Epson 9600: is it hassle-free ?

[Paul Butzi]

I've had my 9600 for just over a year now.

When I first got it, I had one problem where the printer would hang intermittently. Epson sent out a rep to my site, the rep replaced some electronics, and since then the thing has chugged along merrily, without even the slightest hiccup. Note that the rep on site visit was under warranty and cost me nothing.

I print primarily on Epson Premium Luster. Despite the claims that you just can't print B&W without using a rip, that's exactly what I do for most of my printing. I looked carefully at the output generated using the colorbyte imageprint rip for black and white and thought that a) the rip looked like a pain in the butt to use, b) the output was no better than what I am getting doing toning using curves, c) my current monochrome workflow allows me considerably more flexibility in toning than the rip does, and d) the rip is priced outrageously (half the cost of my printer!).

I've never had head clog problems. In fact, I think in the space of a year, I've printed nozzle checks perhaps 3 times and found a clogged nozzle; said clog being cleared by running a cleaning cycle.

Good profiling is a must. Atkinson's free profiles for the 7600/9600 and Epson media are excellent. The Atkinson profile for Epson Premium luster produces a dead neutral grey scale on my 9600.

Nothing is hassle-free. Lightjet output is not hassle free. An Epson 9600 is not hassle free - others have noted the issues: bronzing/differential gloss, outgassing from glossy/semigloss/luster media, and metamerism. Those issues are vastly reduced by switching to a matte paper - something I'm in the middle of doing.

On the obvious color issues - color gamut, etc. I simply can't comment cogently.

One simple way for you to see how you feel about the output is to simply get someone to accept a file from you, crank out a print, and send the print to you.

I understand your issues with the smaller consumer level epson printers, but I do feel that the 9600 is fundamentally a different beast, and that you won't see the same problems you saw with the consumer level printers.

[Michael Gordon]

Paul said: On the obvious color issues - color gamut, etc. I simply can't comment cogently.

As for gamut, the Epson is incredibly wide, a bit more so than the Lightjet, and slightly more so than the Designjet 130.

[Keith S. Walklet]

As for head clogging, I only had the problem crop up once in the 2 plus years I've been running my 9600 and I traced it to another bad habit of mine.

I would release the platen tension lever to prevent creases in the paper, but I'd leave the paper engaged in the print roller path. There is a fan that switches on when you engage the paper that shuts off when you lock down the platen. By leaving the paper engaged but not under tension, the fan would run continously. This caused the heads to dry out and I had to run a few cleaning cycles to get them back in order. Since then, I always pull the paper out of the rollers when I disengage the platen so the fan doesn't come on.

I've been surprised that in spite of my VERY dry environment that there haven't been more difficulties of this type and wonder if my leaving the printer on all the time helped prevent problems.

[Michael Gordon]

Keith: I do everything the same as you and live in a climate (coastal So. Calif.) that must be regularly more humid than yours , yet after 2.25 years of use, my 7600 has more frequent clogs and requires more frequent power cleanings to clear AND now requires more frequent head alignments for banding-free prints (I *always* do a nozzle check and alignment before doing any consequential printing). One thing: I've run a fair amount of Photorag through the printer, and I'm aware that I might possibly have an accumulation of cotton fiber in and around the head assembly which might be causing the clogs.

[Richard Fenner]

Chris

Could you clarify something for me. In this thread, you said "Bronzing in highlights: Solved by varous methods, the best of which is to face-mount the prints on plexiglass". However, last year you said "...you intend to face-mount your prints on Plexi (which cannot be done with inkjet prints)" and earlier this year you said "If you like face-mounting prints on plexi, then the Chromira is the way to go-- you can't do that with the Epson prints". Have you recently discovered something?

Also, could you (or anyone!) describe simply what face-mounting is (to someone who has never mounted a print) - so I know what I'm visualising when people refer to it.

Thanks.

[Keith S. Walklet]

Michael,

I would suspect that the rag paper would contribute to problems. I run Premium Luster 99 percent of the time.

I personally miss the moisture, but am pleased that the 9600 is happy with its high desert environment. You can literally watch stuff wither before your eyes here. A bottle of honey becomes a brick of honey in no time at all. Snow is like styrofoam beads.

And QT, I was reminded of earlier problems with Lightjet prints where certain blues going magenta. I called it the LAB bug since it was a problem with the rendering of certain light blue values in the LAB colorspace. It seemed to be a LINOCOLOR issue exacerbated by the 2nd profile Bill wrote for the Lightjet. It proved troublesome when I first got into this. But since I've been scanning into RGB colorspace and Bill redid the profiles, I've not run across the problem since. For some files, there was no way to eliminate the problem without rescanning. My early bouts with accidental double profiles also went away when Photoshop made it possible to see which color space the file was in. All that seems so long ago...

[julian_4860]

One thing you might try is getting stuff printed on a chromira. The profile is near as dammit adobe RGB, no need to send a file tagged with a different profile. I'm getting pretty good matches to my inkjet prints. Gamut is bigger than a lightjet, there is an apparent increase in sharpness too

[Jim Becia]

QT,

I have had the Epson 9600 for about two years now and mine is virtually hassle free. An occasional head cleaning, but other wise, just fine. I'm no expert on printing, yet, I find my results as good as any photos I've had printed with Laserlight or Photocraft. I purchased the 9600 to control costs and inventory, and it does it extremely well. I print mainly on Epson Luster. And, yes, there is a slight bronzing problem on a rare print, but other than that, I think it's a great printer. I'm currently preparing for my upcoming art fair season and I've been getting my inventory ready for the last month or so without so much as a hiccup. No complaints on the 9600 from me. Jim