EPSON Stylus PRO 7600/9600

Vincent Oliver 1st May 2002 photo-i

Epson is not a company that sits back and rests on its laurels. Hard on the heels of two major printer launches (Epson Stylus Photo 950 and Epson Stylus 2100), comes another double whammy announcement in the form of two large format printers, the Epson Stylus Pro 7600 and Epson Stylus Pro 9600.

The 7600 (24”) and 9600 (44”) printers are for commercial photographers, proofing, display and fine art printing.  Both printers incorporate the much talked about UltraChrome pigment ink. This new 7 colour ink incorporates the best features of both dye and pigment based inks resulting in vibrant and vivid colours. Combine this with a resolution of 2880 x 1440, (previously only available on desktop printers), Variable Sized Droplet Technology,  Ultra MicroDot (4pl), and you have got a WOW must see, must have factor.

As with the Epson 2100, these large format printers also use the quick drying 7 colour UltraChrome inks; Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, Light Magenta, Light Black  and a choice of Photo Black or Matte Black. The two types of black have been developed to meet the demanding needs of the photographic and fine arts markets. The Photo Black is designed to give optimum quality on Gloss, Semi Gloss, and Lustre papers, whilst the Matte Black will give the best results on plain, matte and fine art media. The Light Black can be replaced by a second Matte Black for Cad applications, this will give faster printing times and the abilty to use palin paper.

Dye based ink on plain paper	UltraChrome Matte Black on plain paper

The inclusion of a light black (25% of black) offers improved gradation on lighter Greyscale areas, the same Light Black ink is used for both Black types. This combination of blacks produced outstanding prints of a quality previously associated with conventional hand printed black and white photographic prints. According to Epson, the colour output of UltraChrome is claimed to surpass wet chemistry photographic prints - certainly the samples I saw were superb, but I have not seen any prints from my own test files to make a definitive statement on quality.

Neutral	Sepia	Cool	Warm

UltraChrome offers a wide colour Gamut

UltraChrome (Red line) has a wider Gamut range than Silver Halide	UltraChrome uses a true black, not a composite black, giving a higher optical density than silver halide photographs.

Ink cartridges are available in two sizes, 110 ml and 220 ml (larger capacity for 9600 only). The inks are claimed to have a longevity of between 45 and 75 years, depending on the media used (this figure may be higher depending on the final results of Epson’s accelerated test process).

The eight cartridges for the new large format printers (2 types of black)

The Blacks can be interchanged at any time, each cartridge has the Epson Intellidge chip that stores the print data. The cartridges have an auto capping valve and can be left out of the printer for up to six months. Also supplied with the printer is a Draining cartridge, this is inserted in the space of the black cartridge that is being changed. This provides the link between the colour cartridges whilst the printer flushes out the tubes and print head of any residual black ink. As with all inkjet printers there is an absorbent waste ink pad. On previous models when the pad became oversaturated a service engineer would have to be called out to change it, now the pad can be easily changed by the end user.

A new Grey Balancer option (also seen in the SP 2001), allows users to calibrate the exact tone in their prints. This is achieved by matching printed swatches to a reference chart and then entering the values in the appropriate boxes of the utility software. Sets of different tones can be saved and used at a later date, ensuring consistent quality in any workflow. The Grey Balancer is going to be an essential feature for photographers/artists working on a limited edition of prints and who need to have the first and last print looking the same, or for the portrait photographer who is offering a Sepia tone option. Quality control is everything!

The Grey Balancer Utility software	Reference chart
Compare the print-out with Reference Chart	Enter the values