Recently, Ricoh has launched two new fabric printers providing advanced functionality for faster, easier and more flexible apparel printing. The RICOH Ri 3000 / Ri 6000 allow to start printing a pattern on a cloth in two clicks thanks to intuitive software and to do it very quickly thanks to 27 seconds print speeds. Moreover, they are Direct to Garment (DTG) gadgets meaning that they are specially designed to print on ready-made clothes and things like shirts, socks, canvas grocery bags, and they even can produce metallic foil applications. (more…)

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EFI™ is one of the world leaders in client-oriented digital printing innovation and it is its VUTEk® GS3250LXr Pro LED printer running SuperFlex Ink, on the base of which Orbus Exhibit & Display Group has developed more productive, qualified fabric-printing capabilities for the growing “soft signage” market.

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HP earlier this week announced breakthroughs in printer ink, printer toner, and media technologies that allow customers to get color printing quality comparable to offset printing.

The list of the HP’s breakouts includes:

• ColorSphere Toner
• Dual Drop Volume Technology
• Enhanced ‘Low Melt’ Monochrome Toner
• ColorLok Media
• XL Inkjet Print Cartridges
• Simple Black range of cartridges
• Dual Pack LaserJet Cartridges

Now let us see what is what and who is who. (more…)

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Printing is still an important part of any business, regardless the natural for business desire to slash the costs by printing less. Printing is still not a technology “green” enough for the adepts of paperless office, but it has greatly improved in recent years.

For instance, Xerox, apart from the laser and inkjet printer printers, has been actively promoting its solid ink technology as more “environmentally-friendly” with a “reduced carbon footprint.”

Actually, the mother of solid ink technology was in 1991 the Tektronix that developed it as a printing technology for office use. 9 years later, in 2000, Xerox acquired the Tektronix and added it as a brand line together with other lines of its printing products.

So, here is what you may want to know about solid inks. (more…)

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Here is another device from the family of “The World’s Mosts and Firsts”. This is a wide-format Solara ion inkjet printer by Gerber.

The printer can print on virtually any surface that is up 64 inches wide and up to 1 inch thick! When it comes to printing speed, the device covers up to 639 square feet per hour at a resolution of up to 1440 dpi on rigid and rollable media. Gerber Solara ion printer makes printouts that can last up to 3 years outdoors without lamination.

So, what actually make this printer world’s first? Of course, it’s the technologies behind it.

Solara ion printer is the first to use GerberCAT cationic inks that dry instantly and are ready to use right after printing. Besides, these inks feature unmatched adhesion on materials problematic for other ink jet printers such as textiles or even glass.

Next is Cold Fire Cure technology that allows printing on wider range of heat sensitive media such as plastic, vinyl, fabric, and paper based materials. Needless to say, the technology produces no volatile organic compounds, no odors, and no environmental ozone.

As you can see, this is no ordinary device you would buy home. Gerber says that the device is targeted at printing applications such as billboards, fleet graphics or vehicle wraps.

Up to date, there is no any exact information on the price of this printer. Gerber, however, mentioned that the Solara ion offers better performance than any other such printer on the market today for under $150,000.

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At an event on March 10, 2008 in Tel Aviv, Hewlett-Packard offered a peek into future printing technologies, introducing a new inkjet printer that prints thousands of pages per minute and ink that retains its shine even when exposed to extreme elements.

HP’s water-based Latex Ink is specially formulated to embed in a surface and become part of a media print, said Stephen Nigro, senior vice president of HP’s graphics and imaging business. HP’s Latex Ink can withstand snow and rain and is useful for large-format media used on billboards and outdoor signs.

The company also launched the Inkjet Web Press printer, which can print up to 2,600 A4-sized color pages a minute at a cost of under US$0.01 per color page, Nigro said.

The Latex Ink includes a specially created formula, called latex polymer, that provides the print surface its durability and color, according to HP. Water-based ink ejected carries the latex polymer and pigment particles to the surface. The inks are 70 percent water and 30 percent of additives and other inks, HP said. The ink was developed by HP and HP Labs.

Unlaminated outdoor displays using the ink can last up to three years, while unlaminated in-window displays can last up to five years.

The printer cartridge uses recyclable material and the company has developed new recyclable substrates for the ink to make printing environmentally friendly, HP said. Other printing technology for large-format media include UV (ultraviolet) curable ink, which interacts with an ultraviolet light source to create a print.

HP also showed the Inkjet Web Press, a printer that prints up to 2,600 A4-sized color pages a minute. The printer will be able to print on pages up to 30 inches (76.2 centimeters) wide, Nigro said. It is targeted at replacing the printed pages coming from traditional offset presses.

A printing job with a traditional offset press takes hours and it’s not possible to print on demand. With a traditional offset press, a machine first creates a physical plate with the image etched on it, which is then sent to print. With the Inkjet Web Press platform, hitting the print button sends the image directly to a printer, making high-volume printing more productive by eliminating analog elements like a plate, Nigro said.

The printer is built around the Scalable Printing Technology (SPT) platform, which improves the quality of prints by spraying more ink on pages using thousands of nozzles on a single printhead. SPT is already in use on printers like HP’s Photosmart, Nigro said. HP introduced the Photosmart Minilab ml1000 inkjet printer earlier this year, which can print 4-by-6-inch photos as fast as 1,500 prints per hour.

Via www.cio.com

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…an attendee approached me with a question I’ve been asked a hundred times before. “Are these water-based inks or pigment inks?” I gave my usual response, “Well, both—actually,” then launched into an explanation about ink formulation theory, the history of inkjet printing, and the correct application for ink types. He proceeded to tell me I was wrong because someone at a printer manufacturer’s booth had just told him the opposite.

This is a beginning of a great article titled “Debunking the Myths of Digital Inks” by Tony Martin for Digital Photo Techniques magazine. I recommend everyone who interested in printing technologies and every inkjet printer user reading this article.

To answer the question in the title, I’ll allow myself to quote Tony Martin once again:

“The difference between a dye and a pimgent is simple to explain. A dye is a colorant that is fully dissolved into the carrier fluid, and the resultant ink is a true solution (Figure 2a). Once dissolved into the carrier fluid, a well-made dye should never separate or settle out. One dye ink analogy is that it’s like diluting a fruit juice with water. Once stirred, it never separates again—no matter how long you leave it. A pigment is a very fine powder of solid colorant particles suspended or dispersed throughout the carrier fluid (Figure 2b). A crude analogy for a pigment ink is that it resembles sandy-colored water in a river or at sea. If you look closely, you can see the particles of sand dispersed throughout the water.”

How exactly this difference affect image quality and work of inkjet printer in general you will learn from the acrticle.

Also, from “Debunking the Myths of Digital Inks” (PDF format, 135 Kb) will tell you:

• what the Golden Rule of inkjet printing is and how it helps with printer clogging
• why 100-years expected image life does not really matter
• whether use of third-party inks is going to void your printer’s warranty
• when you should use bulk ink feeders

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The grim economic picture darkened further today with news that the price of ink for printer cartridges has reached an all time high of $1000 a barrel on the New York futures exchange. The world’s most traded commodity has seen a steady rise in price over recent months due to supply problems, increased demand from China and a failure of consumers to send their empty cartridges to the charity recycling centre and just leaving them in their desk drawer instead.
(more…)

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New cost-of-ink-per-page analysis of ink cartridges is a new way for customers to estimate their printing costs.

QualityLogic, a company providing quality assurance and control services, reported it had completed Cost-of-Ink-Per-Page (CoIPP) Analysis for the Eastman Kodak Company.

CoIPP Analysis uses cartridge cost and page-yield to calculate and compare the cost of ink required to print one page on Kodak EASYSHARE 5100, 5300 and 5500 All-in-One Printers to 11 competing printers.

Page-yield is determined by Certified Page-Yield Test Program, QualityLogic’s special software based on ISO standards determines. Cartridge prices in UK, France, and Germany were provided by IDC, a provider of independent market intelligence.

QualityLogic published a paper that you can view for details, but here is a briefly overview of what results of the analysis show.

Naturally, all three Kodak’s printers demonstrate lowest cost of ink per page in monochrome, color and photo printing. For instance in UK, one page printed on any of Kodak Easyshare printers in mono, color and photo mode costs 0.016, 0.047 and 0.064 GBP, or $0.033, $0.096 and 0.131 respectively.

It turns out the most expensive printer inks among the compared are for Hewlett-Packard’s Photosmart C5280 followed by Photosmart C4280. A page printed Photosmart C5280 in monochrome mode would cost 0.065 GBP; in color mode – 0.148 GBP; in photo mode – 0.311 GBP. Converted into US dollars, that’d make $0.137, $0.302 and $0.636, respectively.

Of course, actual prices in USA will vary, but the example gives us a general idea of cost difference scale.

Not so long ago a study initiated by HP found that HP ink cartridges contain inks twice as much as remanufactured and refilled ones. Some time before that, an ink study sponsored by Epson found that Epson genuine inks provide stronger color-fading resistance and, thus, longer life of printed images.

Just like these studies, the QualityLogic’s analysis is not completely independent and unbiased. However, such CoIPP analysis provides consumers with information that is fair, accurate and consistent. It gives them a new way to look at this portion of the overall cost of owning and operating a printer.

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Recent study show customers have no basis for comparison when buying printers, which results in $6 billion overpay on ink every year.

The American Consumer Institute released a new white paper entitled “Inkjet Prices, Printing Costs and Consumer Welfare” disclosing pricing strategies adopted within the inkjet industry. This is the first document made by public organization (we don’t consider numerous articles on the topic in magazines and sites by independent authors).

Inkjet printers are usually under-priced or even sell in the red to make them more appealing for purchase. However, the manufacturers make up the profit on overpriced ink, and consumers are left with no choice and spend hundreds of extra dollars to operate the printers. The printer ink is currently one of the most expensive liquids in the world. The price of it can be compared with that of the world’s finest champagne, gasoline and most luxury fragrances.

Currently, there’s no standardized printer ink unit pricing, such as cents per printed page. In this situation, customers at the shop have no information about real printing costs. They buy cartridges without knowing how much ink is in them or how many pages one cartridge will print. The lowest price cannot serve as the rule of thumb, because very often the lowest priced cartridges have much less ink.

The paper also suggests that adoption of a form of truth-in-labeling would allow customers to compare each printer’s cost-of-ink per printed page. The paper concludes that competition in the inkjet printer and ink sectors would be much more intense if consumers were made aware of the cost implications of their printer choices. Better information means lower costs for consumers.

I believe this is a good start. If more public organizations begin informing consumers on the issues and thus affecting the manufacturers, the situation with overpriced printer ink may really change for the better.

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