Epson Artisan 1430 Printer: In-Depth Review and User Opinions

The Epson Artisan 1430 is an inkjet photo printer designed for home and home office use. Released in 2011, it prints high-quality photos as well as everyday documents.

The Artisan 1430 features wireless connectivity for convenient printing from mobile devices. It supports borderless printing on photo paper up to 13" x 19", allowing you to print photos with no white edges. The printer has individual ink cartridges so you only have to replace the colors that run out.

With its sleek, compact design and six-color Claria ink set, the Artisan 1430 delivers vivid, saturated photos. It's an ideal choice for photography enthusiasts who want to print their photos at home. The printer aims to provide excellent print quality along with versatile connectivity options.

Design and Build Quality

The Epson Artisan 1430 is a stylishly designed inkjet printer made primarily of plastic with a matte black finish. It has a modern look with gently curved edges and measures 18.1 x 13.7 x 7.4 inches, making it compact enough for most desktops but large enough to handle up to 13x19 inch paper.

At just under 18 pounds, the 1430 is lightweight and easy to move between locations if needed. The top scanning lid feels sturdy and is supported by durable hinges when lifted. Overall build quality is solid with no creaking plastic parts.

The printer itself has an understated elegance, looking sleek and refined from all angles without coming across as cheap or flimsy. It's a printer meant to complement both home offices and more advanced creative workflows. The minimalist design language and matte black exterior give it an air of sophistication.

Print Quality

The Epson Artisan 1430 offers excellent print quality for both documents and photos. It uses Claria ink with Micro Piezo printhead technology to produce lab quality prints.

The maximum print resolution is 5760 x 1440 optimized dpi when printing from a computer and 5760 x 1440 dpi for standalone copying. Resolution can be lowered to increase print speeds. Print modes include Draft, Standard and Best which allow you to choose between speed and quality.

Color accuracy is superb thanks to Claria ink which provides smudge, water and fade resistant prints. A color LCD monitor allows you to preview photos before printing.

The six individual ink cartridges produce excellent photo prints. It can print borderless photos up to 8" x 10" in size on photo paper. Vivid Magenta technology enhances colors in the magenta range for true-to-life photo reproductions. An integrated scanner with 48-bit color depth allows scanning and printing directly from the printer.

Overall, print quality from the Epson Artisan 1430 sets a new standard for home photo printing with lab quality color precision even on standard copy paper. Its dedicated photo printing features like borderless printing make this an ideal choice for amateur photographers.

Print Speed

The Epson Artisan 1430 has reasonably fast print speeds for home use. It can print up to 16 pages per minute in black and up to 11 pages per minute in color.

The first page out time is around 10 seconds for black and 13 seconds for color. This is pretty quick for a home inkjet printer.

Some factors that can affect print speeds:

• Print mode - Draft mode is faster than standard or best quality modes.
• Connectivity - Printing over USB is typically faster than wireless printing.
• Page coverage - Pages with more ink coverage will print slower.
• Resolution - Higher print resolutions result in slower print speeds.
• Paper type - Some paper types like glossy photo paper may print slower than plain paper.

Overall, the print speeds of the Epson Artisan 1430 are quite good for an inkjet photo printer designed for home use. The speeds are fast enough for most home printing needs without being too slow.

Connectivity: Wired and Wireless for Flexible Printing

The Epson Artisan 1430 offers flexible connectivity options to print from anywhere in your home or office.

For wired printing, it has a USB 2.0 port allowing you to connect directly to your computer. This gives you fast and reliable printing without relying on a wireless connection.

It also has built-in WiFi for printing wirelessly. Simply connect the printer to your local network and you'll be able to print from anywhere within range. The WiFi is dual-band supporting both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks.

One standout wireless feature is WiFi Direct. This allows you to connect your mobile devices like smartphones and tablets directly to the printer without joining a network. It's extremely convenient for printing from mobile.

Speaking of mobile, the Artisan 1430 has printing capabilities from iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, Kindle Fire and Google Cloud Print. You can print on-the-go from your mobile apps and cloud storage.

The wireless printing options combined with mobile printing support make this an ideal printer for multiple users in a networked home or small office environment. You have the flexibility to print from anywhere thanks to its range of connectivity choices.

Paper Handling

The Epson Artisan 1430 has excellent paper handling capabilities. It comes with a 120-sheet front paper tray and a rear specialty paper feed that can hold 20 sheets of specialty paper like cardstock, envelopes, and photo paper.

The main paper tray can hold a variety of paper sizes including letter, legal, 4" x 6", 5" x 7", 8" x 10", and envelopes. It supports paper weights between 17 lb plain paper up to 68 lb cardstock. The rear specialty feed supports thicker papers between 28 lb bond to 68 lb cardstock as well as envelopes and photo paper sizes like 4" x 6" and 5" x 7".

Overall the paper handling of the Epson Artisan 1430 provides the flexibility to print on all common paper types and sizes without having to swap out trays. The inclusion of a dedicated photo paper tray is also handy for photo printing.

Ink and Toner

The Epson Artisan 1430 uses individual ink cartridges for each color, so you only need to replace the color that runs out rather than the entire set. It utilizes Claria ink technology to produce lab-quality photos and crisp text.

The included standard capacity ink cartridges provide excellent page yields. You can print up to 800 pages in black and 755 pages in color. High capacity ink cartridges are also available for even higher page yields.

Replacement ink costs are typical for an inkjet printer. The standard capacity ink cartridges run about $13 for black and $14 for color. The high capacity cartridges cost around $20 for black and $23 for color. Overall the ink costs are reasonable given the excellent print quality and yield you get with this printer.

Special Features

Some unique features of the Epson Artisan 1430 printer include:

Duplex Printing: The printer has automatic two-sided printing, allowing you to print on both sides of the paper without having to manually flip sheets over. This saves paper and makes printing books, reports, or presentations easy.

Scanning: The Artisan 1430 can scan documents and photos directly to your computer or to the cloud. It has a 4800 dpi optical resolution for crisp scans. The scanner lid is large enough to scan thicker books or bound documents.

Fax Capability: You can send and receive faxes directly from the printer using the built-in fax modem. Faxes can be saved directly to your PC as PDFs or forwarded as email attachments.

2.7” Touchscreen: Navigating the printer and selecting options is easy with the full-color touchscreen display. You can preview photos before printing and access settings with just a tap.

Mobile Printing: The free Epson Connect app allows you to print from iOS, Android, Chromebook, and other devices. You can print photos, webpages, documents and more wirelessly from your phone or tablet.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Produces high quality prints in color and monochrome with excellent detail and smooth gradients
• Fast printing speeds for both documents and photos
• Built-in wireless and Ethernet connectivity
• Accommodates various paper types and sizes up to 13" x 19"
• Comes with 6 Claria ink cartridges for vivid color printing
• Touch screen display with intuitive controls and onboard editing features
• Auto 2-sided printing capability
• Max print resolution of 5760 x 1440 dpi

Cons

• Ink can be expensive over time
• Lack of paper tray; limited to rear feed slot
• No fax capability
• No document feeder for scanning multiple pages
• Small LCD display size
• Slightly slower speeds printing high resolution photos

Conclusion

The Epson Artisan 1430 is an excellent all-in-one wireless inkjet printer suitable for home use. With its sleek and compact design, it can fit into any home setup. The printer produces lab-quality photos and graphics with its Claria ink technology. Text prints are sharp and clear as well.

One of the biggest selling points of the Artisan 1430 is the built-in wireless connectivity that allows you to print from anywhere in the home. The touchscreen display makes operating the printer straightforward. Paper handling is also smooth with the auto-duplexing feature and rear feed for specialty papers.

In terms of drawbacks, the cost of replacement ink cartridges can add up over time. Print speeds, while good, are still slower than laser printers. There is no fax capability or document feeder either.

Overall, the Epson Artisan 1430 strikes an excellent balance between price, performance and features for the average home user. It can handle everything from documents to photos with professional quality results. For those seeking a stylish, versatile and affordable photo printer, the Artisan 1430 is highly recommended. Its robust wireless connectivity and touchscreen interface make it a great overall value.