I'm getting a new inkjet printer!

[Gamerprinter]

Maybe nobody cares, except me, but I'm getting a new toy in next few days. My current large format inkjet printer I use to print maps for my Gamer Printshop and my daytime business has been slowly dying in the last six months. Now I've got banding issues (horizontal stripes caused by misfiring inkjet nozzles in at least one printhead leaving visible horizontal stripes on every print.) I have actually stopped printing maps until I get this resolved.

After a 6 month search on what I wanted to replace it, I found it this morning.

I'm getting a Canon IP8100 44" wide inkjet printer with 8 color inkjets which will let me print 16 bit color files, as well as standard 8 bit color (which is RGB 24 bit color, 8 bits per color vs. 48 bit at 16 bits per color). Colors are: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Red, Green, Blue, Photo Cyan and Photo Magenta.

Although not as well known as HP, EnCAD or even Epson for the inkjet market, the Canon is the preferred printer for many pro photographers.

At 720 x 720 dpi resolution, it will print a 24" x 36" map in 8 minutes - not the fastest but with a higher color gamut, than most and 100 year archival inks onto up to posterboard thick glossy and satin inkjet media. It can also print to canvas, transparent film, watercolor paper, adhesive vinyl, and much more media than I can handle now.

Although I'm sure I won't be doing many super hi-res prints, this printer is capable of 2880 x 2880 dpi print resolution.

Weirdest of all, most large format printers I've had in the past required a RIP, or Raster-Image-Processor to manage and economize the prints, fact is you couldn't use a standard printer driver. The Canon comes with a printer driver, but also a Photoshop Plug-in to allow you to export 16 bit color files to print processing. The plug-in looks more powerful than my existing RIP for my old printer.

New toys - Whee!

GP

[RPMiller]

Very cool GP! My first real job was setting up and running a plotting department at a reprographics shop so I can definitely appreciate your enthusiasm. I ran an HP Inkjet plotter with only 2 cartridges, black and multicolor. Oh how far we've come.

[torstan]

Good god - at high res that printer can print each of last months maps on less than a square inch. That's freaky, but very cool!

[GlennZilla]

Maybe nobody cares, except me, but I'm getting a new toy in next few days.

I got about halfway through the post before the drool set it. Having worked with large format printers in the past, I envy the things you can create with that beast.

[Redrobes]

I have a few questions about these things.

If your map is a raster map done in 24bpp is there any point to doing 48bpp in these situations. I can see how vector color gradients would be better but just for standard full color RPG map type bitmaps, is it useful ?

If I wanted to give you an image to be printed at 44 in by 72 or something, what dpi would you want it - 720 or more ? Thats about 4.5 Gb right - so a DVD is usual I guess ?

Do you need to have adobe style ICC color calibration embedded into an image that you want to print - if so is there any advantage to using sRGB, FOGRA or some other type ?

Do you prefer or can handle RGB such as a PNG or must it be CMYK tiff ?

Finally, do you send around the world and do you have a web based spec price guide for your services ?

I had terrible trouble getting most of the technical sort of info from the last commercial printer I used. His manner was basically - use Adobe or else I am clueless.

BTW. I have had a few different manufacturers of small office ink jets and my Canon is the best by far !

[Gamerprinter]

The only real reason anyone would want to print 48 bpp, would be for high-end photographers that want me to print Canon RAW files at highest resolution and color gamut. Most clients fall outside this specific need. I'm only saying my new printer is capable of that, not that I expect many RAW files to print.

Ideally, I can still print a 300 dpi image at the 720 without significant issues, however, yes, if you want to output at 720 dpi - ship me a DVD with the file on it.

If you need a specific color range then an exact profile is something to consider, SRGB is a bit less in quality to FOGRA and other formats, but except for the highest color gamut files, the difference is barely noticeable. The printer is calibrated to both the monitor and the Photoshop plug-in. As long as the file is a proper resolution - the ICC profile issues fall on me, not the file creator.

Regarding CMYK files, no give me RGB, the CMYK is an issue at the printer, not the print file. Although I can technically open a CMYK file for proofing, my monitor is RGB as the CMYK view is only an emulation, the app has to convert to RGB for viewing anyway. Let me convert your RGB to CMYK optimized for my printer.

I do ship anywhere in the world, best price with US Postal service but not as fast as UPS (very expensive for worldwide shipping).

My website only has US prices, I don't have a currency converter on my site, though lots of client jobs are very individual in dimensions and such, that its better just to email me a request, I give you the price in US dollars and we go from there.

Oh and since my Ecommerce pretty much works through PayPal, I believe PayPal has some kind of currency converter so you can pay in pounds, and I get dollars in my account!

If its a digital graphics file, I can pretty much handle anything...

GP

[Redrobes]

Thats cool - thanks. The last time I used a commercial print they took CMYK Tiffs only and I had to do all the ICC stuff myself. It wasn't as easy as I imagined basically because I don't have a full suite of Adobe products to do it with. I must be that 1 in a 1000 annoying guy who insists on doing it differently.

[mathuwm]

here is a link to an image size calculater

http://www.colorspan.com/support/tools/filecalc.asp


it focuses on colorspan large format printers
but should be applicable to most large format printing

btw Gamerprinter did you ever look into the colorspan printers

they are really nice and there are even some models that will print on rigid substrate

[Gamerprinter]

Yes, Mathuwm, I'ved looked at Colorspan. Actually my current printer can do rigid substrate printing now, but it never really gave me an advantage, over printing and later mounting, not really enough work to justify it with another rigid printer.

Basically budget has been the main thing to guide me towards the Canon, not to mention its excellent print quality.

The Colorspan and printers similar to it, are priced from $15K and up to $50K or more.

With special pricing, competitive trade-in, I'm paying alittle over $4K. The Canon was too good a product at such a low price, I couldn't pass it up!

Despite the price, consider that a full set of inks is around $1200, (330 ml tanks feeding 8 carts), so this definitely falls out of most home users as a practical printer, unless you're a pro photographer, of course.

GP

[mathuwm]

that is a great price

happy printing to you