Oh yeah, one more thing. I travel a lot and my machine sits idle while I am gone. I can see why they probably work best when used consistently, but mine doesn't exhibit any erratic behavior when I fire it up after a long absence. I do keep it turned on all the time (very minimal power usage).
I use a 7600 - the 9600's a twin in all but carriage length and printer stand. All the essential parts are the same - head, motors, paper handling system, etc.
First off, I suggest that you disabuse yourself of the notion of anything mechanical being "hassle-free" because it's not going to happen. The big Epsons are reasonably close, however.
They will clog, there will be some issues with various media, but you should expect that. What you want, is race car performance - you want great Dmax, wide gamut, perfect ink lay down, no banding, etc. To get that performance, you have to tune the system. You'll have to climb some learning curves to learn how to use various substrates. You'll have to climb some learning curves to learn how to get the most out of your driver/RIP. You'll have to climb some learning curves in color management (getting a really good ICC profile, and how to work with it in your driver/RIP of choice). Finally, you'll have to climb some learning curves in the care and feeding of the printer also.
But really, it's just not that hard. If you are willing to work with it, and except the limitations, the big Epson printers are just a joy to use. And there's a huge amount to be said for being able to proof on the machine that does the final prints - no more surprises. A huge plus in my book.
You might try asking this question over at the Yahoo Epson Wide Format group. That's 4100 people with the big Epson printers. This group is a pretty good resource. The archives contain a blizzard of information; I just wish searching the archives were easier.
Bruce Watson
Keith, indeed, "open loop" refers to the fact that it is impractical for me to go to many proofing cycles because I do not have the printer at home. Color management doesn't work so well for me. Despite all the respect I have for Bill Atkinson, the Calypso lighjet has a number of issues, one of the most irritating being hue shifts, most noticeably in the blues turning magenta. I have also found difficult to evaluate the brighness of the print based on the monitor view (before someone starts blaming my monitor, note that it is a Sony Artisan, my third one to be precise).
I own a 9600, and have run more than a mile of paper through it. Althought I wouldn't rate it as totally hassle-free (is there anything that is hassle free?), it is a remarkably well designed and reliable piece of technology, and when things do go wrong, the fixes are easy and well thought through. I'll give you a list of things that typically go wrong:
--Runs out of paper during a print (my fault for not checking how much paper is left). Requires a reboot and reprint.
--A mark on the paper when it is left in the printer overnight; simple fix: Release the paper lever between prints;
--Jet clogs (resulting in banding; can occur in the middle of a print, but rarely): are infrequent and are solved by doing a simple head cleaning, which is a mouse click in the Epson tools software. Having a tabletop fountain next to the printer (purchased at bedbath&beyond.com) solves the clogging almost completely-- it increases the humidity just enough to eliminate clogs.
--Printer runs out of ink in the middle of a print: If you catch it fast enough (within a few minutes) you can change the ink and there is no noticable problem with the print.
--Various crashes caused by wrong paper setting, wrong paper size, loading the paper the wrong way, etc.: Requires a reboot and usually that print gets wasted.
--Bronzing in highlights: Solved by varous methods, the best of which is to face-mount the prints on plexiglass. The various sprays (Lyson, etc.) also solve bronzing completely.
Whatever the complaints are by other 9600 owners, I think it's the best color printing device currently available at any price, and it's kind of amazing to consider that it costs less than 1/100th the price of a LightJet. It also gives you the luxury of doing your own proofing, inexpensively and instantaneously.
And, by the way, I print exclusively on Epson Premium Semimatte Paper with Bill Atkinson's profiles (available for free on Epson's website), using the original Epson drivers. I have never used a RIP, and for my purposes do not need one. For B&W, however, a RIP is mandatory.
~cj
www.chrisjordan.com
Epson's can be unclogged easily if you take the time. I use a technique involving the tubing and spray gun trigger apparatus of a windex cleaning bottle, and hot water, windex.
But given a choice, I'd rather have a lightjet print.
"I have never used a RIP, and for my purposes do not need one. For B&W, however, a RIP is mandatory. "
If it works as well on the 9600 as it does on he 2200/4000 all you need is the "free" (or at least cheap) Quadtone RIP - it's a little limited, but I have found it does a much better job with B&W prints than the Imageprint RIP when I have compared images printed with both on the above wo printers (both in terms of tone/neutrality and also in terms of dots/smoothness).
(one difference is that the Imageprint RIP uses some LtM in making the warm tone prints which has a tendancy to show under certain lighting conditions. The Quadtone RIP has certain profiles which only use K and Lk and relies on their "natural" warmth to make the warmer toned prints - thus avoiding the Magenta "undertone")
There is also a newer - somewhat cheaper - B&W only "RIP" (whose name I have forgotten ofhand) . I haven't had a chance to test it, but a colleague showed me some test prints which looked very good.
Why do most people think they have to do this alone?
If it's important enough isn't it worth hiring a consultant?
Do we expect to fix our own cars ... replace our AC in the house ... build our own swimming pools ... educate our children .... diagnose and cure complex health problems .... defend ourselves in a lawsuit?
If I ever decide to do my own printing I'm going to hire someone to teach me how to do it.
>>Keith, indeed, "open loop" refers to the fact that it is impractical for me to go to many proofing cycles because I do not have the printer at home.
I completely sympathize. It was an even easier decision for me to make based on that rationale, since there are no Lightjets down the street from my home in Idaho. I remember when I got my first Epson Stylus 700 EX which I used to make proofs before printing a Lightjet. Again, Bill was kind enough to generate a custom profile for my printer (this was before he could write a single profile that covered every machine made). The print quality was phenomenal and I wished they could just figure out a way to do the same thing with a wide format printer. It took a few years, but the 9600 is the printer I wished for. It is SOOOOO nice to tweak an image and run a full size proof.
>>Color management doesn't work so well for me. Despite all the respect I have for Bill Atkinson, the Calypso lighjet has a number of issues, one of the most irritating being hue shifts, most noticeably in the blues turning magenta.
Hmmm... Are you sure you're not double profiling? The only time I experienced any shifts of that nature were due to my operator error. I also understand that Bill refined the profile the latest profile (3-8-05) is much more accurate, though I haven't personally tested the results.
>>I have also found difficult to evaluate the brighness of the print based on the monitor view (before someone starts blaming my monitor, note that it is a Sony Artisan, my third one to be precise).
Sounds like you will be much happier to have your own, whatever it is. The Epson 4000 solved many of the issues identified in the 7600/9600 series, so one has to wonder when the next generation of those printers will appear. I have no idea where Epson is in the product development cycle, but the introduction of the HP technology can only help speed things up a bit. Regardless, I'm am VERY happy with my printer and do a little dance every time I send a file for output. It is mind boggling to think how quickly such high quality was achieved.
QT,
Not to repeat what so many others have said, but my 7600 has been phenomenal. I use a small room air conditioner to keep the Tucson summer heat from drying out the heads which has been my only problem beyond operator error. It does have some idiosynchracies that when learned are avoidable (i.e. never leave the locking arm down on paper when not in use unless you want an indentation across the paper).
If you find yourself in the Tucson area you would be welcome to bring some files and come and play with mine.
Mr. Jordan said it perfectly: is anything hassle free?
I own both the Epson 7600 (2.25 years) and HP Designjet 130 (about three months), and neither is or has been hassle free and both have requisite learning curves. I haven't owned the DJ130 long enough for this statement to be totally viable, but I believe it may be more hassle-free in the long run than the Epson. The long term issue with the Epson is more frequent head clogs and the need for more frequent head alignments . Moreover, my long-term frustration over the Epson UC/media issues of bronzing, gloss differential, and outgassing were enough to make me run, not walk, to an alternative. I returned to Fuji CA matte prints via the LJ, and now am making prints on the DJ130 that rival or exceed Fuji CA matte prints (albeit with the associated poor water resistance of swellable papers).
Labs have their issues with Chromira's and Lightjet's (they aren't hassle free either); the hassles simply go with the territory in owning and maintaining a wide format printer.
Michael E. Gordon
http://www.michael-gordon.com
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