size
– Print quality up to 5760 x 1440 dpi with variable-sized droplet technology
– Ink cartridges are Claria ET pigment-based inks for vivid color and bolder blacks
So in summary, the major selling point of the WF-8550 is its ability to print at up to 13×19 inches – a size bigger than standard letter or A4 paper. This allows more creative freedom when printing charts, photos and presentation materials.
Advantages of 13×19 Printing
Here are some of the advantages that having 13×19 printing enables:
– Print full bleed photos without cropping – Being able to print borderless 13×19 photos means your images don’t get cropped and lose their impact. Wedding photographers, portrait studios and other creatives can printshots at native resolution.
– Larger presentations and graphics – The 13×19 size allows for more visual impact for presentations, charts and infographics. This can help grab attention in business or educational settings.
– Detailed architectural prints – Architects, contractors and engineers can print detailed plans accurately at 13×19 inches. The large size shows fine details clearly.
– Craft and hobby projects – For DIY crafts and hobbies, 13×19 is useful for project elements, quilting templates, artwork and more.
– High resolution fine art printing – Photographers and artists can get gallery-quality prints without outsourcing. The expanded size shows off images in greater detail.
So in work, school and home projects, having the 13×19 printing flexibility gives more options for creativity and productivity.
Print Speeds for 13×19
At 13×19 inches, the Epson WF-8550 has a print speed of up to 10 pages per minute in color and 11 pages per minute in black. This speed is somewhat slower than its standard speed of 20ppm in black and 10ppm in color for letter-sized prints. The reason is that larger prints require more ink coverage and movement of the print head, slowing the process slightly.
But 10-11 ppm is still a decent speed for most home office or school uses. Very high volume 13×19 printing may require a professional printer. Some technical users have reported speeds of 6-8 ppm for very intense 13×19 prints with bleeds and heavy ink coverage. But for mixed text and graphics, the 10-11 ppm is a good benchmark.
Compared to laser printers, the WF-8550 is competitive in 13×19 print speeds, while providing lower running costs with its high-capacity ink tanks. The tradeoff is slightly slower print jobs for complex graphics in exchange for very low cost per page.
Print Quality at 13×19
Print quality for the Epson 8550 at 13×19 inches is excellent due to these key factors:
– 5760 x 1440 dpi maximum resolution – At this professional photo lab level resolution, details are crisp and clear.
– Pigment-based Claria ET inks – The printer uses fade-resistant ink ideal for photo printing and commercial graphics.
– Variable-sized ink droplets – Drops as small as 1.5 picoliters mean sharp prints even at high magnification.
– Borderless printing – Eliminating white borders maximizes image area on 13×19 sheets.
User reviews confirm outstanding photo quality with the 8550 when printing 13×19 test images. The quality meets or exceeds drugstore prints. Text documents are sharp in draft mode and even crisper in standard quality. For top results with 13×19 printing it’s recommended to use Epson’s official papers, print in high quality modes and allow time for the prints to fully dry.
Operating Costs
A major advantage of the Epson 8550 is the low cost of operation thanks to the supersized ink tanks. Instead of small cartridges, the printer uses tanks that can print thousands of pages before needing a refill. The estimated page yields are:
| Color | Page Yield |
| Black | 11,000 |
| Cyan | 8,000 |
| Magenta | 8,000 |
| Yellow | 8,000 |
For 13×19 printing costs, owners report yields of around 700-800 prints per black ink tank. Large solid fill prints may yield less, while mixed graphics and text prints will yield more. But operating costs work out to pennies per page, much lower than laser toner or standard ink cartridges. And quality is retained even in the high yield tanks.
13×19 photo paper can range from $1 to $3 per sheet for glossy papers from Epson and other brands like Canon. So while ink costs are ultra low, paper does add to the total operating costs. But print quality makes the paper investment worthwhile for critical photo prints and presentation materials.
Conclusion
The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-8550 provides an excellent combination of 13×19 inch printing capability along with low operating costs. It enables high resolution, gallery-quality prints at a size bigger than standard paper formats. While speeds are a bit slower for intense 13×19 print jobs, they are still suitable for home and office use. With the right quality settings and paper choices, the Epson 8550 delivers outstanding results printing at 13×19 inches. Creative users, educators, office teams and anyone needing large presentation materials will benefit from the Epson 8550’s maximum paper size of 13×19 inches.
