Epson’s Sure Color SC-P5000 is designed for proofing and fine art photography
Epson have announced the launch of a new printer to replace the popular Stylus Pro 4900—the impressive dual format inkjet Sure Color SC-P5000 printer. This new printer is 17? in width and sits alongside the SC-P7000 at 24? and the SC-P9000 at 44?, and is designed for point-of-sale, proofing, fine art, and photography.
When supplied with the light light black (LLK) ink, the printer’s intended use is for tonal compositions and supports the Epson Advanced black and white print mode. In this configuration, the Sure Color SC-P5000 is best suited for fine art and photography print applications.
The second format replaces the LLK ink set with violet, which gives a greatly expanded colour gamut and Epson claims this gives them coverage for up to 99 percent of the Pantone range of colours. This makes the Sure Color SC-P5000 extremely versatile and well suited as a proofing and small-scale production printer.
The Ultra Chrome HDX (violet) inks are claimed to be 1.5 times denser than those used in the Stylus Pro 4900 range of printers. This should mean the images produced will have excellent gloss uniformity, be sharper, and optically clearer than that previously possible. This combination makes switching to the Sure Color SC-P5000 a very sensible decision when you are looking for that high definition proof.
So what makes this new printer such a ‘must-have’ product and why should we consider investing in it?
The heart of any inkjet printer is the print head in which is normally found the Piezo-electric inkjet hardware. In the Sure Color SC-P5000 is the Precision Core TFP print head; it can deliver high print speeds with 360 nozzles per colour channel and a resolution of 2,880 x 1,440dpi. With the print head comes the next generation of pigment technology, which it is claimed can deliver up to twice the ink durability of previous technologies. The inkjets themselves can deploy up to 3.5pl droplet size, which ensures crisp and detailed reproduction of the image at a stunningly in-depth aforementioned resolution.
The nozzles are kept in prime condition via the use of Epson’s automatic nozzle cleaning, and the head itself kept from contamination by the use of cleverly designed covers and seals that eliminate dust infiltration.
The nozzles are kept in prime condition via the use of Epson’s automatic nozzle cleaning and the head itself kept from contamination by the use of cleverly designed covers and seals that eliminate dust infiltration”
The inkjet head itself is kept well supplied with ink from a series of up to five ink cartridges each holding 200ml of ink. Colours for the fifth cartridge can range from a choice of up to ten colours, including a series of tailor made blacks, light cyan, yellow, vivid magenta, vivid light magenta, orange, and green. With this range of colours available, it is obvious to see how Epson can back up their claim for the scope of colours that can be produced on this printer.
Colour consistency
If the Sure Color SC-P5000 is to be used as a proofing device, interaction with the major brands of RIP and other prepress systems is vital. To aid this interaction and maintain colour consistency, the Sure Color SC-P5000 can be provided with an optional Spectro Proofer. The ILS30 colorimeter that has been jointly developed by Xrite allows the SureColor SC-P5000 automatic control colour within the workflow.
The role of Spectro Proofer is to calibrate the printer with its own on-board Color Calibration Utility, which is a fast and easy to use calibration program built into the Sure Color SC-P5000 ensuring consistency across a number of local or remote printers.
With this level of integration and calibration services as standard or as optional units, it is quite clear to even the most casual of observer that the Sure Color SC-P5000 can deliver reliable colour proofing copy or bold and rich photographic reproduction.
Epson make bold claims for the Sure Color SC-P5000 and the ability to switch from one format to another being the boldest, but when looking at some of the features of the printer you can quickly appreciate why they stand so firmly behind their machine.
Let’s consider the handling of the vast array of substrates if the printer is to be used for proofing or fine art reproduction. The machine is capable of printing in a number of different modes, depending on what your desired output is.
The machine is capable of printing in a number of different modes, depending on what your desired output is”
For instance, it can output via a roll of paper for large panoramic photography reproduction. This media option consists of a power-driven media roll, which has the capacity to produce a copy up to 30.5m in length. Reach the size required and the internal high speed single pass knife system cuts the copy to the required length.
Next, still in photographic mode, the printer can effortlessly switch into feeding up to 100 sheets of high quality paper in a range of sizes from A2 down to A4 including subsets of each size. Additionally, the Sure Color SC-P5000 can also feed poster board of up to 1.5mm in thickness and has a very clever straight feed path option that can allow for even the most delicate of substrates to be printed upon.
Simple to use
Epson can provide a number of substrates from its approved range of products. This includes water resistant matte canvas roll, velvet fine art paper, and canvas satin, all of which are available in different standard paper sizes.
Managing the Sure Color SC-P5000 is simplicity itself. The full range of modes and operating options can be easily read or amended via the LCD control panel that not only gives the operator clear and easy steps to follow, it also allows for the maintenance of the printer to be conducted as and when needed with the minimum of interventions from the operator.
The printer comes boxed with ink cartridges, driver, and utilities to install it into your workflow, setup guides, and software, meaning it will be up and running within a short period of time. Concerned about support, Epson offer a large array of support services and the product comes with a 24-month OEM warranty to provide peace of mind.
In summing up, the combination of the substrate and colours available, and dual operation of this clever inkjet printer, makes it an extremely flexible tool that will fit in with any workflow or print room.
Brian Sims, principal consultant, Metis Print Consultancy, www.metis-uk.eu
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