Z Fine-Art Printers from HP

At the recent SGIA show, HP introduced its new lines of fine-art/photo printers-HP Designjet Z2100 and HP Designjet Z3100. As the first large-format printers to employ HP’s Scalable Printing Technology, these machines provide superior reliability and optimized ink consumption. The Z2100 is designed for photographers, graphic designers, architects, and commercial printers; the Z3100 offer extended capabilities for museum-quality color and black-and-white photography, digital fine art, and prepress.

Available in 24- or 44-in. printer widths, the 8-color Z2100 and the 12-color Z3100 photo printers utilize various inksets (HP Vivera aqueous pigment inks, HP Three-Black inks for Z2100, and HP Quad-Black inks for Z3100). Delivered in 130-ml cartridges, the inks for the Z2100 include CMYKcm Grey and photo black; inks for the Z3100 include cMmYK Red, Green, Blue, Gray, light gray, photo black, Gloss Enhancer.

Featuring ink drops of 4 or 6 picoliter and 2 colors per printhead (1056 nozzles/color), throughput ranges from a top speed of 150 sq ft/hr in 600 x 600-dpi draft mode on coated paper to 17 sq ft/hr in 2400 x 1200-dpi best mode on glossy paper.

The Designjet Z printers can handle media up to 500gsm weight, including photo and proofing papers, canvas, self-adhesive vinyl, banner, backlit, and coated media. Currently, HP offers nine photo papers, 10 digital fine-art paper, three proofing papers, nine bond and coated papers, and more than 30 other HP media that have been tested with the Vivera inks. The combination of inks and media offers up to 200-yr lightfastness on a various HP media, the company reports.

Color reproduction is an emphasis of these printers. Both printers employ an embedded spectrophotometer based on the X-Rite Eye-One (i1) technology, which can reproduce more than 80% Pantone colors, and offer automated and simple creation of ICC profiles.

The Gloss Enhancer is used on glossy and semi-gloss photo papers to produce images with uniform gloss from highlights to shadows to eliminate bronzing; users can switch between matte and glossy papers without having to swap black cartridges.

Options include GMG Colorproof 4 RIP for customized proofing; EFI Designer Edition 5.1 RIP for HP (XL version), developed for graphic designers and providing CMYK workflow support, PostScript and PDF printing, and accurate spot-color management; ColorByte ImagePrint v. 6 RIP specifically for photo printing; and HP Advanced Profiling Solution powered by GretagMacbeth that automates the color management system and works with the embedded spectrophotometer.

Price: Designjet Z2100: 24-in., $3395; 44-in., $5595. Designjet Z3100: 24 in., $4095; 44-in., $6295. The Z2100 is available now; the Z3100 will be available in the first half of 2007.

In addition, the company introduced its new comprehensive color-management solution-the HP Scitex Color Workflow Interactive Navigator (WIN). It maximizes output quality while ensuring color reproduction across all HP Scitex printers, ink, media, and environmental conditions.

With color-management technology from GretagMacbeth/X-Rite, WIN includes tools, information, and equipment to achieve consistent color on multiple HP Scitex printers. The system reduces calibration time, standardizes calibration process, provides for in-house ICC profiling, allows for offline print proofing, and helps optimize ink consumption. The WIN package includes Workflow Interactive Navigator wizard, on-site training, HP Designjet 130nr proofing device, HP Spectrophotometer (featuring Eye-One Color technology), X-Rite ProfileMaker 5 Publish, GRACol calibration kit, quality assessment tool, and remote support. The WIN system will be available in January 2007.

HP now offers an inline laminator for its HP Scitex FB6700 printer. Available as an option on new installs or an upgrade to existing printers, the inline laminator in a customized version of a GBC professional thermal laminator. It applies GBC’s AccuShield film laminate to protect the image and extend its life.

HP
www.hp.com