Review of the Epson ColorWorks C7500G

Food franchises. Fitness centers. Health products. Epson printers? 

If this combination sounds weird, you can thank Shaquille O’Neal. His endorsement of 50-ish odd companies has…quite the range, and yes, it includes Epson printers. 

Seriously, Shaq will sponsor almost anything. So, since he’s an ambassador of the printer brand, let’s look into one of their biggest players for the inkjet market: the Epson TM-C7500G.

Now this is a beast of an inkjet printer. It’s a huge industrial piece of equipment.

It’s built with sturdy material, making it a heavyweight to move (but hey, at least it won’t break as easily).

And it’s suuuuper expensive. We’re not talking Rolls Royce level money here, but for inkjet printers, it’s tipping the scale.

Now if I was a betting person, I’d throw my money on the TM-C7500G to get the print job done. It’s like watching 2 boxers walking into a ring – you’re probably going to bet on the bigger person to win, right? 

But the saying goes, “the bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Is this true with inkjet printers?

Well, only one way to find out!

If you’re looking into an investment that’ll help your business’s label printing in the most efficient way, the TM-C7500G might be a strong contender.

Let me set the stage for you: 2 Epson inkjet printers step into the ring. They’re equally matched in speed and power. 

Who will come out on top?

Well, it’s not a championship boxing match, but it’s best to know which Epson printer model you want for your business before you commit to buying one: either the TM-C7500G or TM-C7500.

I mean, at a MSRP of $9199, you better check twice.

Since our focus is the TM-C7500G, it’s worth noting that there is only 1 major difference that separates it from the TM-C7500 counterpart. And that’s gloss vs. matte.  (The G stands  for gloss – nifty, no?)

The TM-C7500G uses UltraChrome® ink to print best on gloss media while the TM-C7500 uses DuraBrite2™ Ultra ink to print best on matte media. Both are pigment-based inks and great for a variety of applications, including industries like:

• Retail
• Industrial
• Pharmaceutical 
• Cannabis

Unlike other Epson ColorWorks printers I’ve reviewed, like those that offer peeler or cutter options separately, these models only come with an auto-cutter. 

That’s right, no peeler options available with these goliaths. But don’t sweat! The auto-cutter attachment is a great feature for varying length labels, which both the TM-C7500G and TM-C7500 can do with both 3” core roll and fanfold options.

Alright, if the TM-C7500G is meant to be a heavy-hitter, we should talk about the attributes that make it so.

Here’s a breakdown of the pros of this Epson ColorWorks model:

It’s stamped right on the front of the printer: PrecisionCore.

This Epson technology promises outstanding outputs to both speed and image quality to bring inkjet printing to the next level. And aren’t those qualities we all want with our inkjet printers?

The TM-C7500G comes with a PrecisionCore permanent printhead. Yes, it’s meant to last the life of the printer so you’re not required to deal with wasting time and money on replacements.  

Manufactured as a high-density print chip, this printhead delivers vibrant colors and sharp text at 1200 x 600 dpi resolution. This is thanks in part to it having 1.6x more nozzles than conventional printheads, allowing for 40 million precise dots of ink per second.

It also comes with Nozzle Verification Technology (NVT) as a self-maintenance feature.

Don’t you just love it when your equipment takes care of itself? NVT ensures each separate nozzle is releasing ink evenly for clean, accurate prints every time. 

It also helps prevent clogged nozzles, detecting missing dots as a result. Should a nozzle become unrecoverable due to clogging, the printer will still operate by carrying out supplemental printing using a nearby nozzle instead.

It really is ridiculous how fast the TM-C7500G prints. Especially when you compare it to all of the other printers in the ColorWorks series. 

At up to 11.8” per second, this inkjet printer more than doubles the speed of the CW-C6500A, which has the second fastest print speed (up to 5” per second). 

Plus these labels are printing full color images, texts, barcodes, and variable data, all with exceptional quality. This makes the TM-C7500G perfect for high-volume print jobs, like printing a large batch of prime labels for your business’s new wine bottles.

However, with great power (or speed) comes great responsibility. 

While the TM-C7500G is marketed as printing “at speeds up to 11.8” per second,” it comes with drawbacks when it comes to the dpi resolution. 

The higher the print speed on your inkjet printer is set, the lower the dpi resolution is when your labels print:

• High speed = low dpi resolution
• Slow speed = high dpi resolution 

So if you want your labels to have a higher print resolution, be prepared to shudder through slower print speeds.

Ever seen that commercial for Epson where the kid needs a school permission slip printed last minute but the printer is out of ink, causing the dad to scream into the void? 

The emotions are fiercely accurate because it is the absolute worst when your printer runs out of ink. 

But having higher yield cartridges helps! And that’s exactly what you get with the TM-C7500G. 

Larger ink cartridges require fewer changeouts when ink is empty, leading to less downtime during or between print jobs. The cartridges come individually, meaning you only have to change each one as the color runs out. 

Plus, they are super easy to load and remove when the time comes to change them. Seriously, you pop the old one out and the new one in – bam!

Yeah, unfortunately, you can’t win them all. And neither can the Epson TM-C7500G. 

There’s actually quite a few features that don’t cut it for me. Here’s what I mean:

This is one of the biggest issues when printing with the Epson TM-C7500G.

Does it print wickedly fast? Yeah, it’s great. How about its high resolution? Sure, wonderful.

But sadly, this inkjet printer doesn’t hit it out of the park when it comes to the best print quality. Which is a huge bummer considering its power in other features. 

Remember the Nozzle Verification Technology (NVT) I mentioned earlier? Well, turns out it’s both a blessing and a curse with print quality. 

NVT also causes tiny specks of black ink to appear on your labels as they print.This gives labels a dirty appearance, especially designs that have a lot of white space. And there’s nothing you can do to fix or get rid of these – it’s part of the feature. 

This ultimately lowers the print quality of this printer when compared to other Epson ColorWorks models. When comparing the same label design printed on the TM-C7500G and the CW-C6500A, there were no black specks with the CW-C6500A.

If you’ve read other Epson printer reviews, you’ll find a disheartening theme with all of them: no label design software. 

That’s right, even after shelling out a chunk of money for the TM-C7500G, there’s still no program to design and print your labels from. 

Epson provides users with a printer driver for the initial setup process, which you can access on their website. Luckily, these work with a variety of devices:

• Mac
• Windows
• Linux
• SAP
• Major middleware

However, to design labels you’ll have to either buy or download a separate software program: Adobe, CODESOFT, or BarTender (just to name a few). Which sucks overall, because now you’re spending even more money to operate your Epson printer.

What would you spend almost $10,000 dollars on? Are any of your top 5 picks an industrial inkjet printer? 

If you’re purchasing the TM-C7500G, get ready to open your wallet wide because that’s the price tag.  It’s their most expensive Colorworks printer.

Granted, spending this much on a single printer seems like a lot. But it can really benefit you in high-volume, demanding environments where you’re printing labels constantly. 

Also, the added durability of the printer design and on-demand customization you can make are huge advantages.

Weigh your options wisely.

I guess you can’t have it all (even if you’re spending thousands of dollars on a printer).

If you’ve seen any promotional videos or images of the TM-C7500G you’ve likely noticed the nifty take-up attachment rewinding labels as they print lightning fast. 

Well, sorry to burst your bubble but that fun tool isn’t included. The rewinder is an attachment you have to purchase separately.  

However, it’s definitely a purchase to look into if the thought of streamlining your label line into a more efficient process sounds promising!

“Nobody put the TM-C7500G in a corner!” I mean, at least not for long periods of time, that is. 

Leaving your inkjet printer on but inactive for too long causes it to go into idle mode. Idle mode has good intentions, I swear. It’s meant to prevent nozzles from clogging with dried it.

However, idle mode wastes ink. This will cause your TM-C7500G to go through ink cartridges faster. So if you’re in the habit of being forgetful about starting that next print job, you might be having to purchase ink more often than you thought. 

Unlike some of the other Epson Colorworks printers I’ve reviewed, the TM-C7500G is lacking one extremely useful feature: remote management.

Remote management is like a support team in your back pocket to whip out at any time. It offers great options like:

• Monitoring your printer’s status
• Generating emails to alert problems
• Setting up complex network environments 
• Remotely deploying firmware updates 

This feature is available with the Epson ColorWorks C6500 series, CW-C6000 series and the CW-C4000.  

Why this feature isn’t included with a printer meant for heavy-duty environments, I’ll never know. Definitely does users a disservice.

So, what do you think? Is the TM-C7500G something worth adding to your inkjet purchases? 

My answer? If you’re looking for a top of the line, endurance-level color printer, then I would say yes! 

This printer is a powerhouse for a reason – it’s meant to excel in printing color labels in high-volume, heavy production environments. And in the long run, it’s a cost effective way to print labels. 

And you have the option of making changes and customizing your inkjet labels when needed. 

With the technology it offers (PrecisionCore®TFP®  printhead and Nozzle Verification) it’s easy to maintain and manage. 

However! If your business doesn’t go through huge volumes of labels, spending over $9,000 will be a waste. 

In this case, I’d recommend one of the other Epson ColorWorks printers that’s more budget-friendly (I mean, they’re all a couple thousand dollars, but not nearly as much as the TM-C7500G). 

Best of luck with your budget!