Printable View
I have the possibility to get for cheap a Mutho large format plotter, it prints about 60" or 150cm wide. Its in very good serviced condition, and has a fill system for pigment inks. My question is about picture quality, I have just seen very large prints, made to be watched from some distance.
Perhaps someone here has experience with this kind of printer, is it able to provide "photo" quality on smaller prints, and what kind of RIP does it need.
Thanks and Kind Regards
Martin
For cheap means different things to different people. Like high end scanners, large printers/plotters of this type come on the market at very low prices sometimes but be very careful. How many hours has it been chugging along? How well has it been maintained, etc. You could easily pay more for servie or a part than you pay for this "bargain" printer.
You ask about photo quality on smaller prints and the question to ask the seller what smaller roll sizes it wil take. The current model, Rockhopper III, will do large photo quality prints but I'm not sure how small a roll it will take. There are some printers of this type that don't take smaller rolls with ease or at all. The printer was also originally 'tuned' to handle solvent inks and will need some resetting unless you intend to use solvent inks or the current owner has already retuned it for pigment. I have an associate who runs a comparable Roland and makes beautiful prints with it but he never runs anything smaller than 24" rolls and when he is printing smaller than that he uses a different printer. As for RIP's, the current models usually run with Onyx RIP's and others will work also (remember you are talking $2000-3000 and up RIP's here not the under 1000 you think of for small printers). Generally, Rockhoppers shipped with a RIP.
There is more than meets the eye to installing such a machine. No the least of the questions is do you really have the room for the machine?
Ted, thanks for your reply,
as I mentioned, the thing is good serviced, a new black head was installed some month ago. The seller is one of my dudes and I trust him 100%. Its modified to use pigment inks from a refilling system, so I can use the cheaper ink from 1-liter bottles, done from the servicing company. The RIP came with the printer, but the seller has other printers in use and so needs the RIP himself. I am kinda computer guy so I think I can get the baby to run, I just wanted to know about print quality on smaller prints, what I know it uses the head ot an Epson 3000, so I think it should be viewable at near distance and not just look good from 2 meters away.
Thanks and Kind Regards
Martin