When Canon introduced their imagePROGRAF W8400 pigment ink large-format printer last year, they were looking bring to market a printer that targets a wide spectrum of large format output environments, including corporate, commercial, print for pay and photo retail operations as well as photography and the fine art markets.

This device is capable of printing on media up to 44-inches wide and designed with features that will appeal to those users who all require outstanding quality and high speeds in the large format arena.

The W8400 offers Canons proprietary print head technology that enables high-speed printing at 2400 x 1200 dpi with precise four picoliter ink droplets for high image resolution, clarity and detail. Canons unique print head enables the W8400 to achieve print speeds up to 307 square feet per hour at 1200x1200 dpi resolution. Even for the most critical eyes, the printers highest quality mode (2400x1200 dpi, 10-bit color mode) prints at an amazing 26 sfph (22sfph with W6400).

Canon's new high-intensity yellow ink makes possible a wider color range and increased color intensity, while a new image processor enhances image quality for the production of brighter photos and vivid, eye-catching POP posters and materials.

The imagePROGRAF W8400D includes the tools needed to easily create, process and print high quality professional large format output. PosterArtist, one of the many software programs that comes with the printer, provides users an intuitive template based poster creation software for any level of skill user. Poster software makes it very easy to set up files.

It does a great job in long runs of outputting 30-40 posters. The print quality is consistent throughout the run and it so much faster.

Outstanding quality, fast print speeds and the bundled software programs are what make the imagePROGRAF W8400D a breakthrough solution for our business, he concludes.

Aqueous Inkjet Still Going Strong

Aqueous remains a force is in the fine art and photographic reproduction markets

Jeffrey Steele

Over the past few years, UV, solvent, and eco-solvent inks have revolutionized printing, particularly in the outdoor arena. Many printers, particularly those doing sign and display work, have moved from dye- and pigment-based systems to the new inks. In so doing, they have reaped cost savings and provided a longer-lasting solution in outdoor environments.

That begs the question: What factors spur manufacturers to continue offering aqueous-based printers? After all, the technology has been around a dozen years, would seem to have a substantial install base, and suffers from cost disadvantages versus the newer printing solutions.

Following the May launch of aqueous-based printers from Canon and Epson, Wide-Format Imaging put these questions to an array of experts?and got some surprising answers.

Among the markets where aqueous remains a force is in the fine art and photographic reproduction markets, observes Bruce Butler, director of marketing for Eden Prairie, MN-based MacDermid ColorSpan, which serves the aqueous-based market as manufacturer of the DisplayMaker X12. Both markets require very high-resolution and fine detail, he says.

Aqueous print system manufacturers have done an excellent job exceeding image quality expectations with their print cartridges, adds Katherine O?Brien, Rochester, NY-based manager of wide-format solutions for Xerox Corp., maker of the 8142 and 8160 aqueous-based printers. As a result, they have been able to successfully market their products to customers requiring close-up image quality. ?So, instead of having that three-foot viewing distance, you?re looking at a three-inch viewing distance,? she commented.

?That allows them to penetrate the market for proofing, for photographs, and for fine art, as well as large format engineering prints, mapping applications, and a host of others.?

Textiles are also being printed with aqueous inks, in part because ?you?re not going to put solvents on swimwear,? reports Kathleen J. Hall, global business director for Wilmington, DE-based DuPont Artistri, maker of the Artistri 2020.

The Artistri 2020 provides aqueous solutions for textile printing on flags, banners, and gaming applications. DuPont offers a broad range of chemistry solutions allowing its customers to print on a wide variety of textile substrates, Hall says.

?Each one of those families requires a different chemistry type, and we are the only company in the world that has the full chemistry offering for textiles,? she adds.

?Customers want the benefit of aqueous from DuPont, because of the environmental friendliness of handling aqueous inks within their work environments,? he states. ?So if you boil it down, in one of the markets we serve with Artistri, traditional textiles, the solution must be aqueous. There is no other alternative. That marketplace demands that.?

Other markets include CAD, graphical design, and matte printing, as well as indoor advertising, all of them applications used indoors, says Jacob Berenfeld, chief engineer with Irvine, CA-based Western Graphtec Inc., maker of the JW1000 aqueous-based printing solution. ?These are the applications that will be printed on aqueous printers, because there?s no need [in these applications] for outdoor durability,? he notes.

Shrinking or Growing?
As to whether aqueous-based printing is shrinking, growing, or staying the same, observers hold widely divergent viewpoints. McDermid ColorSpan still produces aqueous-based products even as it registers slight declines in aqueous sales, Butler says. By contrast, the company sees solvent ink printing growing, and UV-curable ink printing growing enormously, he says.

For his part, Berenfeld believes aqueous-based printing remains on an even keel, though he expects the market for aqueous-based solutions to shrink in the years ahead.

?Sign shops and specialized printing shops will perform both types of printing?the one requiring outdoor durability, and the one for indoor,? he remarks. ?So it won?t make sense to have two separate printing systems to print indoor and outdoor jobs.?

Besides, given the continual improvement in the quality of solvent and UV printing, it?s only a matter of time before these printing solutions will approach the quality of aqueous, he adds.

O?Brien takes a decidedly different stance. Asked if the market for aqueous is growing, shrinking or staying the same, she responds: ?Absolutely growing. And where it?s growing is in the 24- to 36-inch-width printer.?

Two factors lay behind the growth, she believes. The first is the increasing prevalence of decentralized wide-format printing, which allows printing at employees? desks rather than at a centralized print department. ?The second reason is there?s a large and growing market for printing photography at home as well as in small shops. You?re seeing more of that happening.?

She also sees new applications continuing to grow the market for aqueous-based printing.

As the printers come down to the $2,000 price point, she says, virtually any small creative or advertising agency will have the capability to do its own printing, something only large firms had been able to accomplish. ?The other piece you?re seeing is the application tools for developing graphic arts applications are becoming simpler,? she adds. ?Many more people can develop those graphic arts applications. They can develop their own artwork.?

O?Brien acknowledges that UV, solvent, and ecolsolvents are strong in the outdoor arena, that they offer cost efficiencies and that the price point of the equipment is falling rapidly. Where these newer technologies have not been able to outpace aqueous is in fine image quality and in environmental friendliness. ?We haven?t resolved the issue of what to do with the solvent as it?s evaporated off the media,?she remarks.

?Because of that, it can?t become all-purpose. You wouldn?t put it in a small office or even a corporate office. It?s that residual solvent that?s preventing it from becoming an all-purpose offering.?

Also worth noting, she says, is that aqueous-based systems remain far easier to use. Aqueous printing solution manufacturers have learned it?s important to ensure the user can not only use the machine but service the print heads and inks in a clean-hands environment. That?s sometime that hasn?t yet been mastered in solvents. ?Particularly with the bulk inks, they run into a lot of problems with cleanliness,? O?Brien reports. ?It?s messier for a customer to do it. And that?s sort of the defining line. You really need a trained operator to run a solvent-based system.?

The Evolution of Aqueous
Since the early 1990s, aqueous-based printing has evolved at the same rapid pace as so many other technologies. In O?Brien?s view, it has moved from a very specialized solution available to a specialized and limited market to a printing solution available to everyone, she says.

Butler says one of the most notable aspects of the evolution is that those who once used aqueous-based printing for signs and display work have moved on to the use of solvent, eco-solvent, and UV printing. ?The aqueous printers have continued to evolve, but I don?t think you?ll see the evolution continue as much as in the past,? he comments.

?The quality level up to 1440 and 1800 dpi is more than adequate for fine art reproduction. That?s coupled with the use of multi-density ink, instead of using four colors,? he says. ?Using multi-density, the printer is able to achieve higher detail and higher apparent image resolution. The features and products will now have very small incremental improvements, compared with the last 12 years, because it is a maturing market.?

What Customers Want
As for what customers are asking for in aqueous based printing, the answer is simple. In the words of Butler, it?s quality first, speed second, and ease of use third.

Berenfeld says customers want printing that?s more affordable and of ever-higher quality. ?Because these printers are being used for business applications, speed is very important, as is color reproduction quality,? he says. ?The printer on its own is just a piece of metal. It?s just as important to have good, user-friendly software and be able to accurately create color profiles. What?s important for end users is a solution, not a printer.?

Adds O?Brien: ?They are still asking for easier usage, more simplified setups. They?re asking for pigmented inks with wider color gamuts. And they?re always asking for better resolution and faster speed. Those advancements are always possible. There will come a time when it plateaus, but we?re not there yet.?

Jeffrey Steele has been addressing basic business issues as they apply to the wide-format printing industry for more than five years. He specializes in the field of business management, marketing, and protocol. Contact him at scribsteel@americom.net

The View from Canon USA

According to Amit Bagchi, director of the Graphic Arts Systems Division for Canon USA, which just released two aqueous ink printers?the Canon imagePROFGRAF W6400 and the imagePROGRAF W8400?there are still growth opportunities in aqueous-based printing.

First, penetration into the print-by-use market among the non-CAD and engineering departments of American corporations is still relatively low.

Second, the market among quick print-for-pay providers is wide open, Canon believes. Quick print companies like AlphaGraphics and Sir Speedy often don?t have wide-format printers on premises, and must outsource that work to third parties.

What?s more, says Bagchi, aqueous is still preferred in environments where employees aren?t willing or able to undertake the messy task of changing ink, he adds. ?Here, with a tuxedo on, you can take a cartridge out and put another one in,? Bagchi says. ?We feel that?s going to be a tremendous opportunity for us as an upgrade path, a replacement opportunity.?

He also notes that there are thousands of CAD printers in environments where space is at a premium. In these work settings, companies are looking for versatile printing replacements that accomplish multiple tasks using a small fraction of the footprint of older printers. ?In our new release product, we have a printer driver, but also an HD driver to print CAD files,? Bagchi says.

In addition, Canon USA?s new aqueous printers have added software that makes it possible for semi-skilled, not just skilled, labor to edit images on computer screens before printing.

?They can do that with hundreds of royalty-free images we include in our product, clip art and the ability to import images either through a digital camera or a scanner...You now have the ability to create a very professional graphic using our poster art software.?

With its aqueous printers, Canon USA also finds itself well positioned to take advantage of what Bagchi calls ?a huge, growing market? of professional photographers using inkjet printers to print their photos directly from their digital cameras.

In conclusion, he reports Canon USA strongly feels future print devices will have to be driven by software that can segment the market. ?This puts a whole new meaning on true solution printing,? he observes.