Epson Pro 7900, Pro 9900 manual Spectroproofer, Print head, Speed

X900 after several seconds the printer is almost silent. The fan can just barely be heard and the print head is virtually silent. Even the cutter is quieter. Not a major issue for most, but a nice change regardless.

Print head

The print head in the X900 is a slightly modified version of the one in the 11880. Compared to the x880, this head features a higher nozzle density, which as well as other less obvious internal changes designed to in- crease print efficiency and make the head less prone to clogs. The minimum drop size is still an astoundingly small 3.5 picoliters.

Speed

One of the most appreciable benefits from the changes to the print head is that the X900 is nearly twice as fast as the 7880 and 9880, even beating out the 64” 11880. It is also much faster than the Z3200 at compa- rable quality settings. The enhanced screening allows the printer to produce exceptionally high quality results at 720 dpi. The improved clog detection and simpler method of aligning the print heads should allow for use of the high speed setting without introducing horizontal banding. All of these improvements allow for a very fast printer.

I think Epson is somewhat unique in creating such an un-compromised mix of speed and quality. This versatil- ity should help to insure that these printers find acceptance in a wide range of markets.

Spectroproofer

The SpectroProofer is an accessory unit from Epson that adds an automated X-Rite spectrophotometer to the printer. HP shook up the industry by integrating a spectrophotometer on all of their Z-series printers. This allowed for automated linearization, and automated profile creation on most models. While Epson is obviously responding to this, they have taken a different path by selling the unit as an accessory and pricing it the way they have.

At the heart of the SpectroProofer is the ILS20 spectrophotometer. Using a tungsten light source, the unit is available in either UV or non UV-filtered models. There is also a user swap-able black or white backing plate. While the ANSI standard is a black backing, most people perform measurements for calibration and profile building with a white backing.

Measuring a single line of patches the Epson’s solution is much faster than the HP version. The SpectroProof- er can read 15 patches per second, per line. The calibration patches are much smaller than those produced on the HP Z-series, and therefore both print faster and use much less paper. Unfortunately, these speed advan- tages are reduced since the SpectroProofer locks a retractable guide over the paper before each measure- ment pass. The need to raise the guide, advance the paper and then lower the guide for each pass results slows the measurement process. The actual measurement times for reading a standard profiling chart were similar to that of the Z3200. The total time print and measure the chart, however, was much less on the X900 because of the smaller patch size and better speed on the X900.

The software that accompanies the SpectroProofer has limited functionality and is definitely targeted towards the proofing and production markets. In fact, the SpectroProofer can only linearize the printer and measure charts out of the box, ICC profile creation is not and option.