Epson's Violet Ink

[dkaufman]

I am considering the purchase of one of Epson's new printers, the 44 inch Surecolor P9570. However, I have a question about the Violet ink which will now be standard along with LLK in the new 12 line inkset.
In a blog on the site of the Texas Epson reseller, Imaging Spectrum, on October 27, 2015, an employee named Joanna wrote the following:

"...it’s also a pretty good bet that archival stability, lightfastness, and fade resistance are just as important to you as accurate color reproduction, and violet ink is notoriously unstable. Bottom line, if you print with violet ink, you are likely trading a slightly wider color gamut for a faded, damaged print just a few years down the line." She was referring to the Violet ink offered in the Commercial editions of the P7000 and P9000, which had just come onto the market.

In the experience of anyone on this site running the Commercial editions of the P9000 or P7000, is there anything to indicate that Epson's Violet ink is less lightfast than its other inks?
Henry Wilhelm is claiming that the new ink set will be as stable as the previous ink set but no formal test results have been published yet. And Aardenburg has never tested the Violet ink. I spoke to some Epson representatives yesterday at ProFusion who say there is absolutely nothing wrong with their Violet ink and that it is as lightfast as their other pigment inks. Any experience or opinions out there? Thank you.

David Kaufman, Toronto

[I.T. Supplies]

Our color consultant has been doing profiles and many testing on the commercial version with no issues.  They help customers that purchase the Commercial model to achieve their best output (going to their location to train) and no problems with the Violet that they are aware of.  You're also referring to something from early shipping time of that version which can surely have changed over time with firmware updates.

I've sold a few Commercial models to customers and no issues either through the past 4 years.  There may be those that do lots of testing, but their results will be from their end and not matching everyone else's end since the printer can act different in different locations unfortunately.  The environment can play different rolls on how a printer functions, even though they are built the exact same way.

I just state that Wilhelm and any other tester will have their results, but these aren't 100% accurate in any way; they are indeed their results of testing, and again, can surely be different per the users location.

The Violet should work the same as the other colors though and haven't heard of any major issues with those that purchased the Commercial (yet), but that doesn't mean no one has had issues.

Hope this helps.
IT Supplies

[Ernst Dinkla]

For the HP Z3200 etc the Blue ink, but actually being a Violet ink, there have been no issues in any testing for indoor use AFAIK. Nor has there been any issue in the 13 year practice with the ink in said conditions. Violet being as good as the other color inks in that ink set. The inks are not aimed at outdoor use and are not tested for that condition.

What "in storage" only testing means is unclear to me.  Wilhelm Research's testing has some flaws compared to Aardenburg-Imaging testing methods but exposure to light with and without glass + dark storage is in the normal testing process of WR.


Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

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