Unlike the business
color printer, a studio
printer’s primary job
is to make your work
shine. It must produce
accurate, high resolution
photographic
prints or client comps
with consistent, honest
color and on a
variety of papers
in sizes up to a full
two-page spread
with crops. A studio
printer understands
PostScript Level 3,
manages color professionally
and will not
choke on large files. A
studio printer should
be network ready,
easy to run and not
break the bank. Not
surprisingly, in the
past few years not
many printers have
made the grade.
Only inkjets and dye sublimation printers, a.k.a.
thermal printers, offer the extended color range
required of a studio printer. But tabloid-plus dye
subs are extraordinarily expensive, both in initial
equipment cost and day-to-day consumables;
they’ve lost favor with agencies, studios and graphic
shops in recent years. The new sheriff in town is
the enhanced-color, wide-format inkjet, the studio
printer of choice. Just three manufacturers build
these A3 (13 x 19-in.) inkjets, a size that falls
between the large format roll-fed inkjets found in
print shops and those popular personal inkjet and
dye sub 4 x 6-in. photo printers unsuited for the studio
environment.
In 2006 Canon, Epson and HP introduced new
studio inkjets that target photography and graphics
professionals. Priced between $500 and $2000,
these printers produce vivid prints in high detail
using an enhanced palette of inks fed from individual
cartridges. They print to a large variety of papers in
sizes up to A3 and have a footprint small enough to
fit most studios. But the similarities end there. Each
printer accepts its own eight-color, 10-color, even
12-color matched set of inks—inks optimized for
specific tasks such as color proofing, archival photography,
black-and-white printing or even printing
CD/DVD labels. Inks are either pigment-based (UVand
water-resistant) or dye-based (wider color gamut
but water soluble) and come in replaceable cartridges
from 13 ml to 130 ml in size.
Just how good are these printers? Good enough
for Canon to say they’ll soon be dropping their traditional
film camera business—photo-quality printers
go toe-to-toe with photographic C-Prints in image
quality and print longevity and durability—an ominous
sign for the photo-finishing industry. Here’s a
closer look at today’s lineup of studio printers.
PROFESSIONAL SERIES STUDIO INKJETS
Endowed with larger capacity ink cartridges for
production printing, two new studio inkjets up the
ante—even upsizing their maximum paper handling
size to A2 (17 x 22 in.). These may represent the
best value even though their purchase prices are
higher than the A3 printers—these particular A2s
produce both wide-gamut color proofs and excellent
black-and-white prints. Keep a close eye on the cost
of consumables. As a rule, the larger the onboard
ink tanks, the lower the per-ml cost of ink. Also,
these printers are smart enough to automatically
switch between matte black and photo black inks
depending on the type of paper and resolution.
1. Canon imagePROGRAF iPF5000
Released in April 2006, the iPF5000 is not only one
of the fastest studio inkjet printers on the market
(about four minutes to produce an 11 x 17-in. print
at highest resolution), its 12 pigment-based Lucia
inks yield wide-color proofs and smooth continuoustone
black and whites. Pigments include red, blue,
green, gray, photo gray, cyan, photo cyan, magenta,
photo magenta, yellow, regular and matte black.
Don’t let the hefty sticker price on this 2400 x
1200-dpi printer impact your buying decision. Each
130 ml cartridge of ink costs $75. But since the
iPF5000 ships with a full set of starter cartridges at
50 percent full, buyers get $450 worth of free ink
and the lowest price per ml among the under-$2000
inkjets—this is wonderful news if you’re trying to
control consumables.
The iPF5000 has four media feed options: a
front-loading cassette for precut sheets, a rear manual
feed, a front straight path manual feed for thicker
media up to 1.5 mm or a $250 roll feed option
for longer paper lengths. With automatic media
switching between the cassette and the roll feed,
two different media types can always be loaded and
selected from the print driver. Canon includes a
standard print driver and a professional 16-bit print
driver accessed through Photoshop’s Export menu
that converts 16-bit working files into the printer’s
12-bit space through a feature-laden control panel
that photographers and artists will love. All inks are
routed through a dual print head system consisting
of more than 30,000 nozzles that apply four-picoliter
droplets. Unlike the comparable Epson model, the
iPF5000 print heads are user replaceable.
ColorByte Software’s Imageprint RIP for the
iPF5000 will be available soon. For now, Canon
includes no RIP option. Other negatives include
dismal documentation and a quirky paper recognition
system, but these annoyances aside, the iPF5000
produces stunning and accurate proofs and archival
color and black-and-white prints that will certainly
wow your customers.
2. Epson Stylus Pro 3800
In December 2006 the newest addition to the Epson
Pro Series of high-end inkjets, the Stylus Pro 3800,
rolled out with a list price of $1295. A professional
edition bundled with the ColorBurst PostScript-3
RIP is $200 more. The eight-color 2880 x 1440-dpi
Stylus Pro 3800 prints on sheets only from 4 x 6 in.
to 17 x 22 in. and holds nine 80-ml pressurized ink
cartridges filled with pigment-based UltraChrome
K3 inks. With eight heads (the ninth cartridge
automatically swaps between matte black and photo
black as needed), this printer produces archival
prints, wide-color proofs and smooth-tone blackand-
white prints. Onboard colors are black, light
cyan, magenta, light magenta, yellow, gray, light
gray, photo black and matte black. Replacement cartridges
are $60 each. The Stylus Pro 3800 handles
the same media (up to a 17 x 22-in. sheet) and
employs the same print head technology (3.5-
picoliter droplets) and ink set as the Stylus Pro
4800 but costs $700 less.
Paper is loaded from a cassette or rear slot, with
heavy media up to 1.5 mm thick loaded from a
front slot. While the Stylus Pro 3800 is not as fast as
Canon’s iPF5000, its print quality is equally impressive.
With a smaller footprint than the iPF5000 and
proven Epson reliability, the only negative is its lack
of Firewire support and roll feed option. Overall, a
best buy for the money.
3. HP Photosmart Pro B9180
The eight-color Photosmart Pro B9180 accepts
sheets up to 13 x 19 in. and boasts a closed-loop
head calibration system for consistent color, fourpicoliter
droplets and a print resolution of 4800
x 1200 dpi. HP includes plenty of ICC profiles
matched to various papers and a tool to manage the
collection. Like Canon, HP includes a standard set
of drivers as well as a robust print driver accessed
directly from within Photoshop. The B9180 takes
media either from its cassette or through its frontloading
manual tray and accepts media up to 1.5 ml
thick. The B9180 uses HP pigment-based Vivera
inks: photo black, matte black, light gray, cyan,
magenta, yellow, light cyan and light magenta inks
that come in 27-ml cartridges at $35 each. The
B9180 prints at speeds comparable to the Canon
iPF5000 and Epson SP3800.
HP’s included print management utility is first
rate and all documentation is absolutely top notch.
The B9180, while having the most expensive inks
reviewed, also has inexpensive and user-replaceable
print heads. Like the two A2-size printers reviewed
here, the B9180 produces accurate color proofs as
well as art prints in both color and black and white.
OTHER INKJET OPTIONS
While not true studio printers—they don’t support
full network connectivity—the new Canon
13 x 19-in. printers are priced right and produce
extremely high quality proofs and art prints.
4. Canon PIXMA Pro9000
The $500 Pro9000 replaces the Canon i9900 and
is the only studio inkjet that prints the full Adobe
RGB color range. That’s because the Pro9000 is the
only A3-size studio printer reviewed here that uses
dye-based inks, specifically Canon’s ChromaLife100.
The eight-ink Pro9000 lays down a two-picoliter
droplet to achieve maximum resolution of 4800 x
2400 dpi. Ink colors are black, cyan, magenta, yellow,
photo cyan, photo magenta, red and green in
individual 13-ml cartridges ($14 each). With its
wide color gamut and 13 x 19-in. media capacity,
the Pro9000 is ideal for proofing and client comps.
The Pro9000 and upcoming Pro9500 print CDs
or DVDs directly from a tray and handle media up to
1.2 ml thick. The Pro9000 includes a PictBridge USB
port on its front panel for direct printing from a camera.
Expect to replace the photo magenta and photo
cyan after about 50 letter-size prints. With no TCP/IP
network port, the Pro9000 must have a dedicated
computer or reside on your desk.
5. Canon PIXMA Pro9500
For photographers and fine art studios, the $650 10-
ink PIXMA Pro9500 is due for release in early 2007
with the same footprint, media handling, resolution
and functions as the Pro9000. The Pro9500 will
lay down three-picoliter droplets of pigment-based
Lucia inks optimized for both color and black-andwhite
archival printing. Ink colors are photo black,
matte black, gray, cyan, magenta, yellow, photo
cyan, photo magenta, red and green.
SIDEBAR: Here’s a tip
The color accuracy of a photo print or customer
comp is only as good as your monitor
calibration. If you don’t have a profile tool like
X-rite Eye One, at the very least you should
perform a simple monitor calibration. Also,
Canon, Epson and HP all provide printer profiles matched to the most common papers.
Mac OS-X monitor calibration:
Systems Preferences > Displays >
Color > Calibrate, and follow instructions.
SIDEBAR: Ink Price Comparison
$1.30/ml—HP B9180 (27-ml cartridges)
$1.15/ml—Canon Pro9000 (13-ml cartridges)
$0.75/ml—Epson Stylus Pro 3800 (80-ml cartridges)
$0.58/ml—Canon iPF5000 (130-ml cartridges)
