Where is Archival Ink Going?

[Kirk Gittings]

I am going to throw some money at a new and larger printer this year and turn my 4000 into a Piezography 7 inker. I am inclined to go with a new 7800 and K3 inks with ImagePrint Phatte Black (which is already paid for as I have the maintenance agreement for this year, but I really like IP anyway). This will enable a few different black and white choices and decent color and enable me to print a 16x20 with plenty of room around it.

From the experienced digital printers out there.....If you were going to reinvest this year what would you do? Wait to see how the new Canons shape up or stick with the Epsons?

[George Stewart]

As a 4000 owner using IP, I concur with your choice to turn the smaller one into the best possible dedicated B&W printer. However, I think your choice of the 7800 is too close to the 4000 in output size to justify the additional cost. Why not go directly for the 9800, which can still use 24" wide paper, but will allow the printing of mural-sized prints if needed?

[Kirk Gittings]

George,

Because I have absolutely zero interests in printing mural prints and somewhat limited space. In twenty eight years in this business, I have made two 20x24 prints and nothing ever larger.

[Gary Nylander]

Hi Kirk,

I'm sticking with my Epson 4800 and the K3 inks, which I just love, I don't plan on buying Image Print, I mostly print on fine art matt papers.

Gary

[andreas_6335]

Is there a chance that Epson might surprise all of us (out of sudden!) with a line of new printers and new inks? Will Epson react on Canon and HP? Or have they all soon reached a level where it can be said more improvement is just for a very few ones - not paying anymore R&D?

Andreas

[Henry Ambrose]

Kirk,

I've been thinking that I might turn my 7600 into a Piezo printer when and if I get extra money to buy a 7800 or whatever is the current champ at the time. The new Canons look promising and from the results I get from my little Canon 5200 I bet they will be good.

Maybe for right now the question about the 7800 is - will it make wonderful, totally satisfying prints for you? If not, then I'd wait until the next model and maybe it will knock your socks off.

[Ted Harris]

I agree that the Canons holdpromise but I am concerned in terms of what sort of support they will have from third parties such as Colorbyte and Color Burst. Time will tell. One small caveat on the Canons that will not impact most of us. I did some very early testing on them and thought the results looked wonderful with the exceptionof some work that had text printed along with the images. The text looked ok until I compared it side-by-side with text from two different Epson printers (4800 and R800) and then it looked a bit fuzzy on the edges compared to the Epson output.

[John Brownlow]

Kirk -- I bought a 7800 and it replaces everything. Sensational printer. BW is better than piezo on Silver Rag at least.

[Dan Jolicoeur]

As far as R&D being outsourced I can tell you this. Without mentioning any companies names; the amount of research we have been doing in the last 5 years was at a steady level supporting around 4-5 graduate students. I would dare to say, with out asking some specific details, that in the last year that number has dropped to Zero. There appears to be no new or continuing research in the area of paper surface science with ink pigments for printers that I know about. That is in my department at a state university. We are rated fairly high in this area and other paper technologies.

That being said; the work that has been done may not have effected the actual products being manufactured yet? My best guess is that it has. We where doing very specific research with "many" pigments, as well as many papers. These companies gave use printers that we modified to test these pigments with as well as some very specific equipment that was made to test the rheology of these pigments.

From my perspective there is no new work being done at the university level. I am assuming that this market is starting to flatten out if not heading on a downward level as far as new products and sales?

[Frank Petronio]

I haven't played around with as many different printers, inks, or papers as you guys BUT if I had the cash I would just get the 7800 and a RIP knowing it is mature technology and not likely to be obsolete for several years. Plus it seems that its operating costs are the best bang for the buck, at least for a proven, supported mainstream printer.

Just like silver, I am sure people will spend a lot of time comparing different combos but for my time/money I like the Epson prints and would rather be making images than experimenting with printers.