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Author Topic: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900  (Read 3207 times)

OSP

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Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« on: February 19, 2011, 11:51:10 am »

To these of you who have experience with large projects on sheet paper:

For a project of 250-500 prints on A3 or A4, would you use the 9900, taking into consideration skewing problems, wear, etc,
or would you purchase a 17" printer for the job? (regardless if the cost is covered in the work).
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George Marinos

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2011, 12:21:31 pm »

If the prints will be printed on RC paper it will be much easier if you load the paper in the paper tray on the 4900.
Otherwise I dont think it is a big difference .
George
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George Marinos
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OSP

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2011, 12:25:57 pm »

It will be on some sort of fine art paper - probably a heavy one (300gsm and above)

So you say that feeding the paper in the 4900 and the 9900 will be the same (labor wise, and skewing paper problem wise)
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stefohl

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #3 on: February 19, 2011, 02:04:53 pm »

Having tested both, I would say that it would be somewhat easier on the 9900. On the older versions of the 17" printers (4000, 4800, 4880) was more complicated than on the 4900, but I would say that the 9900 still has an edge.

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Stefan Ohlsson
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Sven W

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2011, 03:47:46 pm »

I would not recommend to print such an edition on a 9900. It's a PITA to feed every single sheet.
I once did 450 copies, separate feeded, and promised myself to never do it again  :P
The cassette (tray) on the 4900 accept up to 0.27 mm in thickness, that´s around 250-60 gms.
But I know users with the 3880, can load a small amount of sheets at 300 gms and more.
Or find a paper which work with the tray on the 4900.

Why don't you print on a 13" or 17" roll on the 9900?

/Sven
« Last Edit: February 19, 2011, 06:56:54 pm by Sven W »
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OSP

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2011, 05:02:37 pm »


Why don't you print on a 13" or 17" roll on the 9900?

D-roller never does a perfect job. I need the paper to be totally flat (a portfolio, several copies)
So, if I don't use the cassette - I have to feed the pages one-by-one, in the 4900? I thought there is an upper feed where I can put several sheets at once.

Stefohl - what is the edge of the 9900 over the 4900 in sheet work (pun intended)
« Last Edit: February 20, 2011, 01:35:57 am by Ori »
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Sven W

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #6 on: February 19, 2011, 06:55:13 pm »

No, only one by one in upper feeder.
I recently made an edition on 190 copies, 24x27" on Canson Rag Photographique from 24" rolls on our 9900.
I stacked them with tissues between, and 20-25 sheets on top of each other, makes them flat enough.
But of course smaller A3 haven't that weight. Using "fresh" rolls also helps, they simply don't curl that much.

I would take a tour to a 4900 reseller, take 20 sheets of your paper of intend, load them in the tray and just print some to see
if the printer grabs and works properly,
/Sven
« Last Edit: February 20, 2011, 06:56:26 am by Sven W »
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langier

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2011, 11:12:41 am »

I've done many runs from 50-700 and the last on my 4000 using letter in the sheet feeder. Other than having to run a few cleaning cycles to get the printer rolling, it ran well and the cut sheets were flat.

The longer runs I prefer on my larger prints. One ran 10 days straight, 24/7 and ran through nearly 30 rolls of Somerset Velvet 40 foot rolls that would take 10 hours of printing until the entire roll was printed, cut and ejected. That was on my 7600. That same roll today would run about 5 hours on my 9800 or less than 3 hours on the 9900.

Sure, there was some print curl, but since the prints were stacked, in the overall scheme of things it went quite well.

If you can get your paper of choice in roll form, I'd almost say the the newer roll feed on the 9900 is the best whereas the sheet feed on my 4000 printer for thinner papers is a lot more convenient.

As for the best manual feed for smaller sheets, the 9900 isn't quick as easy as is any of my older printers since the throat seems quite a bit deeper than my others so it's hard to drop it in the right spot without some practice.
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Larry Angier
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Shane Webster

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2011, 05:28:46 pm »

I am in the process of a large print run using a 4900. The 4900 has a cassette tray, an upper manual feed tray (one sheet at a time) and a lower manual feed (not available if you get the spectraproofer). While the cassette tray allows somewhat thicker paper to be loaded into it, Epson says not to use fine art paper in the cassette tray and to get its point across, the 4900 print driver will not allow you to select matte black ink if the paper source is the cassette tray. Thus, we cannot even run tests and determine for ourselves whether we're happy with the looks of fine art paper used in the cassette tray.

I don't have a 9900--only a 7880--so cannot speak to sheet feed differences between the 4900 and 9900. Initially, there was quite a bit of resistance in the 4900's upper manual feed tray before the paper would "pop" into place. After about 100 sheets, the resistance is less and sheet feeding is quite fast, IMO, especially compared to my 7880.
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OSP

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2011, 08:39:44 am »

The 9900 does some in-out-in-out rounds with the paper sheet before it settles in. I'm thinking that doing that for 250-500 times consecutively, will create unproportionate wear to the printer (relatively to income from the project).

Does the 4900 do the same thing when feeding sheets, upper tray, one by one? (IE, several times  in-out rounds).

My dealer is quite far, so I can't check it out myself so easily. I'm trying to get a decisive decision via your experience :)
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Shane Webster

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2011, 10:38:55 am »

My 4900 just took 23 second to go through the upper manual feed process.  The paper was not drawn more than 25mm and was probably drawn back to about 6mm.
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Mulis Pictus

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #11 on: February 21, 2011, 12:51:02 pm »

Epson [79]900: One thing to consider is that it is possible to disable paper size and skew check, which makes the sheet loading a lot faster.

Sven W

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #12 on: February 21, 2011, 02:36:55 pm »

I'm thinking that doing that for 250-500 times consecutively, will create unproportionate wear to the printer (relatively to income from the project).

Don't worry, it's made for at least two more zeros to 500  ;)
The 49 has the same options for turning size and skew check on or off. To save some time.

/Sven
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OSP

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #13 on: February 21, 2011, 05:06:48 pm »

Thank you all for the replies, I will do it with my 9900, and see what happens.

BTW, skew check off = skewed paper. we need that :)
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langier

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Re: Big project on sheets - 9900 or new 4900
« Reply #14 on: February 22, 2011, 12:55:39 am »

I just ran a job today, all sheet-fed on the 9900 using Epson Exhibition Fiber.

The images were set 2-up and run on 17x22 stock.

Though I had to get up and change the paper every few minutes, it still printed quite quickly and I'll bet you could easily print your project in just a couple of days.

When I use A4 (8.5x11) paper in the 9900, it's a little dicy since you have to drop it in below any type of guide. It will take a little practice to get it right. It's easier on both my 7600 and 9800 to use paper this small.

FWIW, I'd recommend either running 2-up on A3 if the prints are A4 size or 4-up on C (17x22) especially if you have a good-quality cutter/trimmer like a rotatrim.

You'll save a lot of time by ganging your images up on larger paper and cut them down to size. More convenient than one-at-time but not quite as fast/convenient than roll stock.
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Larry Angier
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