Epson 3880 on Sale for $850

[Shailendra]

Does anyone know how long it can print vs its 17" width?

[Jon Shiu]

Does anyone know how long it can print vs its 17" width?

37.5 inches, or longer with a professional (expensive) RIP.

Jon

[D. Bryant]

37.5 inches, or longer with a professional (expensive) RIP.

Jon

Quad Tone Rip provides a quality B&W solution for $50 but for color big $$$.

Don Bryant

[Greg Miller]

Quad Tone Rip provides a quality B&W solution for $50 but for color big $$$.

Don Bryant

Qimage is available at about the same price and can print color. It is only limited in print length by the computer's processing power or paper roll length.

[D. Bryant]

Qimage is available at about the same price and can print color. It is only limited in print length by the computer's processing power or paper roll length.

Sorry Greg, that's not correct. I've researched this long ago and Qimage doesn't solve that problem.

For example the 48XX Epsons can make prints over 500 inches long with Qimage because it is a roll paper printer and the Epson 48XX driver allows Qimage to recognize that banner mode can be set.

That is not the case with the 38XX printers. Since the 3800 has no facility for roll paper therefore Qimage cannot be set to banner mode.

Don

[Greg Miller]

Sorry Greg, that's not correct. I've researched this long ago and Qimage doesn't solve that problem.

For example the 48XX Epsons can make prints over 500 inches long with Qimage because it is a roll paper printer and the Epson 48XX driver allows Qimage to recognize that banner mode can be set.

That is not the case with the 38XX printers. Since the 3800 has no facility for roll paper therefore Qimage cannot be set to banner mode.

Don

Good catch. I see that page length is limited to 37.4" with Qimage on the 38XX printers. I had used Qimage previously with 48xx printers and had no length limitations.

[612tom]

Hi, I'm going to hijack this thread rather than start another...

Given the last post was 8 months ago - does anyone know if a mod/hack to the Epson driver or if a new RIP has been launched to print longer than the 950mm (37.5") that Epson quote is the max for the 3880?

I think my photography is getting better (or at least it's not as crap as it once was!), so I've had some prints made and haven't been particularly happy at all with the quality from Teds here in Melbourne - others might have more luck. Anyway I like to keep things in-house so have started to narrow down a printer selection for my uses. 70/30 BW/colour. The majority of my work is 1:2.5 ratio, slightly panoramic, and so I've been through and worked out the largest size print I'd be able to do with the 3880.

If using A2 sheets I could only do a 594x238mm which seems a bit small and wasteful for such a large printer. However I could tap into the many different types of paper available. I dont think there's a huge selection available in rolls is there?

If I did find a good paper available in rolls, using a 17" (432mm) roll with the max length of 950mm, then my image is 380mm x 950mm, which seems better usage of the paper space. So I'd cut a 950-1000mm length off the roll and feed it into the printer. Has anyone done this with the 3880? Tricky? I'll ensure I have plenty of desk space!

However to get the full use of the 17" width I need to stretch out to about 1079mm long, which is 130mm too wide according to Epson.

If I bought Quad Tone Rip for BW does it definitely let the Epson 3880 print longer than 950mm? How!? And can someone apply that gadgetry to colour?!


I know I should be looking at the 17" printers that support roll paper, but they go beyond my budget and are built for heavy use. I'd only be looking to do 1 or 2 prints a month at the most.

And how big is this shipping box the 3880 comes in? The price in the US is approx $1000-1100 currently, whereas here in rip-off Oz its still up in the $1800s. I'm sure I can buy in the US, freight it over, and pay import tax for less than $1800....


Thanks in advance...

[venchka]

The Canon iPF5100 would appear to print your required length from 17" rolls.

Maximum Roll Print Length 59 Feet (19 meters)3

3.The maximum printable length varies depending on the application, OS, and RIP used.

I own the iPF5000 and really like it. It is HUGE. In round numbers, probably 1m x 0.75m (13.5" (H) x 39.3" (W) x 31.9" (D)). It will accept 17" rolls from all the major players. I get good to great (at least as good as my photos deserve, being in the same "(or at least it's not as crap as it once was!)" category as your work from Red River papers. the paper starts off very inexpensive. Shipping may kill you.
A friend of mine owns an Epson 48xx and loves it. It uses rolls too.
Cutting and flattening paper from a roll prior to printing might be a pain.
Good luck.

[612tom]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out - might be beyond my budget thats why maybe it wasnt on my radar. But worth a look - I have an A4 cannon $100 inkjet and it really isnt bad at all...

Cheers