Really informative thread . gone through most of replies . We have Printing Studio branded as http://www.printingstudio.in .
We need to print on 380 to 400 GSM canvas , Should have support for all media like Canvas , Photo-papers , Vinyls, Wallpapers etc .
Also want to ask how much it really matters with Printing colour options. Like Epson offering 16 colour machine and Hp offering 11 Colour Machine. Does it impact printing a lot . We need mainly for Canvas art Prints . We will be producing high quality oil paintings and Portraits like images shown in this Oil Portrait Website
We are looking for high quality large format Printer . Have shortlisted 3 companies Epson, HP and Canon.
So plz advise best suitable 60 inch printer.
No such thing as the perfect printer. From everything I've read each has their strong and weak points.
1. HP has the best fade resistant inks but also has poorest gamut, and tonal transitions are not as smooth as with Canon and Epson.
2. Canon's 60" printer has all 10 inks vs only 8 for the Epson 20000 so Canon will have better gamut. But their new ink set only has 1/2 the fade resistance of the new Epson inks.
3. Epson has excellent fade resistant compared to Canon, almost as good as HP but with much better gamut and tonal transitions. But Epson's new high speed head for the 20000 has a reputation of breaking down a lot so purchasing a 3 year warranty is highly recommended (which will appreciably raise its price compared to the Canon and HP). Epson also uses more ink per sq meter, sometimes up to 50% more. This makes Canon a little cheaper but also the extra ink from Epson is difficult for some canvasses to absorb which can result in sticky blotchy patches, though this will obviously not be a problem if you use actual Epson canvas.
So as you can see there is no simple or perfect answer.
(All of the above only applies if you're talking about an aqueous printer. Latex or Solvent is another matter entirely.)