Epson 9900 and 7900

I am a firm believer Epson still provides the best image quality when it comes to giclee printing. The latest introduction is the X900 series, which comes in two flavors: the 24" wide 7900 and the 44" wide 9900. These machines look and operate differently from their predecessors. They are quiter, faster and heavier. If you are used to handle assembly of previous model be warned it wil ltake more physical effort to move a X900 series Epson printer. This said, print quality is not noticeably better than say the X880 series.These new printers add more inks (orange and green)so the gamut is wider. A lot of how the printer gamut works for any given machine is a complex function of inks, printer drivers and hardware.

Obvious advantages of the new 9900 and 7900 Epson printers are now a built in cutter that will cut canvas and thick papers. Also, the printer takes larger ink cartridges which decreases costs. The display is larger and it makes working on it much easier. One other advantage of the X900 series is the use of teflon coated nozzles like the ones in the 11880. Although this may seem a techy and irrelevant detail it actually makes a big difference when it comes to clogging. Clogging is less frequent and cleaning up the heads takes less effort, costing less money in inks during cleaning cycles.

In conclusion the new line is an improvement to the previous models but in my opinion not a compelling reason to get rid of the X880 printers. Why? Because the X880 printers are so good in quality that improvements cannot be so drastic to motivate anyone to toss a perfectly good working printer. One exception would be for high volume shops, where the new lin's ink costs and printing speed will make a difference in production.