It is interesting that they showed their Epson Stylus Pro GS6000 64” no-smell-solvent printer just a week or so after Seiko (the parent of Epson) showed a new non-smell solvent ink in Japan. And a few days later HP announced a water-based latex ink.

Then at FESPA Digital in earlfy April 2008, a relatively unknown company named Sepiax ink technology showed an unusual water-based ink. So lots of new inks to select from.

The machine will hit the market in September this year and copy shops, sign shops and printers looking for indoor and outdoor posters are expected to jump at the chance to harness the product’s print quality and speed.

Epson UK’s business manager of production graphics, Martin Johns, explains: “The price will depend on the strength of the euro and for this reason, we have not made a formal announcement yet. We have been happy with the printer’s reception at the shows it’s appeared at thus far with interest exceeding our expectations.”

According to Johns, print quality is what sets the GS6000 apart from the crowd. It has achieved a new standard for machines in its class, boasting a colour range that the manufacturer claims is the widest in the outdoor and indoor market to date and the machine is capable of achieving printing resolutions of up to 1,440dpi with a droplet size of 3.7 picolitres.

Integral to the Stylus Pro GS6000′s capabilities is Epson’s newly developed UltraChrome GS eight-colour ink set, comprising cyan, magenta, yellow, black, light cyan, light magenta, orange and green. Available in 950ml cartridges, the colour palette is suitable for branded applications.

Epson said that the environmental credentials of the eco-solvent type ink set mean that it will not spread harmful volatile organic compounds and is the first major solvent ink set to be launched without the need for a hazard symbol.

The Canon Color imageCLASS MF8350Cdn is tailored with sophisticated features and high-quality imaging to meet your small business needs. In today’s office environment, keeping your costs low is essential for a successful business. The MF8350Cdn delivers fast and accurate printing with Canon’s Quick First Print technology. Multi-page documents are ready in a short amount of time with print speeds of up to 21 pages-per-minute (ppm) in full color and black and white.

Designed for ease-of-use, the MF8350Cdn features an Auto-Duplex function with the ability to print, copy, and fax two-sided documents from single-sided originals. It is outfitted with a front-loading design that provides easy access to the control panel and paper sources. In-line cartridges can also be retrieved from the front of the machine for hassle-free replacement. A large LCD with graphic display provides guided user animation within the display that simplifies once complex tasks with illustrated on-screen instructions. Carry your important information with you by saving scanned documents to a USB removable media. Connect the USB removable media to the USB port located conveniently in the front of the machine to scan your letter, statement, or legal-sized documents. The Superior Color Imaging technology featured in the MF8350Cdn captures fine details with remarkable tone-on-tone clarity, helping images stay true to the original.

Canon Pure Black Technology ensures the richest blacks by utilizing only the black toner instead of traditional methods of combining toner colors. Running a successful business requires you to spend your time doing more important tasks than constantly refilling your printer with paper. The smart paper handling of the MF8350Cdn includes a 250-sheet cassette, 50-sheet multipurpose tray, and an optional 250-sheet cassette for your convenience. For added flexibility and user-convenience, the Color imageCLASS MF8350Cdn is equipped with unique features, such as: ID card copy, auto fax forwarding, and searchable PDF. The MF8350Cdn uses approximately 3 watts of energy during Energy Saving Mode and meets Energy Star guidelines, saving you money on energy costs. And like many imageCLASS products, the MF8350Cdn is part of the generation green program, Canon’s initiative to reduce environmental burdens in all stages of a product’s life-cycle.

Designed for ease-of-use, the MF8350Cdn features an Auto-Duplex function with the ability to print, copy, and fax two-sided documents from single-sided originals**. It is outfitted with a front-loading design that provides easy access to the control panel and paper sources. In-line cartridges can also be retrieved from the front of the machine for hassle-free replacement. A large LCD with graphic display provides guided user animation within the display that simplifies once complex tasks with illustrated on-screen instructions. Carry your important information with you by saving scanned documents to a USB removable media. Connect the USB removable media to the USB port located conveniently in the front of the machine to scan your letter, statement, or legal-sized documents.

The Superior Color Imaging Technology featured in the MF8350Cdn captures fine details with remarkable tone-on-tone clarity, helping images stay true to the original. Canon Pure Black Technology ensures the richest blacks by utilizing only the black toner instead of traditional methods of combining toner colors.

How can something so small be so efficient? This is what I was thinking when I first took the Samsung ML-1660 Monochrome Laser Printer for testing. As Samsung claims, this is an ultra-small printer that is designed to meet specific printing needs at office or even at home. At first, I thought that this was an inkjet-based printer because of the amazingly small size. I was really surprised to learn that this was in fact, a laser based printer. While most laser printers – even monochrome ones – are usually heavy, the ML-1660 was surprisingly light compared to the other laser printers, which usually takes two people to set it up.

The Samsung ML-1660 does not have all the bells and whistles when it comes to features. It has the Print Screen button located on the control panel of the printer. This feature lets you print the contents of your screen even when you’re away from your desk. A quick touch prints the whole screen, as you see it in your monitor. Hold the button for more than two seconds and the ML-1660 prints the last object that you activated in your monitor.

Realizing its green efforts, Samsung also made sure that the ML-1660 made no extra power is consumed when the printer is not being used. The main power button located on top of the printer allows you to easily take the printer into standby mode, and then activate it again once you need something printed. The Samsung ML-1660 is also very quiet when operating, since it is engineered to be whisper-quiet, generating a noise level of less than 49dBA while it’s printing – that’s less than the gentle hum of a running refrigerator

The footprint of the ML-1660 is only 43x35cm when you take into account the extended input paper tray at the front and the power plug at the back. It’s a very easy printer to set up. The toner cartridge is already installed in the printer, so all you have to do is peel the plastic from the panels, plug in the power and USB cables, install the software, extend the paper trays and add some A4 paper. You can be up and running in five minutes.

Paper is fed through the printer from the front and its path curls it up so that the output emerges face down at the top of the unit. The input paper tray at the front will hold 150 sheets, and the output will take up to 100 sheets before it starts to overflow. It’s not a printer that can be used for high volumes of printing (its duty cycle is 5000 pages per month) so its paper handling capacity should be adequate if all you want to do is print out uni assignments at home (as long as you don’t need colour, of course) or invoices for your clients in your office. It’s not an ideal printer for a legal office or a publishing house, for example.

Sony’s Picture Station Digital Photo Printer DPP-FP95 is a snapshot photo printer with better features than results. Considering its high price, you shouldn’t have to accept so many compromises.

The printer is compact and comes with a built-in carrying handle. The included CD contains a basic printer driver, but the DPP-FP95 is designed to be used on its own. Insert a media card (or a PictBridge-connected device), and you can start using the large, 3.6-inch LCD and the small array of buttons on the top panel to work with photos. The button labels are mostly clear, and the display does a great job of showing useful information and providing cues for further action.

The DPP-FP95 digital photo printer features a filter function that allows the modification of the colors in your image. For instance, the cross filter function can make the lights in a photo more dramatic while the partial color filter function lets you keep the center of a photo in full color and remove the color in other areas of the photo.

The paint filter function adjusts the image to appear as if were printed on canvas, and the monochrome and sepia filters let you create a more artistic black and white image from a color photo. The fish-eye filter lets you add a new perspective to a portrait or landscape picture. In addition, all images can be easily enlarged, cropped, and rotated from the on-screen display.

he Sony DPP FP95 is a dye-sublimination printer, which means colours are layered on to the paper one-by-one and because of its push/pull technique, you need room for the paper at the front and the back. The printer only takes Sony’s own 6x4in photo paper, which comes in a pack with sufficient ink and paper for 120 photos and costs £29.

Printing took 42 seconds, within the time claimed. We were impressed with the vivid colours and clear detail.

Designed to meet the exacting needs of CAD and GIS applications, the imagePROGRAF 600 (iPF600) is a welcome addition to your business. Featuring vivid colors and precise line and text, it’s a dependable solution for A1+ production where quality and productivity matters. The iPF600 incorporates Canon’s 5-color dye-and-pigment reactive ink system for optimal results in your business. A one-inch dual print head gives reproduction of 1200 dpi, a 4 Pl droplet size and an impressive total of 15,360 nozzles. The reactive ink system ensures it’s adaptable across different applications with vivid color reproduction, solid image consistency and high quality text with less bleeding.

You can work with a wide variety of media types. Plain paper, CAD, recycled, glossy, proofing, synthetic, poster, fine art, sign media – they’re all handled effortlessly with the iPF600. Connection is either via the latest-generation, high-speed USB 2.0 interface, or Ethernet. Combined with the new print head and reactive system, you can expect superb production at twice the level of some competitor devices. In fact the cassette media-feeding system enables new sheets to be fed prior to the previous sheet being ejected, so the device is perfectly at home when used as a powerful color office printer. The integrated cutting device won’t let you down either and keeps on performing for years to come, without ever needing replacement. Simple desktop set-up means you’ll be up and running with the iPF600 in no time.

A rich set off software application plug-ins are incorporated and PosterArtist enables you to produce head-turning posters – with no experience whatsoever! The iPF600 also incorporates 4 media paths – a roll, a cassette and two manuals – and automatic switching of roll media for additional convenience. And unlike some large format devices, it’s compact and quiet – so it’s the output not the noise that gets you noticed.

esigned for the exacting needs of CAD / GIS applications, the iPF600 is a welcome addition to your business. With vivid colours and precise line rendering, it’s the perfect solution for 24″ (A1) prints where quality and productivity matters.

• Encompassing the new Canon 1” print-head with an impressive 15,360 nozzles and 4 picolite droplet size for exceptional detail and quality in your prints.
• New 5 colour dye and pigment ink system ensures excellent reproduction.
• Sharper, thinner line and high black density for CAD plan production.
• Vivid colour and solid image consistency for superb signs and posters.
• Blistering speeds with A1 prints in 36 seconds (draft mode).
• Convenient 4-way media feeding with automatic switching between media types.
• Easy to use intuitive software including poster creation software (PosterArtist) and HDI Driver for CAD applications.

The imagePROGRAF iPF600 is a 5-colour dye / pigment ink 24” (A1) large format printer, bringing vivid colour and 1200 dpi rendering with outstanding line reproduction, solid image consistency and high quality text reproduction.