Purchase an Epson 9880 or an Epson 9900

[BrianWoolf]

We need to purchase one of these printers. The basic difference between them seems to be that the Epson 9900 runs 10 colors, while the 9880 runs only 8 colors. The Epson 9900 also has the option of a photo spectrometer.

We would be using this for press proofs and would be using our EFI Color software.

Am I missing anything important? Since we would be doing traditional 4/color printing, would the additional 2 extra colors actually cause us problems. I do not want to hear pressmen saying that we can't match your proofs.

Any insights would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Brian Woolf

[Sven W]

Something important? Yes....
The huge advantage for the 99 over the 98, when coming to proofing and EFI, is the SpectroProofer Utility.
You control the whole management of colors with the Spectro, through the EFI software. All the workflow
from ink-laydown, "fitting" in cmyk-profiles, to verifying every single proof with printed deltaE-values, if you desire.
And all with total accuracy.

My tip is to contact an EFI-rep, and let them demonstrate this strong combo. Take a look under "Features & Benefits"
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Pro/SeriesStylusPro79009900efi/Overview.do?BV_UseBVCookie=yes

/Sven

[chocodog]

The orange and green combo help in hitting spot colors.  We use ours with the epson commercial proffing paper to get idealliance certification.  I would contact Sal at dtgweb.com.  He was very helpful in explaning the workflow and he printed us off a few samples to show us the quality.  I included a video about them that I found on youtube the other day. Cheers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMlRMig1jW0

[Ernst Dinkla]

We need to purchase one of these printers. The basic difference between them seems to be that the Epson 9900 runs 10 colors, while the 9880 runs only 8 colors. The Epson 9900 also has the option of a photo spectrometer.

We would be using this for press proofs and would be using our EFI Color software.

Am I missing anything important? Since we would be doing traditional 4/color printing, would the additional 2 extra colors actually cause us problems. I do not want to hear pressmen saying that we can't match your proofs.

Any insights would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Brian Woolf

There seems to be a misunderstanding, probably created by the people that insist the 9900 range is for proofing and the 9890 range for photography. Epson however mentions the Spectroproofer as an optional item for the 9890/7890 too, so the difference is in the inkset. That said even a one color offset press can run a spotcolor you can not match with a CMYK inkset.

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Pro/SeriesStylusPro78909890/Options.do?BV_UseBVCookie=yes


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

[Mussi_Spectraflow]

Hey Brian,
So I've always appreciated the fairly simple Epson naming conventions, but replacing the 9880 with a 9890 and then trying to discuss the difference between that and the 9900 is a bit obnoxious. Reminds me of the days when we had the 1d and d1.
Any way, the 9890 is basically the 9900 engine minus the O & G. They both work with the Spectroproofer under EFI, although you would need to wait for the next XF version for 9890 support (should be this month). If you are just printing 4c and not using spots then the 9890 is a good choice, although I would suggest holding out for the 9890 over the 9880 as the 9 series is just much much faster, the cutter is better, and paper handling is easier. We've installed tons of the Epson's and the EFI package and it is a pretty slick combination white the spectroproofer. What version of the RIP are you running? I would suggest that you upgrade if you're not on 4.0 or newer as the stability when using the spectroproofer has gotten much better.