has announced its newest and most advanced professional-level photographic printer: the new Epson Stylus Pro 4000 creates exhibit-quality images up to 17 inches in width at speeds that nearly double that of previous Epson Stylus Pro printers. The printer features a new eight-channel printhead and seven-color Epson UltraChrome pigmented ink system. It has a 250-sheet capacity, prints at 2880x1440 dpi, and delivers 3.5 picoliter droplets as well as both USB 2.0 and FireWire connectivity. It will ship in January for $1,800.

The Epson Stylus Pro 4000 takes advantage of the company's Epson UltraChrome ink technology, a vital component to producing exhibit-quality prints that are sellable. This pigment-based formula uses seven individual colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan, light magenta, light black and switches between one of two other unique black inks) to create an extremely wide gamut of colors that eliminates color casts and enhances midtones. The printer can also be used to print a wide range of black and white photography using its lower density Light Black ink.





Epson UltraChrome Inks are water resistant and offer lightfastness ratings for color images up to 100 years, and greater than 100 years for black and white prints, on specific Epson papers under non-UV glass. When displayed under UV-protected glass, color lightfastness is rated at more than 100 years for all Epson's leading professional papers. The quick drying nature of Epson UltraChrome inks also makes it possible to handle prints the moment they come off the printer.



The Epson Stylus Pro 4000's eight individual channels/slots can handle either 110 ml or 220 ml cartridges, or a combination of both sizes. Each cartridge also uses Epson's Intelligent High-Capacity Ink technology, which stores a variety of information on a memory chip (including ink levels), and communicates the data to the printer whenever the power is turned on.



The Stylus Pro 4000 (in its photographic mode) offers two black inks/modes (Photo Black and Matte Black) that are automatically activated by the printer. The printer operates in Photo Black mode whenever the user sets the printer driver for photographic media surfaces such as glossy, luster, or semi-matte. All seven colors are used in Photo Black mode, which includes a combination of Photo Black ink and Light Black ink to produce a D-max rating as high as 2.1. If the user selects a matte, cotton-based or fine art surface in the printer driver, the printer switches to Matte Black mode. This mode also uses all seven colors but uses a combination of Matte Black and Light Black inks to produce a D-max rating as high as 1.69.



It features a built-in high capacity media tray handles up to 250 sheets of plain letter sized paper or up to 50 cut sheets of photographic media up to 17" x 22". The sleek, black and silver metallic design that features an easy-to-use front control panel with backlit displays and ink level indicators. An optional Epson Stylus Professional 2.0 software RIP featuring true Adobe PostScript 3 is available.

by MacNN Staff