EPSON go seriously wide!

Wider in media and wider in gamut was the theme at a recent press launch by Epson. With an inspired choice of venue, the Life Room at the Royal Academy of Art, they presented their new ink set along with a complete new set of printers. The only thing that did not get any bigger was the printing time, the new system has been equipped with quite a substantial speed hike, along with even finer detail.

The heart of the new machines is an improved ink head with a reduced nozzle pitching but with a retained ability to both fire and control droplets (see the next spread). This gives an increase in the detail without compromising speed, indeed the speed is up by a factor of 1.6 times on the higher resolution end of things. All this new droplet technology is called Auto Ink Droplet Detection System and is watched over by an electrostatic detector, which will do a nozzle check in a few seconds using a minuscule 0.0004ml of ink. No media need be present to perform the check.

If the new printing head is the heart of the machine, the blood is the new UltraChrome K3 Vivid Magenta. With a more vibrant magenta for both the full magenta and light magenta, this brings benefits of an expanded gamut and reduced metamerism. In the samples on display this was visually better in the reds, blues and magentas, bringing in additional Pantone colours including Reflex Blue and Rhodamine Red (the latter is actually a very bright magenta colour). Epson’s claim is that they can achieve the gamut of the 12-ink systems of their rivals without resorting to the additional cartridges. The percentage of Pantones that may be represented is now at 85%. Our initial analysis confirms Epson’s claim. The gamut volume was the highest ever measured, lifting the record of the Epson 3800 on Premium Luster from 909,950 to 933,264 on the Epson 11880. This is marginally higher than we measured for the Canon iPF 5000 (916,915) using a full gloss paper although to be even handed there is essentially no visible difference in data which are so closely matched.

The improvement in the blues is quite an interesting topic. Over many thousands of audit tests we have found that the colour with the highest error is always the deep blue of the Macbeth Color Checker, a colour not quite as intense as Reflex Blue but visually quite similar. We might expect, therefore, that the expanded gamut will have the effect of improving the statistics although these particular blues are quite difficult to differentiate visually, as it is an area where the eye isnot very sensitive. However, the ΔE2000 methodology we employ is specifically designed to reflect what the eye sees in blue differences and so the measured errors are actually quite representative. Examining the plot shown indicates how far out the gamut surface is from the deep Macbeth Blue. Similarly Rhodamine Red is a long way from the pure magenta of the Macbeth Color Checker. It is a reasonable assumption then that the expanded gamut is going to deliver real, measurable improvements, especially for the proofing market, where numerical values are often taken to make decisions on ‘pass’ or ‘fail’. For proofing purposes the dry-down rates of the new ink remain as high as their predecessor – prints are essentially stabilised within 30 minutes. Ordinary mortals can probably use the prints as reference materials immediately they come out of the printer.

The new printers carry the ‘880’ tag and are the 4880. 7880, 9880 and 11880. The sizes of the media throat are 17, 24, 44 and 60 inches. The 11880 is thus a newcomer to the range in terms of size and also has on-board memory to speed the workflow even more. The 3800 remains unchanged although it was the test-bed for the new style of nozzles. No comment was made as to the availability of Vivid Magenta in 3800- sized cartridges. The entire ‘880’ printer range carries both Matte and Photo Black inks, a significant help to users with mixed, art and gloss outputs. The new drivers also allow the same profile to be used at all resolutions, although we did measure some differences on the 3800. This would not affect photographic users, but would need attention for really high-grade proofing. Apparently the proofing and RIP manufacturers have been working with Epson for some time and so we can expect a smooth transition to the new ink set. The GMG RIP is already capable of astounding colour accuracy so the improvements will be measured by its ability to proof more spot colours.

Also launched at the same time as the 880 series of printers are the upgraded four-ink systems, now called, 4450, 7450 and 9450. A new web-based service is also to be launched with the new printers that will provide service facilities as well as remote diagnostics. It is to be available under the URL myepsonprinter.eu.

Overall then it seems that we can expect the new printers and the new inks to push the bar up even higher than it currently stands, with additional proofing capability, increased speed, lower metamerism and smother structure to the prints. It is going to be an interesting review.

Captions: The three plots collectively show what might be expected from the new Vivid Magenta ink set. The top histogram is from the record-breaking combination of Hahnemühle Fine Art Pearl through an Epson 3800, tested for the last issue. Even though the average error is the lowest we have recorded, the three blues of the Macbeth Chart remain the high errors in the data set (Sky Blue, Purplish Blue and Blue). The light lemon part of the graph bars represent the error in the hue component of the colour and this is backed by the plot above in which the errors are displayed around the colour wheel (further from the centre equals a higher error). Note that the blues stand out, again for their hue error. In the plot on the right the length of the line represents the error in all but the lightness of the colour and the blues show the characteristic of being rotated in hue away from ideal as well as being slightly longer than the other colours in the gamut. The very saturated Reflex Blue and Rhodamine Red are within the grasp of the new ink set and the graph shows how far out they are from the Macbeth colours (ie they have much more saturation. The spread of data points reflects some confusion over the exact colour coordinates of the two Pantones). Hopefully the additional headroom of colour will be translated into an overall improvement in the statistics. Bear in mind though, these are incremental improvements in already outstanding data! The colour gamut plot has been rotated to show the additional colours, epsecially in the magenta and blue regions. The solid surface is K3, the dots are K3 Vivid Magenta.

Epson Stylus Pro series key features summary: 4880 7880 9880

Consistent output with Epson Micro Piezo printhead technology
High-density Epson UltraChrome K3 with Vivid Magenta Ink Technology
Image processing with Epson Super Halftone Screening Technology
Maximum resolution of 2880 x 1440 dpi
Individual high-capacity ink cartridges – 110ml or 220ml
Professional media handling at a width of 44”, 24” or 17” in roll and cut sheet mode
BorderFree™ roll printing from 8” up to 44” wide
Print on media up to 1.5 mm thick poster board
Built-in automatic media cutting system
High-performance print engine speeds
Standard USB 2.0 and 10/100 Ethernet interface
User-friendly back lit LCD control panel
MyEpson Printer™ network compatible
Pressurised ink cartridge technology for Stylus Pro 7880 and Stylus Pro 9880
Cassette feed mechanism for Stylus Pro 4880
Optional take-up unit for Stylus Pro 9880

Epson Stylus Pro 11880 key features summary:

Professional paper handling up to 64” wide
Consistent output with Epson Micro Piezo TFP™ Printhead Technology
High-density Epson UltraChrome K3™ with Vivid Magenta Ink Technology
Standard USB 2.0, and Gigabit Ethernet interface
Flexible paper handling with roll or cut-sheet media from A3 / tabloid up to 64” wide.
BorderFree™ roll printing from 10” up to 64” wide
Accepts media up to 1.5 mm thick poster board
Productive printing with built-in automatic media cutting system and take-up reel system
Record information about paper with media bar code tracking and identification system
Superior image processing with Epson Super Halftone Screening Technology
Easy to use and maintain with Auto Ink Droplet Detection System

Epson Micro Droplet Technology

The ability to fire ink droplets in the way that they do is unique to Epson and a remarkable achievement of engineering. The system is based on the piezo electric crystal, discovered in 1880 by brothers, Jacques and Pierre Curie. By one of those quirky coincidences, Epson launched their new baby at the Royal Academy, which is alongside the The Linnean Society of London – Carl Linneaus was one of the early researchers of the topic of piezo effects but failed to unravel its mysteries.

A number of materials flex when an electrical current is passed through them, they are typified by the ferroelectric polycrystalline ceramics, but also includes quartz, topaz, tourmaline and lead zirconate titanate. The latter, for example, changes shape by 0.1% when it is charged. This is exactly the opposite working of your gas lighter. With the gas lighter you flex the crystal by squashing the trigger and the piezo crystal then sends a voltage out of its ends, which is then used to create a spark to ignite the gas. Being an essentially electronic device it can be vibrated by an alternating voltage at rates of 40,000 per second. This pulsating crystal is used to pump droplets of ink at this same rate. The size of the droplet is governed by the amount of displacement that can be induced in the crystal. It is always quite small; the crystal would have to be moving at many times the speed of sound if it had to travel back and forth over a long distance 40,000 times per second.

Herein lay the challenge for the Epson engineers in trying to increase the printing speed of the head. The droplets needed to be kept small to maintain the fine image detail, but making them bigger was a way of getting ink to paper faster. The trick was to pack more of the same size of heads into the same physical space while keeping the operating parameters the same. As the diagram shows, they have managed this. The speed increase at higher resolutions is a factor of 1.6, quite a worthwhile improvement.

Photo Quote: I am probably afraid that some spectator will not understand my photography - therefore I proceed to make it really less understandable by writing defensibly about it. - Ansel Adams