Large format printers - it is not one market
This can sometimes be despite company advertising that suggests that their large format printers can be all things to all people. Wayne J. Cosshall, Editor of Print21 reports.
So just what are the sub-markets within large format printing? There are actually three interrelated ways of defining the sub-markets. The first breaks the whole market up based on printer size into:
As one would expect, not only does price rise significantly as we go from the 24 inch wide segment up to the truly huge printers, but also installation, servicing and operating demands.
The second way of sub-categorising the large format printer market is by application. This gives the following sub-markets:
Naturally these sub-markets are not fully hermetic, so there is much crossover between these.
The third way of dividing the market is based on inks. There are three main choices for inks in the wide format area: dye, pigment and solvent. Generally, dye-based inks offer extended colour ranges, i.e. brighter, more intense colours, yet, since the molecules are more easily disrupted by ultra-violet light, are not suitable for outdoor display applications, or for many archival uses, nor are they generally waterproof. Pigment-based inks will generally offer better lightfastness, making them suitable for outdoor display applications, but may offer a reduced colour range or reduced maximum colour brightness and purity. Solvent inks offer good outdoor longevity and the ability to print on uncoated vinyls and fabrics. However, they can have quite toxic smells and may need outdoor venting of fumes.
The complexity of the large format market makes equipment choice, and even the choice of which company’s products to investigate, somewhat difficult. This is aggravated by recent and pending product announcements by a number of companies that are stirring the pot and that will likely have major consequences. Let’s examine the sub-categories and look at the major issues in each area.
All wide formats are not the same
The smaller wide-format area, comprising A2 and A1 printers, is in a major state of flux. The recent release of a 24 inch printer by HP at an amazingly low price point will likely play havoc with its competitors, as it probably intends, and cause many customers of bureau printing services to be able to justify putting a unit in-house. Another product release by Epson defines a new quality point in this segment, whilst the (relative) newcomer, Canon, is making heavy inroads into other manufacturer’s traditional territory. These printers are dye or pigment-based.
The mainstream wide format area, of A0+ printers, is more stable, at present. A large number of companies compete in this area, especially Epson, HP, Agfa, Canon, Roland and ColorSpan. Many other companies have a presence here but their products are perhaps more specialised. Whilst most printers in this segment are dye or pigment-based, there are a few solvent-based printers in this area.
The grand format and ultra wide format market has a smaller number of players, but is an area of active technological innovation. Dominated by solvent-based inks, these printers are very large, very expensive and quite specialised.
It depends what you are using them for
Looked at by application area, we start with the prepress colour proofing area. Digital colour proofing has achieved wide acceptance as a valid and accurate proofing method. Proofing printers require tightly controlled inks and media and extensive colour profiling to produce accurate matches. Proofers are commonly A2, A1 or A0 printers, but may also be oversize A3, and will commonly use dye inks for the largest colour gamut and reasonable stability.
The photography segment comprises professional photographers, graphic designers and bureaus servicing their needs. The main requirements are smooth tonal graduations, fine detail, wide colour range and reasonable indoor print longevity without noticeable fading or colour shifts. This segment has been dominated by Epson and, to a lesser extent, HP. However new product releases from HP and Canon, in particular, are targeting this area and look likely to keep Epson from being complacent.
The sign writing market is a dedicated segment that comprises many old-timers who are not really interested in the technology and just need it to work cheaply and reliably, through to more innovate users who are pushing boundaries. Roland dominates this segment with its excellent support for vinyl printing and cutting. Other solvent-ink printers and other general-purpose pigment printers also fight it out in this segment.
Poster printing, or the pay per print market, is what you could call the huge, general-purpose market. Covering everything from the occasional large photographic blow-up through to point of sale signage for retail, it is a large market and one which many printers are tempted to enter to fill out their range of services. Here the emphasis is on flexible devices that offer a good mix of features and often the ability to print with either dye or pigment inks on demand.
Fine art printing is a large market overseas but has not yet really established itself here. This segment, which ranges from the printing on demand of art prints onto canvas through to the careful production of limited edition digital prints for artists, places the requirement of archival quality (longevity) above almost all else, but also requires good tonality, high resolution and support for a wide range of media like heavily textured watercolour paper and canvas.
No one size fits all
What I find interesting both in my own use of large format printers and in that of people I talk to, is the general feeling than no single printer ideally satisfies all requirements. A good example of this is Network Sign Systems (02 9690 1700, www.signs.net.au . Started in the mid 1980’s to address a clear need for good advice and sales support to sign writers of vinyl cutter systems, they have followed the development of inkjet printers for this market. As a seller of inkjet printers they are very active, selling over 60 large format printers last year and have even just recently put one into Fiji. They saw an additional market need and have started Bannarama as a retail printer of vinyl outdoor signage. Even here, “we had to put in three different solvent ink printers to meet demand. In addition, since each one is better at printing some things than others, we need all three to offer the best possible result to our customers,” says Alan Kent, owner and founder of Network Sign Systems.
In deciding to put in a large format printing device, a printer needs to determine exactly what they intend to use it for. If being bought to provide an additional service to your customers, you need to carefully consider what type of large format work they are most likely to bring to you. If most of your existing work is business cards and letterhead, there is probably no use putting in a printer optimised for fine art printing. You would probably get better use out of a printer suited to printing on adhesive vinyl for signage. Likewise if you print a lot of product brochures, a printer suited to point of sale advertising printing could be a good match. Unless you really want to develop into a totally new business area, choose a type of print and suitable printer that will be attractive to the majority of your existing customers.
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Hewlett Packard
HP has a nice, integrated range of products in their professional graphics lineup, from A3+ colour proofers through to the Designjet 5500 six-colour dye or pigment printer available in 42 inch and 60 inch versions. “Three years ago we asked customers what they wanted”, says Nelson Ferrari. “We asked what they wanted in prepress, design and photography. The latest products are the 2nd generation in addressing these needs.”
The Designjet 30 was developed in conjunction with Heidelberg and designed for remote proofing. Remote proofing, supported on a number of HP models, allows you to mutually calibrate two or more proofers to provide an absolutely consistent proofing solution between remote locations. The 30 offers A3+ paper support. The same technology is used in HP’s latest product, the Designjet 130. This amazing printer is an A1+ printer available in two models. The cheaper one sells for an amazing $???, lower than some of the competition’s A2+ printers. Print quality is excellent. A colorimeter in the printhead of both the 30 and 130 allow for very tight colour accuracy and consistency from printer to printer.
Market surveys done for HP showed that users wanted a 10 year fade-free life for colour proofing and 40 to 50 years life for photographic purposes. HP thus designed the new dye-based inks used in both the 30 and 130 for a 70 year life. They chose dye because while they could obtain this excellent lifespan they could also keep the cost per print lower than with a pigment printer. HP claim the ink cost to do an A3+ print on the 30 or 130 is 48 cents, versus 78 cents on Epson’s 4000.
www.hp.com.au
Epson
Epson has, with the release of the 4000 A2+ printer/proofer, achieved an integrated product line that use the same UltraChrome inks and RIP (raster image processor) from the A2 4000 up to the 44 inch 10600 printer. This consistency of RIPs and inks, along with media, means that customers can freely mix and match printer sizes in various locations and get consistent colour and usage.
At nearly twice the speed of previous EPSON STYLUS PRO Printers and packed with advanced features designed to meet the needs of today’s professional photographers, graphic designers, commercial printers, pre-press houses, advertising agencies, architects and engineers, the newly released EPSON STYLUS PRO 4000 is making a huge impact in the professional graphics market.
"We're confident the EPSON STYLUS PRO 4000 will be the most popular and best selling STYLUS PRO printer yet," said Craig Heckenberg, Business Manager, Professional Graphics, for EPSON Australia.
The STYLUS PRO 4000 uses EPSON’s seven-colour UltraChrome ink technology and features a new eight-channel print head that automatically switches between Matte Black and Photo Black inks for optimum print quality on a greater range of media surfaces.
EPSON’s UltraChrome Ink technology uses seven individual colours (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, Light Magenta, Light Black and either Matte Black or Photo Black) to create an extremely wide colour gamut, significantly improving the printer’s grey balance, eliminating colour casts, and dramatically improving the mid-tones and highlights for smoother gradations and a greater tonal range. The printer can also produce arresting black and white photographs with a wide range of tones using the lower density Light Black ink.
The UltraChrome Ink range is water resistant and has lightfastness ratings for colour images of more than 75 years, and greater than 100 years for black and white prints, on recommended EPSON papers displayed under non-UV glass. When displayed under UV-protected glass, colour lightfastness is rated at more than 100 years for all EPSON's leading professional papers. The quick drying nature of UltraChrome Ink also makes it possible to handle prints the moment they come off the printer.
To produce the highest level of image quality possible on a wide variety of media types, the STYLUS PRO 4000 has two black inks (Photo Black and Matte Black) that are automatically activated by the printer. The printer selects Photo Black ink whenever the user sets the printer driver for photographic media surfaces such as glossy, lustre, or semi-matte. All seven colours are used in conjunction with Photo Black ink, to produce a D-max rating as high as 2.1. If the user selects a matte paper in the printer driver, such as any of EPSON’s Fine Art paper collection, the printer switches to Matte Black ink. This ink type also uses all seven colours but uses a combination of Matte Black and Light Black inks to produce a D-max rating as high as 1.69. EPSON is providing a set of professional-level RGB ICC profiles out of the box for accurate colour reproduction on a variety of these surfaces.
The STYLUS PRO 4000 is the first EPSON desktop printer to incorporate large format media handling functions, with its unique large format A2 wide print engine design supporting roll, automatic cut sheet and manual cut sheet. It has a built-in automatic cut sheet paper tray with a capacity of up-to 250 sheets of plain paper, and accepts media up to 1.5mm thick. Available media includes plain paper and genuine EPSON papers, such as glossy, semi-gloss, lustre, matte photographic papers, fine art papers, commercial-grade proofing paper and more. Cut sheet media can be fed automatically using the printer's high-speed cut sheet loading feature. Roll media users can take advantage of BorderFree printing, a feature that enables users to print over both left and right edges of the media while automatically cutting top and bottom edges for full-bleed prints on all four sides of the paper. A built-in cutter is included to trim prints faster and with greater accuracy and safety than manual techniques. User-adjustable roll media spindles can accept either five or eight cm (two or three inch) media cores. The printer uses suction control for accurate paper feeding of virtually any media type.
The STYLUS PRO 4000 accepts either 110ml or 220ml cartridges, or a combination of both sizes. Each cartridge uses EPSON's Intelligent Ink Cartridge technology that stores information (including ink levels, ink type, and usage rates for accurate production estimates) on a memory chip and communicates the data to the printer when the power is turned on. Users can even swap cartridges “on-the-fly” during mid print with no loss of image quality or production time.
www.epson.com.au
Canon
Canon is coming on strong in the large format area. A late entrant in the field, and hampered until recently with printers that only used dye inks, Canon is now equipped and out to increase its market share. Because of this later start, Canon has been able to make a new start, designing everything from the ground up to create a competitive advantage.
Canon is initially targeting image quality and speed in its latest printers. It is addressing both by making use of its integrated circuit manufacturing capability to create the print heads in one piece using IC fabrication techniques. This approach avoids any problems caused by having to assemble the heads from multiple, individual components and also allows for a very large number of nozzles within the one inch print head. Canon claim a speed advantage in their latest 6200 (24 inch wide) and 8200 (44 inch wide) models of 4 to 5x the speed of the competition. Certainly in my recent testing the 6200 has been a very fast printer. Since the head is one, solid-state piece, there is likely to be very low down time and the heads are a very easy user replacement.
The next area Canon has tackled is colourfastness. They have done this by using pigments but by reducing the pigment particle size to create a smoother result but still with excellent longevity. Canon claim an indoor life of 100 years with an outdoor display life suitable for all normal advertising purposes. The stability of the inks is also an advantage in the colour proofing market. Canon claim there is absolutely no shift in colour over a 120 hour period after printing, which covers the critical period for most proofing applications. Some other printer’s inks do shift in colour subtlely over this time period, presenting a problem for the most critical proofing applications. Canon also now use the same print head and RIP across all their large format and proofing models. They see this as critical for creating a consistent result.
On the media side Canon is bringing out a full range of media for their printers over the next 12 months. Most third party media will work well in Canon printers except for specialist peizo stocks. Canon run a full media testing facility and will generate custom profiles for any media for customers. Canon’s resellers are making good use of this facility in submitting media stocks and obtaining profiles to supply to their customers. This commitment to supporting non-Canon media is a laudable one and recognises than no manufacturer can expect its customers to only use their stocks when so much interesting material is available.
www.canon.com.au
Roland
Roland has been around a long time and markets uniquely designed printers with a reputation for quality and reliability. Roland has three lines of inkjet printers, as well as combined printers/vinyl cutters for the sign writing market.
The Hi-Fi Jet Pro FJ-600 series comprises a 44-inch, 54-inch and 64-inch model. The models offer the choice of loading them up as an 8-colour printer for a huge colour gamut, dual CMYK for maximum speed or with one set of pigment CMYK and one set of dye CMYK of the easiest job-to-job switchover in the industry. Eight-colour printing adds orange and green inks to the CMYK and light cyan and light magenta inks. A large number of nozzles per colour make for fast printing even in eight-colour mode, doubling this if using dual CMYK inks.
The Hi-Fi Jet Pro II FJ-540 is a six-colour, 54-inch wide printer. The extra two colours can be either light cyan and magenta or orange and green depending of purpose. It is a fast printer, capable of up to 28 m2/hr (300 sqft/hr). That's not draft mode; that's a unique, sign-quality mode created by Roland especially for sign, exhibit and POP makers! Printing a large 1.3 x 5 m banner now takes only 14 minutes.
The Sol-Jet Pro II SJ-540 EX series includes 54, 64 and 74-inch wide printers that use Roland’s new Eco-Sol solvent inks. These inks have a low fume level and so are much easier for both the operators and the environment to live with than the so-called hard solvent inks that contain a higher proportion of aromatic compounds which can be toxic, creating headaches and dizziness in operators if not well vented. The SC-540 EX model adds precision contour cutting as well.
www.rolanddg.com.au
Encad/Kodak
Distributed by Starleaton, ENCAD has just released the NovaJet 1000i. This high-speed printer uses advanced print head design and Intelligent Mask Technology for maximum productivity, reliability and image quality. Encad’s new Quantum Ink is combined with KODAK Wide-Format Inkjet Media for optimal quality.
The NovaJet 1000i sets a new standard with print speeds of 150 square feet per hour (14.0 sq. meters/hr) in Productivity mode and 220 square feet per hour (20.4 sq. meters/hr) in High Speed mode. A new print head with 640 nozzles provides high-speed printing on a wide variety of media. The Rapid Evaporation Drying System ensures that your prints are instantly ready for take-up, even at full machine speed.
Encad’s patented Intelligent Mask Technology (IMT) optimizes colour gamut, density and vibrancy without compromising the output speed of the NovaJet 1000i. IMT applies a unique screen to image files for each colour and print mode. Quality is further enhanced with new ENCAD Quantum Ink developed with Kodak. Quantum Dye Ink boasts industry-leading colour gamut and guaranteed lightfastness for the ultimate in indoor photographic quality. The broad colour gamut of their Quantum Pigment Ink gives you the flexibility to print photographic quality images for long lasting indoor applications, as well as UV- and water-resistant prints for durable outdoor displays.
The 60” 1000I dye printer sells for $31,878.00 inc. GST while the 42” 1000I dye printer is $21,978.00, at the time of writing.
www.starleaton.com.au
Colorspan – Coates Brothers
Coates Brothers is the exclusive Australian agent for the Macdermid Colorspan inkjet printers. They have four printers in their range.
The DisplayMaker Series XII uses a proven 12-printhead design and Automation Eye technology deliver performance, yet simplicity in wide-format printing, in this 52, 62 and 72 inch wide printer. Variable mode settings offer flexibility of speed, colour and productivity. The 12-printhead design allows it to achieve productivity from 60 sq.ft./hr. at apparent 1800 dpi to 120 sq.ft./hr. at 1200 apparent dpi to 240 sq.ft./hr. @ 600 dpi. The Automation Eye automates calibration to ensure accurate, high quality printing. AutoSet automatically aligns all 12 printheads with digital accuracy. AutoJet eliminates banding by mapping out under performing jets.
Built-in features such as a heated forced-air dryer, motorized take-up spool and humidity sensor make true unattended printing a reality. The printhead height is adjustable to accommodate a wide range of media, up to 1/8" (3.175mm) thick. Dye or pigment inks can be used on coated stock.
The DisplayMaker 72s is a high-speed, low-cost solvent inkjet printer designed for productivity and profitability. The DisplayMaker 72s is a straightforward 72" production printer that produces extremely durable, high-quality output for outdoor and indoor applications.
The DisplayMaker 72s includes automated features to ensure print quality and enhance your productivity. It’s easy to operate and easy to maintain — and it’s especially smart to own.
The DisplayMaker 110s is a grand format solvent printer, yet at a price that is affordable to both small and high volume sign and graphic companies. It features proven piezo-electric printhead technology utilizing over 9000 jets, giving print speeds exceeding 1000 square feet (92.9 m2) per hour.
Four 3.2 litre bulk ink reservoirs that can be “topped off” for non-stop high volume production printing, with peristaltic ink pumps provide continuous recirculation and filtration of ink to prevent clogging. Tensioned media feed and take-up rollers ensure proper media alignment. There is an integrated ventilation hood with direct hook-up for exhaust.
The DisplayMaker X-12 is a high resolution 60 or 72-inch wide printer that effectively replaces the series XII. The DisplayMaker X-12 sets a new industry standard for quality, speed and performance. Designed around twelve (12) state-of-the-art, nearly one-inch wide, high frequency printheads, the DisplayMaker X-12 can be configured with the broadest combination of multi-density and gamut-extending inks to achieve fastest print speeds, wider colour gamut and better apparent resolution. From one or two sets of 4 or 6 colours, to a single set of up to 12 colours, even two different ink sets available to address multiple applications, can be configured. The twelve (12) colour ink set is designed to accurately reproduce those difficult corporate logo colours while delivering an apparent 1800 dpi image resolution. The set consists of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Red, Blue, Green, Orange, Medium Cyan, Medium Magenta, Light Cyan and Light Magenta. See for yourself what 12 colours can do to improve you image.
There are enhanced Force Air heated Dryers. A three-piece ink system consisting of a 960 ml ink reservoir, semi-permanent supply tubing and state-of-the-art thermal inkjet printhead keep the printer fed with ink. Ink reservoirs can be 'hot swapped' while printing for maximum productivity. Printheads are replaced independently of ink modules and typically last through multiple litres of ink, thereby significantly reducing operating costs.
Two image sensors and sophisticated software are used to automate the calibration tasks required to maintain good print quality and accurate colour reproduction. With a touch of a button, all 12 printheads are aligned with digital accuracy and over 6000 jets are analysed. Any jets that are out of specification are replaced with others to eliminate printing artefacts and extend the life of the printheads. When used with a ColorSpan RIP, these high quality sensors also perform colour linearization and double as a colour spectrophotometer to create you own colour profiles.
www.coatesaustralia.com.au
Agfa
Agfa released a number of new products at Drupa 2004. The new products include a large format, double sided imposition proofer, the :Grand SherpaMatic, and soft and remote proofing capabilities.
The :Grand SherpaMatic is the large format version of the highly successful :SherpaMatic double-sided imposition proofer. With a 50-inch width, the :Grand SherpaMatic eight-colour (CcMmYyKk) system offers double-sided imposition proofing for large format applications at two resolutions: 360x360 dpi for fast imposition contract proofing and 720x720 dpi for high-quality colour. The :Grand SherpaMatic will be available November 2004. The :Grand SherpaMatic system features an Agfa-patented tumbling system with +/- 1 mm registration accuracy. It can be configured for high speed, double-sided, imposition proofing with a 2 x 4 (CCMMYYKK) colour configuration. It can also produce high-quality colour concept proofs with a 1 x 7 (CcMmYKk) colour configuration. It provides multiple resolutions and print speeds for added versatility.
“We are excited to offer this high quality and versatile wide-format proofing device to commercial printers,” said Willy Van Dromme, worldwide director of marketing for proofing solutions. “The :Grand SherpaMatic is four times faster than the popular :SherpaMatic, which sold more than 500 units. It can output a two-sided, 8-up proof in about four minutes.”
At Drupa, Agfa demonstrated its :ApogeeX: WebApproval + CM for soft proofing and its hard copy remote proofing capabilities using the :Sherpa 24m, :Delano, ApogeeX and standards such as PDF and JDF. “Agfa’s product assortment and services give us the single largest portfolio in digital inkjet proofing in the world,” said Willy Van Dromme, world wide director for proofing and large-format printing systems. “Our commitment to this market is unparalleled and our devotion unequalled. We work closely with standards organisations and work to assure our systems work well with Agfa and non-Agfa workflows. Our customers have told us what their requirements are, and we have responded by adding the solutions that will help make them more productive and more profitable.”
Agfa and M-real have signed an agreement to install :SherpaProof systems in the M-real printing plants and network partner printers across the world. The agreement extends over a period of three years. The systems will ensure consistent colour package printing via :SherpaProof remote proofing across 40 M-real locations. They comprise :Grand Sherpa 50m digital inkjet proofers, Agfa ink, media and software for colour and quality management. In addition, client management service contracts will ensure flawless and uninterrupted performance of the remote proofing application.
Four systems have already been installed, two of which are in operation at M-real’s Prepress Competence Centre PPC at Sint Niklaas, Belgium. PPC prepares plate-ready files for use by M-real printing partners around the world. “We chose Agfa for remote proofing because unlike other vendors they have developed a comprehensive solution and can support it with expert service across the globe,” says M-real’s vice president of Design and Brand Protection/IBP Deals, Luc Van Gestel. “:SherpaProof guarantees a perfect match between the proof and the print result. Most consumer goods companies have a global presence, and we now have the tools to provide global uniformity for their branded products.”
M-real is one of Europe's leading suppliers of paper, paperboard and packaging solutions. Its most important product ranges are coated and uncoated fine papers and high-quality magazine papers, as well as packaging boards for consumer products.
M-real has grown to become the European market leader in both coated and uncoated fine papers and is one of Europe's largest paper merchants. The company’s turnover in 2003 was 6,000 million euros. M-real employs 16,500 people.
www.agfa.com.au
VUTEK
Vutek is an American company that offer a range of eight different printers in widths from 1.5m up to 5m. Some models support printing on material up to one inch in thickness. Models include a mix of solvent ink devices and UV curing inks.
Vutek are the leading supplier worldwide and locally of the ‘Grand Format’ printers.
www.vutek.com
Wayne Cosshall is the Editor on Print21 magazine. He has over 25 years experience at the technology forefront of computer graphics. Some 17 years was spent as a university researcher and research group leader in computer graphics, designing new types of computer hardware and software for computer graphics work. His research was sponsored by major Silicon Valley companies like Motorola and Xilinx, and by Epson Japan. He is an internationally recognised photographer and digital artist and has written for all major Australian photography and graphic design magazines and many of the major US ones, and runs a small graphic design company. wayne.cosshall@niche.com.au