Setting up the Epson P700 printer

Initial printer setup and software installation

Keith Cooper has been looking at the Epson P700 printer for his detailed review.

Whilst the main P700 review contains some information about setup, this article looks at the process in somewhat more depth. The printer is simple to set up, but a few points are worth noting if you’re new to printing.

There is also a short video by Keith covering aspects of the physical setting up of the printer.

Unboxing the Epson P700

The process of setting up your new Epson P700 printer should take less than an hour. I can’t give a precise figure since I was pausing to shoot some of the photos and make notes.

The box is a robust one, with corner dents (courtesy of UPS) causing no issues deeper in the packaging.

My first item out is the box of ink cartridges

The carts are slightly overfilled startup carts, meant for initialisation only.

As I’ll show in a bit, the carts are in order, so leave them in the box for the moment. They also need shaking for ~15 seconds and it’s far less work to shake one closed box than 10 individual carts.

The printer itself is wrapped in a plastic bag, however, don’t try lifting the printer by the bag, it’s meant to be lifted at the sides.

There are instructions, but relatively insubstantial, given the number of languages on the sheet.

There is basic setup instructions in the Epson install system.
For accessing this, go to: https://epson.sn

Whatever way you go, there’s a lot of blue packing tape to remove.

Basically, hunt around for any blue tape and remove it.

If the top paper guide needs clipping into place (I had two printers one had it fitted, one had not).

It won’t fit as shown above.

You need to fit it in either the raised or lowered position

Enough space?

When considering where to put your P700 there are two space requirements.

One is the space needed in normal printing. This includes the use of the roll paper unit, which is built into the back of the printer.

More space is needed if you want to print on board, since sheets of it need to extend out of the back of the printer. Remember that it’s quite stiff and won’t flex.

Initialising the printer

Tho power connector is at the rear, but the power switch is just to the left of the display (tilted up).

Close all the panels and switch on. You’ll get asked for the date and language to use.

Now it’s time to put the ink carts into the printer.

There’s a handy animated guide if you’re unsure.

If you look at the ink feed lines you can see bubbles and some fluid in them.

This shipping fluid both prevents drying out, but also is formulated not to freeze if the printers are shipped by air in a very cold cargo hold.

The carts are colour coded and simply click into place.

Push the carts towards the top of the label, so as to get them properly in place. They do click quite clearly into place.

One thing I noted is that the carts are packed in the box in the right order for insertion.

Once done. shut the cover, and leave for 15-20 mins for the printer to sort everything out

You’ll be prompted to continue at the end of the process.

Update: See the notes at the end of this article and the main review, about maintenance carts and ink levels.

Connecting up the printer

The USB and Ethernet sockets are under a rear panel which folds out.

If you’ve already got the software/drivers running on your computer, then by all means connect everything up, but if everything is new, wait until you’re doing the installation.

Both wired and wireless LAN settings can be made directly from the printer front panel.

Here, the printer has found itself a LAN IP Address from my DHCP server

The printer can attached to a wireless network, and can operate in a direct connection mode for smart devices.

Setting up the printer and software

A simple method is to use the Epson install system. For accessing this, go to:

https://epson.sn

You need to put in your product type. Unfortunately the search is not very smart, so my ‘P700’ isn’t good enough. ‘SC-P700’ worked though.

Stage one of the guide is the setup shown above (and in my video).

I’m just showing the Mac install here, but Windows will work just as well (we don’t have any PCs)

I’ve already plugged in the printer to our ethernet network, so I’ll use that.

The software finds the printer.

Make a note of that IP address – it may be of use in connecting to the printer’s web page, as I’ll show in a bit.

There’s no reason not to install everything.

After a short while, everything is installed.

Epson Print Layout

At the time of writing, the Epson Print Layout software is not installed in the process above. I’ve more information about it in the review and B&W print articles, but the official download page from Epson UK is:

https://www.epson.co.uk/apps-software/epson-print-layout

Aug 2020: This has broken links, but these are the Mac and PC versions

After all the software is installed, you still need to set up a printer for your system to use.

For Win PCs you’ll need to go through your normal printer setup (sorry, I’ve not had a Win PC many years)

Selecting a printer (Mac and the AirPrint problem)

I’ll just show a simple setup on my Mac here – just be aware that interfaces change over time, so check the installer as well.

I need to add the printer to my printer list, and the obvious way is to go into the system preferences and just add it, with the ‘+’ at the bottom of the list.

I can select the highlighted ‘Add printer or Scanner’ or I could click on the conveniently discovered P700 below it.

If I go with the generic ‘add’ then I get a list of options. Note how there are two P700 options, as well as two for Karen’s office printer.

Picking the IP version, sets up a printer, with the usual options/supplies buttons.

If I’d selected the P700 from the ‘nearby printers’ option, I’d have got a superficially similar printer.

But, have a close look at the printer ‘kind’. There’s an ‘AirPrint’ added onto the end of its name.

Opening the options/supplies tab, I can see ink levels and a link to the printer web page.

If I go to the (IP) version of the printer. I’ve loads more options but no web link.

The ink levels are similarly low in both printer instances.

So many printer options…

What’s going on? Well quite a bit depends on the way Apple decides to control the setup of printer drivers (so don’t rush to blame Epson).

Going back to the ‘Add printer or Scanner’ route and looking further at the options shows that you can have a choice.

So, what do I do?

I set up one printer as normal (NOT AirPrint) and one AirPrint one. To avoid confusion I change the name of the AP one to make sure I don’t accidentally select it. Why keep an AP one? Well, it gives a quick connection to the printer’s web page. However, be aware that if you select the AirPrint version when printing, you may suddenly think a whole load of printer options have vanished.  Yes, this has caught me out in the past…

The web page lets you control and check all kinds of printer settings and defaults for printing from connected devices

However I’ll leave stuff like that for the main review, since this article is really just about getting your printer ready for use.

Main Epson P700 review

Update Note: The printer will be supplied in the future with a spare maintenance cart. This is because setup nearly fills it (with ink and the shipping fluid). Ink carts are distinctly low after setup – see the main review for more about this. Whilst spare ink carts will be required before too long, don’t bother getting another spare maintenance cart – the second one should last for ages.

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