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New Epson wide-format printers announced
By Rick LePage | May 29, 2008
At the Drupa trade show in Germany this week, Epson announced two new wide-format printers, the Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900. The new printers, which have a maximum print width of 24" and 44",respectively, incorporate a new pigment-based ink set, called UltraChrome HDR. The HDR inks include photo and matte black inks, light black, light light black, cyan, light cyan, vivid magenta, vivid light magenta, yellow, orange and green, and use an 11-channel head that switches automatically between photo and matte black.
Ink cartridge size (a hot topic these days) is quite large — 350ml and 750ml — and Epson claims that the 7900 and 9900 offer significant speed improvements over the existing Epson wide format devices.
Also notable in the new printers is an optional built-in spectrophotometer from X-Rite, called the Epson SpectroProofer, which provides “automatic color measurement data to the printer, allowing user profiling and linearization, enabling professional color management while at the same time reducing labor costs.”
The Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900 are expected to ship this spring in Europe and Australia, although pricing was not announced. Epson America representatives stressed that this announcement was made by Epson Europe, although we would assume that ultimately the new printers and inks would reach the U.S. and Canada at some point not long after they ship elsewhere.
[Source: Print21, an online publication produced by the Australian trade association, Printing Industries.]
Topics: News |
May 30th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I couldn’t find these printers on Epson’s site, even in the news section.
Is it true that the new ten ink set doesn’t include yellow?
No matter what capability orange may add (fleshtones, mostly), it’s not a substitute for yellow.
Couldn’t this be an error, and matt black is assumed to be one of the colors, rather than the “extra”?
Otherwise, how do they expect to print pure yellow tines?
May 30th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Sorry, that last word should have been “tones”, of course.
May 30th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Sorry, Mel - that was a typo - yellow is indeed in there.
Part of the problem is that Epson America hasn’t officially announced this yet, so the reports have been sketchy. I was hoping to hear back from a journalist friend at Drupa about more specifics, but it’s such a huge show.
It sounds like Epson Europe rushed this announcement to coincide with Drupa, and the US branch of the company has their own timetable. I’ll keep looking for a more complete release on the UK and Australian sites.
June 1st, 2008 at 11:50 am
Ok, now it makes sense.:D
Thanks for the correction.
I couldn’t find these mentioned on the European site either the other day. I checked the “News” section, but nothing. You would think that if it was announced at Drupa, they would copy that announcement to their news section.
Companies are very strange sometimes.