Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: Richard.Wills on January 12, 2021, 03:08:16 pm
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We regularly get asked for small prints, particularly with our film scanning service, but also for sets of work prints for photographers and artists. I've been looking at something like the Fuji DX100 as a starting point, but this is "just" a dye printer. Around 10-15% of processing and scanning orders request prints, so I'm looking at ITRO 1-300 6/8/10" prints. Occassionally I'll run these for good clients on our Canon 8400, often on Canson Prestige Baryta, HPR of IFA24. It is a PITA to trim these out from a 17 or 24" roll, first with a scalpel, then with an old, but clean 30" rotatrim.
I think the Fuji is Epson based, and the print longevity probably isn't terrible, but I'm looking to create an option that turns into the legacy print - the box of prints in a (acid free) shoebox or album that gets passed on, and has a chance to exist long after facebook's servers have stopped running. If the DX has accepable dark storage qualities, then this makes an easily scalable option.
Other lines of thought include a dedicated 17/24" modern pigment machine, and something like the fotoba digiprint cutter. This would be a much larger investment. We currently don't have the budget for one of the larger Epson Drylabs (dye based, but I've seen great results). Another option would be to get a newer Rotatrim technical, for which they make a production stop fitting, though I suspect I'd have almost as much success using an LED strip below the cutting edge.
Or find someone smarter than me to combine the stop control of https://www.duckafterduck.com/blog/how-to-make-a-lidar-driven-motorized-film-carrier with a motorised rotary cutter...
Or bite the test bullet, take in the orders to confirm business is there, and slave over the 10A's at the beginning. I'm running the Canon through a reasonable rip, so can gang the print orders up very easily on not too wide rolls. If the volume is there (and I think it is), then automate? Currently most of the staff are WfH or fuloughed, so I don't have a huge excess of bodies to help, but then, the volume of exhibitions we're producing is currently 1/T5th of normal.
I'm not looking for this to be a cheap service option, but don't have the space time budget to go for an RA4 or wet B&W laser service.
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How about a Pro 1000 and precut 4x6 and 5x7 paper?
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I am in a similar situation. I get asked regularly for test/work prints at small sizes 13X19,5 cm etc. I have a PRO-1000 and a PRO-4000. It is impossible to match the price of the drylabs. The solution for me until know is a cheap decent semigloss noname 190gsm 44" paper roll printed with Qimage on the PRO-4000 and cut on a mat with a 4 feet straight edge. I 've done it so many times that I am amazed by myself of how fast I can do it :). I wish for an Epson SureLab SL-D800 for which unfortunately I know nothing about it's BW capability.
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Have you considered Imageprint's cut-it-out w/Graphtec? Could be cheaper than a Fotoba solution. But - you already have a rip, so... Just my two cents.
Btw: This (http://www.colormatch.org/Das_MicroLab.pdf) vendor in Germany offers Epson Surelab stations per leasing
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I don't think pre-cut sheets will work for the volume, though I'll look in to it.
No-name materials aren't the segment I'm looking at - I need to have a certain faith in the product I'm producing. I can rip down sheets faster from 24 or 17" than I can from 44"
The DL3000 - a friend had one, which I profiled, and the result was amazingly good, B&W was very neutral, but it's a dye machine, and damnedly expensive. I believe it's same ink/tech as the Fuji, and one minilab tech I spoke with rated the Fuji DX100 over the SL800 for reliability... I know the DX100 / SL800 are designed to do most of what I want, stackable and modular and that makes a lot of sense. Am I kidding myself about the benefit of pigment inks?
I've looked at the Imageprint / Graphtec combo. It's pounce cut, rather than clean cut, so there would be tails at least on the corners. Haven't priced it against the Fotoba.
I've used a few rips over the years - proof master, ImagePrint, EFi Express, as well as the mindnumbing production software that is EZ controller from Noritsu, which was a £1200 add on to the film scanner, and worth every penny and grey hair.
My suspicion is that I'll go with a little drylab for gloss, lustre, and possibly IFA24 (which is like a no OBA Epson enhanced matt, and relatively dust free) and initially the 8400 for the premium options. After the first 500 baby prints from the 8400, I'll upgrade the Rotatrim, if I haven't gone further in the madness. I'll also reach out to the UK Fotoba distributors, to see how it handles fragile media.
What I'd really love is a 17" Z9 DR with multiple V cutters. DR, to reverse the roll of the papers, as well as work the profiles, flawless software, and a foot massage.
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I don't think pre-cut sheets will work for the volume, though I'll look in to it.
No-name materials aren't the segment I'm looking at - I need to have a certain faith in the product I'm producing. I can rip down sheets faster from 24 or 17" than I can from 44"
The DL3000 - a friend had one, which I profiled, and the result was amazingly good, B&W was very neutral, but it's a dye machine, and damnedly expensive. I believe it's same ink/tech as the Fuji, and one minilab tech I spoke with rated the Fuji DX100 over the SL800 for reliability... I know the DX100 / SL800 are designed to do most of what I want, stackable and modular and that makes a lot of sense. Am I kidding myself about the benefit of pigment inks?
I've looked at the Imageprint / Graphtec combo. It's pounce cut, rather than clean cut, so there would be tails at least on the corners. Haven't priced it against the Fotoba.
I've used a few rips over the years - proof master, ImagePrint, EFi Express, as well as the mindnumbing production software that is EZ controller from Noritsu, which was a £1200 add on to the film scanner, and worth every penny and grey hair.
My suspicion is that I'll go with a little drylab for gloss, lustre, and possibly IFA24 (which is like a no OBA Epson enhanced matt, and relatively dust free) and initially the 8400 for the premium options. After the first 500 baby prints from the 8400, I'll upgrade the Rotatrim, if I haven't gone further in the madness. I'll also reach out to the UK Fotoba distributors, to see how it handles fragile media.
What I'd really love is a 17" Z9 DR with multiple V cutters. DR, to reverse the roll of the papers, as well as work the profiles, flawless software, and a foot massage.
If you print for a portfolio box aren't cut sheets better due to the fact that they are flat?
I was also in doubt about the quality of the the no name luster paper but it end up to print beautifully. It is the only way for me to keep the cost as low as possible for the pigments printers.
Good to know that the SL-D3000 prints nice BW but I believe that is discontinued. Is the inkset the same for SL-D800?
How to do plan to print IFA-24 with the drylab? Are there Innova rolls at that size?
The Z9 second roll doesn't have the ability to act as a take up reel in order to decurl the paper. But I am not sure.
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Roll curl is certainly an issue that I'll need to address. I have pretty good luck on larger, or strips of prints with a heavy roll of brown craft paper, but that obviously won't wiork with individual small prints.
I will have a lok at some of the lesser name papers - I've had amazing results from Fuji matt bond, and even Epson singleweight matt (though, I wouldn't rate either of them for long term performance).
I think the inkset on the DL800 is from the same family, so with profiling, I'm sure there is an option for clean printing.
The IFA24 is something I use in larger rolls - there are supplies of small rolls of other matt materials - I'll have a look at spectrumviz when I'm back in the office. If there's nothing suitable, I'll consider getting a fine tooth blade for the chop saw.
It might have been the dual roll canon, or even one of the solvent printers I've been looking at for other projects, that had the option of rolling print face in. Given that the Z9 doesn't seem to exist in a 17" version, my chances of a foot massage seem minimal.
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If money were no object I'd buy the Epson P5000, which can hold dozen of cut sheets at once, and then put them through the Fotoba Digaprint 20. Unfortunately for me, Fotoba is not imported into the U.S. but you might check it out.
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Not such a bad idea - I'll play with layouts tomorrow for cut sheet, but I don't think I'll see 36-40 prints very sensibly from A2 or 17x22. Switching out stacks of matt/lustre/gloss paper wouldn't feel terribly efficient, but a suitable paper rack could be built to accomodate.
If I could find a digitrim second hand, then I could start out with the 8400, using thinner papers (less curl). Equally, I think there is the potential to take over part one of my tables, to build a series of production stops (T-slots?) for a good new rotatrim (£500 vs £4k+). I'd favour the Fotoba!
If money were no object, I'd have me some assistants again. And the toys.
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The new HPZ9+ comes with both a horizontal and a vertical cutter. It’s supposed to work well.
I assume this is designed for production pigment printing, especially small prints.
When I do small prints in editions of hundreds, it takes me four times longer to trim and flatten the work than to set it up, test it, and print it.
John
quote author=Richard.Wills link=topic=137346.msg1204333#msg1204333 date=1610660212]
Not such a bad idea - I'll play with layouts tomorrow for cut sheet, but I don't think I'll see 36-40 prints very sensibly from A2 or 17x22. Switching out stacks of matt/lustre/gloss paper wouldn't feel terribly efficient, but a suitable paper rack could be built to accomodate.
If I could find a digitrim second hand, then I could start out with the 8400, using thinner papers (less curl). Equally, I think there is the potential to take over part one of my tables, to build a series of production stops (T-slots?) for a good new rotatrim (£500 vs £4k+). I'd favour the Fotoba!
If money were no object, I'd have me some assistants again. And the toys.
[/quote]
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The new HPZ9+ comes with both a horizontal and a vertical cutter. It’s supposed to work well.
I assume this is designed for production pigment printing, especially small prints.
When I do small prints in editions of hundreds, it takes me four times longer to trim and flatten the work than to set it up, test it, and print it.
John
I think four times is an understatement! The post production is the killer.
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Not such a bad idea - I'll play with layouts tomorrow for cut sheet, but I don't think I'll see 36-40 prints very sensibly from A2 or 17x22. Switching out stacks of matt/lustre/gloss paper wouldn't feel terribly efficient, but a suitable paper rack could be built to accomodate.
If I could find a digitrim second hand, then I could start out with the 8400, using thinner papers (less curl). Equally, I think there is the potential to take over part one of my tables, to build a series of production stops (T-slots?) for a good new rotatrim (£500 vs £4k+). I'd favour the Fotoba!
If money were no object, I'd have me some assistants again. And the toys.
Or back to my original idea of a small printer that will print full bleed single sheet 4x6 and 5x7.
P900 specs:
Main Top-loading Up to 17" x 22"; up to 120 sheets plain paper, 30 sheets photo paper, and single sheet loading of thicker fine art paper
Front Media Path Up to 17" x 22"; single sheet manual feeder, designed for thicker papers up to 1.5 mm thick
BorderFree Print Widths:
3.5" x 5", 4" x 6", 5" x 7", 8" x 10", A4 (8.3" x 11.7"), letter (8.5" x 11"), 11" x 14", B (11" x 17"), A3 (11.7" x 16.5"), Super B (13" x 19"), 16" x 20" and C (17"x 22")
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We regularly get asked for small prints, particularly with our film scanning service, but also for sets of work prints for photographers and artists. I've been looking at something like the Fuji DX100 as a starting point, but this is "just" a dye printer. Around 10-15% of processing and scanning orders request prints, so I'm looking at ITRO 1-300 6/8/10" prints. Occassionally I'll run these for good clients on our Canon 8400, often on Canson Prestige Baryta, HPR of IFA24. It is a PITA to trim these out from a 17 or 24" roll, first with a scalpel, then with an old, but clean 30" rotatrim.
I think the Fuji is Epson based, and the print longevity probably isn't terrible, but I'm looking to create an option that turns into the legacy print - the box of prints in a (acid free) shoebox or album that gets passed on, and has a chance to exist long after facebook's servers have stopped running. If the DX has accepable dark storage qualities, then this makes an easily scalable option.
Other lines of thought include a dedicated 17/24" modern pigment machine, and something like the fotoba digiprint cutter. This would be a much larger investment. We currently don't have the budget for one of the larger Epson Drylabs (dye based, but I've seen great results). Another option would be to get a newer Rotatrim technical, for which they make a production stop fitting, though I suspect I'd have almost as much success using an LED strip below the cutting edge.
Or find someone smarter than me to combine the stop control of https://www.duckafterduck.com/blog/how-to-make-a-lidar-driven-motorized-film-carrier with a motorised rotary cutter...
Or bite the test bullet, take in the orders to confirm business is there, and slave over the 10A's at the beginning. I'm running the Canon through a reasonable rip, so can gang the print orders up very easily on not too wide rolls. If the volume is there (and I think it is), then automate? Currently most of the staff are WfH or fuloughed, so I don't have a huge excess of bodies to help, but then, the volume of exhibitions we're producing is currently 1/T5th of normal.
I'm not looking for this to be a cheap service option, but don't have the space time budget to go for an RA4 or wet B&W laser service.
I wonder whether your customers can cope with a standard A3+, A3 or A4 size. You could deliver an inexpensive Chinese roll cutter with the first order if they need a custom size. Innova IFA24 is available in sheets, 210 gr/m², the two sided IFA25 220 gr/m² only in sheets.
HP Pagewide Pro Officejets are available from A4 to A3+. 4 color pigment ink inkjet. Quit a straight media path through the printer, should handle up to 220gr/m² stacks, 300 gr/m² as single sheets. Auto dual print. I have no experience what the print quality is but at the highest print quality the Pagewide models are still fast.
I had something else in mind with the Pagewide printers but my age starts to count.
Forgotten what I intended to write at the top first of all: There's is no dry minilab nearby to make a deal with?
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst Dinkla
https://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
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Another option: http://www.ronmartblog.com/
review of Epson Surelab D870
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I do like the idea of subbing the cutting out to the customer - I suspect that a proportion of the client base already have rotary trimmers.
I find the IFA24 to be a remarkably compliant material - straight from the roll, it has very little memory - and then cut down to around A3, and into an envelope for those collecting, a tube foir those when the post around us restarts. The advantage from my end is that I can create a hot folder in the rip, and just drop rolls onto it, with the sheet size being whatever I choose, and the rip can layout, and name each sheet. The Noritsu software could send the files, or I could export from LR, which is what I currently do for scan only (image rotation, quick grading etc).
The pagewide looks interesting, but I have trouble believing that the quality in this generation would match. I'll see if any of the local dealers have one that they would be prepared to run tests on. Even then, I don't have any data to say that the print life exceeds dye prints.
I'll pick up a small roll of the IFA24 next week, and time production. If that looks promising, then I'll try to plot the next part of the path.
Thank you all who have contributed thus far.
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Another option: http://www.ronmartblog.com/
review of Epson Surelab D870
Interesting read, and very much describes what I'm trying to produce, all be it at a cost that covers my time, and addresses the multigenerational time scale.
Or perhaps I'm over thinking things, and as good, or slightly better than C-types is better than a future digital vacuum.
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I do like the idea of subbing the cutting out to the customer - I suspect that a proportion of the client base already have rotary trimmers.
Another solution on the paper cutting could be a roller die cutting machine. They come in many shapes, sizes and prices. If you can find one that can use standard lasered plywood + metal band dies, the price of the dies is not that high. You can design them in Illustrator for example and export a DXF file for the die maker.
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst Dinkla
https://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." H. L. Mencken
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I cut some vinyls today on our Graphtec CE6000 (mask signs...). Not enough to bother webbing up the laminator, so laid the application tape down on a small (600x800) cutting matt, and squegeed (sp) the vinyl facedown. Used the cutting matt so I could rotate the sheets around, to speed up the trimming out. I'd forgotten that when you use a scalpel on a cutting mat, the edges of the paper bed down, in to the cutting path. Our graphtec is a European model, that has the option to do perf or die cut, so now my thoughts are sliding towards trying plotter, using the cutting mat as a carrier board. 18 6x4's fits onto a 610 x 750mm sheet (with room for the registration marks, to use cutting master).
Thanks Ernst, it was looking at a couple of videos of roller die cutting, that led me to start rethinking this. Given that some of the photographic inkjet papers are pretty tough on blades, I'll start out with a sandblast blade that came with the cutter. Just need to make the cutting templates in illustrator, transpose the positioning to EFi Express, rig up a feed in and out table for the cutter and... Hope.
And thanks Michael, I shouldn't have dismissed the Graphtec/Imageprint combo, but rather, embraced it. My version of EFi doesn't have cut control, but I think I can make a way to place the crop marks, based on a standard set of templates.
Or just get a Surelab...
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Having reread this very interesting thread this morning, here some additional cents:
First: I assume, our clients look for outstanding quality. Surelab/Fuji is dye. Marc from Aardenburg did tests on Fuji some time ago: Between 17 and 43 MegaLux, depending on media. Not sure whether that has changed in the meantime. Not to forget the high amount of OBAs.
2. I have a deal with a very good wet lab for small prints. I can rely on their quality 100%, and that is what my customers want. They pay me the lab's price + my manipulating fee and are happy. I am not afraid to loose them to that lab - customers come to me for quality, advice, image manipulation/optimization, not for cheap prizes.
3. I own a P800. More than 5 small pre cut papers (< A5) often cause troubles, so I have to babysit such jobs. Could be the same issue with new P700/900...
4. AFAIK (from the manual) you can change hanger space & -size in cut-it-out. I'd call Imageprint to be sure, but in my understanding, if you put a slim roll into the graphtec with just one column of images on it, perhaps one could reduce hanger size to zero. Having a Graphtec and Imageprint at hand (don't you?), this could be the easiest solution.
Best regards, Michael
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I cut some vinyls today on our Graphtec CE6000 (mask signs...). Not enough to bother webbing up the laminator, so laid the application tape down on a small (600x800) cutting matt, and squegeed (sp) the vinyl facedown. Used the cutting matt so I could rotate the sheets around, to speed up the trimming out. I'd forgotten that when you use a scalpel on a cutting mat, the edges of the paper bed down, in to the cutting path. Our graphtec is a European model, that has the option to do perf or die cut, so now my thoughts are sliding towards trying plotter, using the cutting mat as a carrier board. 18 6x4's fits onto a 610 x 750mm sheet (with room for the registration marks, to use cutting master).
Thanks Ernst, it was looking at a couple of videos of roller die cutting, that led me to start rethinking this. Given that some of the photographic inkjet papers are pretty tough on blades, I'll start out with a sandblast blade that came with the cutter. Just need to make the cutting templates in illustrator, transpose the positioning to EFi Express, rig up a feed in and out table for the cutter and... Hope.
And thanks Michael, I shouldn't have dismissed the Graphtec/Imageprint combo, but rather, embraced it. My version of EFi doesn't have cut control, but I think I can make a way to place the crop marks, based on a standard set of templates.
Or just get a Surelab...
A Houston DMC100 cutting plotter here, tangential knife. An old one but hardly used over time. I mainly used it for cutting silkscreen masks, red gelatine layer on PET foil. With an added table with register tabs also small runs of stickers where die cutting was not economic.
I also thought you would need a blade for cutting sandblast foil, the minerals on the paper surface could be abrasive. The other problem might be in RC papers where you also have to cut the PE foil at the back.
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst Dinkla
https://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." H. L. Mencken
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Having reread this very interesting thread this morning, here some additional cents:
First: I assume, our clients look for outstanding quality. Surelab/Fuji is dye. Marc from Aardenburg did tests on Fuji some time ago: Between 17 and 43 MegaLux, depending on media. Not sure whether that has changed in the meantime. Not to forget the high amount of OBAs.
2. I have a deal with a very good wet lab for small prints. I can rely on their quality 100%, and that is what my customers want. They pay me the lab's price + my manipulating fee and are happy. I am not afraid to loose them to that lab - customers come to me for quality, advice, image manipulation/optimization, not for cheap prizes.
3. I own a P800. More than 5 small pre cut papers (< A5) often cause troubles, so I have to babysit such jobs. Could be the same issue with new P700/900...
4. AFAIK (from the manual) you can change hanger space & -size in cut-it-out. I'd call Imageprint to be sure, but in my understanding, if you put a slim roll into the graphtec with just one column of images on it, perhaps one could reduce hanger size to zero. Having a Graphtec and Imageprint at hand (don't you?), this could be the easiest solution.
Best regards, Michael
Thanks Michael,
Clients are looking for good to very good, but at a price point that works for all of us. There's one lab in town who have a ?Lambda? rigged up to a fibre base B&W line. This is good for the independently wealthy. Still thinking along the lines of a surelab, but onto a paper that's not loaded with OBA's.
Not looking for a system that needs baby sitting.
I haven't run imageprint since we got our 8300, when it first came out, though do still have the dongle from ?version6?, and for that matter, still have the 9800 in a hallway, waiting to chop it in against the next 44" printer. So I'm not sure that imageprint is more than a source of inspiration, given that we are way outside any upgrade path.
I'll try to run some tests on various paper bases over the coming weeks. I've plenty of dog ends of rolls of paper sat gathering dust (too long to throw, too short to use except for on tests). I'll see how the cutter handles things. I feel a crash course in Illustrator coming up, so I can work out how to properly place the cutting positions, without having to manually guide the cutting boxen into place.
∏
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So an update.
Our Graphtec is not a true tangential cutter (it doesn't lift the knife and preset the rotation angle before dropping it). I tried kiss cutting on a number of papers, resin and matt, cotton and wood based, and could not get a really clean corner on any of them. As this is for small hand held prints, this is not a good start. I also tried the longer sandblast blade in the perf channel. Perf cut does look like an option, but the damage to corners, where the blade re-enters the paper was not pretty. It may be possibe to get around this by starting the cut outside of the print area.
Only quick plays, fitted in around an awful lot of scanning work. The down side of our Graphtec is that even with a new blade, just kissing the print surface, I had to dial the speed down to super low, to avoid tearing the print surface. This coupled with the need to load individual cut jobs makes this look like it is not the solution I'm looking for. There are plotters out there that will run with a barcode on print cut jobs, from rolls of media, but they, along with the software to drive them, are heading into second user Fotoba digiprint territory, and aren't really designed for printed paper based activities.
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Would something like this work on a Epson P800?
https://www.amazon.com/Promaster-Glossy-Inkjet-Photo-Paper/dp/B00LPSWS4W
https://www.promaster.com/Category/5017
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I have been in this situation myself, but have not found a perfect solution. Generally I talk with the client and basically give them the choice...either pay me to do the cutting, or take the uncut work. Generally people are fine with one or the other. I only have the 44" printers, so I tend to print from a roll in strips and let the printer cut the one edge, and then trim them in the other direction. Thinking about this slightly more deeply, it seems there is fairly reasonable opportunity to work with A sized sheets and a printer that can take a stack of them. For example, with an A3 sheet of something like Decor Smooth Art (nice paper, btw), with proper layout you would only need two cuts per sheet to make 4 A5 prints. With a decent cutter and a paper stop in the right place, that could be done in a matter of seconds. You could either use two cutters with different stops or just cut the job in one direction, adjust the stop and do the other direction. Sure, it is not fully automated, but it does not have to be as tedious as trimming every edge individually. The main thing would be to indicate to the client that it is a set size...
I realize this is not a fully perfect solution, but I imagine it would work pretty well for a decent volume. It just depends on how many of these small prints you wind up doing in a given batch.
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I've just been running some tests on a 10" roll of Permajet Drylab matt 230, and at least for 10"prints. Tried a couple of print profiles I had on hand - closest looks to be a profile I made for Fuji Matt Bond paper - and first results look promising. So this could be me covered for 10x8 and 10x10" prints with minimal finishing. This paper obviously has a certain loading of OBAs, so not perfect, but a nice first option.
Our Canon is not a volume sheet printing machine (hate using cut sheet with it...) Still toying with getting a new Rotatrim Technical, as the cut mechanism actively raises the clamp bar at either end of the cut (and our current rotatrims are from the 90's), for the nicer archival materials. And yes, production stops may well play an enhanced part in my life - thinking about building a jig with t-tracks and the like...
And a D800 for the run of the mill stuff.
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Just bit the bullet - new D800 should be landing with me tomorrow. I've shifted my own goal posts, to run this initially as an add on to the film processing. But can't resist the temptation to make it run as well as I can, while using distributor supplied materials, rather than premium paper brands. Decided to go with the order control software, to keep things as automated as possible. First order of the day will be to look at the built in profiles, and then roll my own. Dread to think how long an 8" wide 2371 patch will be.
Does anyone have experience of the Epson Drylabs? And do I need to let the profile targets dry down on a dye based printer, the way I would with a pigment print? And for that matter, are there any branded papers that score highly using the D800 inkset, for longevity? Would be a nice extra to be able to offer a premium, for the grandkids option.
Going through lots of calculations on the packaging and despatch side of the system, and for the first time realised that the little index prints you get with minilab prints is there primarily for the benefit of the operator, rather than the customer. Fun times.
Of course I'm going to have to be patient, and wait for the printer and particularly the materials to come up to temp from an overnight shipping - 200' rolls of RC paper are going to take a while to thaw, but I do have the 10" matt rolls sat at room temp, to get me started.
So I've deviated from my initial thoughts, now a mid volume dye printer (with room for exaspansion, should it require siblings).
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So, it's a little beast. Palett arrived today, with printer and a dozen rolls of media. Epson have done a cracking job with the design - I've never known an ink cartidge (or six) to slot in so smoothly. Solidly constructed, and with really well thought out handling - hand holds in the box (lovely grade of cardboard) perfectly balanced, handholds at the bottom of the machine actually designed, and balanced for one person, great peel to the restraining tape (no resistance, no residue).
But, a few initial niggles. One is the alarm - open the waste tray door - intruder. Misfeed the paper - evacuate the building. Slight exageration, but I guess Epson designed this as an event / kiosk device, so wanted to get people's attention. Yes, it does. And on starting to print, the fans ramp up. Not in an objectionable fashion, but did start to wonder when the afterburners would kick in. But, they are not of an unpleasant pitch, though currently the Surelab D800 is sat right behind me in my little office. Noiser than the 7880, but without the clud thunks of the 8400, and the fans are less irritating than the Noritsu, or the ubiquiti switch.
I'm currently waiting for a license key for the order software, but going through the set up. Out of the box colour images are kind of OK, and the absence of differential on gloss paper is lovely. But Neutrals have a subtle green/cyan tinge that is really visible on B&W, particularly in the 3/4 tones.
I've created an 1105 patch in profiler on my mac, printed it from the PC the printer is connected to (we're a Mac shop, but I have a W7 PC for running our Noritsu scanner). The Order controller software for the Epson is PC only. I'm battling ACPU on the PC, using the Epson drivers (a decade of running profile targets through the Canon print utility, on the mac has allowed me to forget how to ensure that I get unadulterated target prints). All of my printed targets look like they do on screen, which I don't think is right. And when I've read the targets, I've got "Error creating profile. There is too much variation between identical patches." which I've never seen before.
I'll contact my supplier tomorrow, and hopefully the order control software will have a profiling option, that'll solve this. Otherwise, does any one have a cheat sheet for using ACPU with Epson on W7?
Some of my mistakes. The printer is USB only - for some reason I thought that reference to network would give me an RJ45, but I guess the network refers to the ordering SW. I got a 10" roll of nice matte paper - the printer is 8" max, but the 8400 will allow me to use the 100m - I'll just make the only option 10" prints. Strip down serviced one of the rotatrims, so Work flow shouldn't be too bad.
Interesting times, sort of first world problems. Any help gratefully accepted!
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I'll contact my supplier tomorrow, and hopefully the order control software will have a profiling option, that'll solve this. Otherwise, does any one have a cheat sheet for using ACPU with Epson on W7?
Great! I am eagerly waiting your thoughts on D800! You could try QimageOne (mac or win) to print the targets. I use Qimage Ultimate which is win only.
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Order controller software is on back order! Should be with me next week.Tried printing out from profiler 1.8, but couldn't get it to turn off colour management, so currently rocking a demo of Qimage. Time to fire up the extra long x-rite support backing. Figured 2371should do the trick - It's what I use for most of my Canon profiles, and seems pretty good.
If this works, I'll get Qimage, just for the simplicity of running profiles.
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Panagiotis, you are a genius!
Dealer's supplied profile for their paper was exactly the same as the Epson one - green. Now, new profile rolled out using Qimage is looking pretty nice.
Same profile looks very good on their lustre paper, but for giggles, I ran an 1105 set on that - prints side by side are visually the same, under a variety of light sources (it's dark now, so don't have the big one to test).
So, if you have a use case for small fast prints, I'd say this is a good option. I'm going to order in a couple of matt papers, to see how they quack - I have a good feeling :)
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Panagiotis, you are a genius!
Dealer's supplied profile for their paper was exactly the same as the Epson one - green. Now, new profile rolled out using Qimage is looking pretty nice.
Same profile looks very good on their lustre paper, but for giggles, I ran an 1105 set on that - prints side by side are visually the same, under a variety of light sources (it's dark now, so don't have the big one to test).
So, if you have a use case for small fast prints, I'd say this is a good option. I'm going to order in a couple of matt papers, to see how they quack - I have a good feeling :)
Good news Richard! Qimage is great software. I use it every day more and more. Now I have to wait a financial opportunity to get a D800 :).