Inks Ain’t Inks

Epson introduced two new photo printers this week. You will find them at opposite ends of the scale.

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The PictureMate 500 is a mobile photo printer with a 6cm colour LCD and optional battery for portable printing. The 4×6 output uses Epson’s six colour UltraChrome Hi-Gloss pigment ink (Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, and Blue)with a 5760 optimised dpi (dots per inch) and 3pl (picolitre) droplet size. Epson says they last better than traditional photos (104 years).
The LCD is a 320 x 240 screen for preview while the (optional) Lithium-Ion lets your customer take the thing on holidays.

Meanwhile, the Epson Stylus Photo R2400 A3+ uses UltraChrome K3 Ink to print photos.
The eight colour technology includes Light Light Black (LLK), along with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, Light Magenta, Light Black and either Matte Black or Photo Black.

The new UltraChrome K3 ink features innovations aimed at pleasing the serious digital photographer. Metamerism is reduced meaning that colours on a print vary less under different lighting conditions and once printed UltraChrome K3 ink will stabilise colours in just 30 minutes so there is far less colour shift once the print dries.

A new resin formula in the UltraChrome K3 ink reduces gloss differential on prints giving a smoother, glossier finish on most media and provides greater scratch resistance. The addition of Light Light Black (LLK) produces a better colour profile on black, finer gradation in dark areas and reduces the amount of colour ink used in a print.
The Epson Stylus Photo R2400 RRP is $1799.

The Epson PictureMate 500 is priced at $399 RRP.