Epson's New Large Format Inkjet Printers
Epson is raising the bar and lowering the cost of large format inkjet printing with the introduction of two new Stylus Pro printers. The 24" wide Stylus Pro 7600 and the 44" wide Stylus Pro 9600 are priced at and respectively. Like the recently announced Stylus 2200, these large format Stylus Pro printers will make use of the new 7-color Epson UltraChrome pigmented inks for true archival performance. Preliminary data from Wilhelm Imaging Research, Inc. indicates the lightfastness of color UltraChrome prints will be rated at up to 100 years under glass. The "7th color" is a user exchangeable black that is available in three different densities (Photo Black, Matte Black and Dual Matte Black) for various media types and printing applications.
Not only do these new printers bring down the price barrier to large format printing, they also raise the resolution and performance standards. The Stylus Pro 7600 and 9600 feature true 2880 x 1440 dpi resolution with new print heads capable of producing ink droplets as small as 4 picoliter. Epson's Variable Droplet MicroPiezo DX3 Technology is capable of producing up to three different dot sizes per print line which decreases the print times while optimizing photographic quality.
The Stylus Pro 7600 and 9600 printers use seven 110ml or 220ml ink cartridges which can be replaced even in the middle of a print job. The Stylus Pro 9600 can use either 110ml or 220ml cartridges at the same time. And of course the printing media is just as important as the inks, you can print on virtually any media type in roll or cut sheet. User adjustable roll media spindles accepts either 2-inch or 3-inch media cores. A built-in automatic cutting system in addition to an optional manual media cutter for cutting even the thickest media types. The Stylus Pro 9600 has an optional automatic take-up reel system for long, unattended print runs.
True BorderFree printing - first ever wide format print engine capable of printing off both left and rightedges of the media, while automatically cutting top and bottom edges to produce a full bleed print on all four sides. Depending on the print mode being used, print speeds vary from 8ft² per hour to a maximum of 192ft² per hour. Extremely photographic printing can be produced at 16ft² per hour and everyday "production quality" printing at about 87ft² per hour. This is about 2.5 times faster than the previous Epson Stylus Pro 7000 and 9000 series printers.
True Cross-Platform OS Support - All new enhanced Epson photographic drivers for Macintosh and Windows allowing for complete control of ink density even when color management is turned off. The standard drivers allow the user to setup a dedicated Macintosh or Windows computer as a network spooler, greatly enhancing your productivity. For professional pre-press proofing and graphics workgroups an optional EFI Fiiery Spark Professional 2 Adobe Postscript 3 software with Pantone ColorMatching is available. Fully supported by most leading third-party RIPs and workflows greatly enhancing the usability of the basic print engine. Connectivity includes USB (1.1 and 2.0 compatible), ECP parallel, and one Epson Expansion Slot for installing the optional IEEE 1394 FireWire or 10/100 BaseT ethernet card.
