Epson large format printers have often been used for producing a high standard of screenprint separations.
This has been true from the days of the Stylus Pro 3000 model, the venerable old workhorse is still to be seen printing separations after 10 years service.
The 3000 and the 7000 & 9000 models used dye ink which was compatible with a wide range of films.
The range was replaced with the 4000/7600/9600 series which used Ultrachrome pigment ink and this required the development of a newfilm to give decent results - Agfa SelectJet.
The recent introduction of the Ultrachrome K3 printers 4800/7800/9800 and their close relatives 4880/7880/9880 and the 11800 was a retrograde step for printers of separations.
The ink was developed to match the gloss level of photographic prints.
Unfortunately it is less suitable for screenprint separations as the previous types.
Epson have introduced the 4400 and 4450 range which use Ultrachrome inkand these work well but there are a number of the K3 printers that could be pressed into service as imagesetters.
The problem with the X800 printers is that they do not produce a convenient ink droplet volume, the print is either weak and allows light through or too heavy and floods the film.
Colourgate tackled the problem by printing a proportion of yellow ink on top of the black.
Yellow has the next highest uv density of the inks.
This is a functional solution but because it doesn't look pretty it hasn't proved very successful.
Wasatch has produced a much more elegant solution - Epson heads are able to produce a range of dots for different resolutions.
Wasatch have utilised this to lay down different droplet sizes next to each other in the same print.
This allows the RIP to lower the ink to the optimum coverage withoutadditions and allows a range of fine printers to become more versatile.
This variable dot option is only available in the Wasatch SoftRIP SP version of the software which is an additional module to the base.
In addition to this feature there are a couple of other features that the SP version contains - automatic implementation of hybrid screening - using halftones for the cyan, magenta and black separations and FM or stochastic screening for the yellow.
Wasatch SoftRIP is also a very elegant RIP for colour printing having 16 bit colour rendering.
Wasatch SoftRIP is the industry leader for screenprint separations.
This has been true from the days of the Stylus Pro 3000 model, the venerable old workhorse is still to be seen printing separations after 10 years service.
The 3000 and the 7000 & 9000 models used dye ink which was compatible with a wide range of films.
The range was replaced with the 4000/7600/9600 series which used Ultrachrome pigment ink and this required the development of a newfilm to give decent results - Agfa SelectJet.
The recent introduction of the Ultrachrome K3 printers 4800/7800/9800 and their close relatives 4880/7880/9880 and the 11800 was a retrograde step for printers of separations.
The ink was developed to match the gloss level of photographic prints.
Unfortunately it is less suitable for screenprint separations as the previous types.
Epson have introduced the 4400 and 4450 range which use Ultrachrome inkand these work well but there are a number of the K3 printers that could be pressed into service as imagesetters.
The problem with the X800 printers is that they do not produce a convenient ink droplet volume, the print is either weak and allows light through or too heavy and floods the film.
Colourgate tackled the problem by printing a proportion of yellow ink on top of the black.
Yellow has the next highest uv density of the inks.
This is a functional solution but because it doesn't look pretty it hasn't proved very successful.
Wasatch has produced a much more elegant solution - Epson heads are able to produce a range of dots for different resolutions.
Wasatch have utilised this to lay down different droplet sizes next to each other in the same print.
This allows the RIP to lower the ink to the optimum coverage withoutadditions and allows a range of fine printers to become more versatile.
This variable dot option is only available in the Wasatch SoftRIP SP version of the software which is an additional module to the base.
In addition to this feature there are a couple of other features that the SP version contains - automatic implementation of hybrid screening - using halftones for the cyan, magenta and black separations and FM or stochastic screening for the yellow.
Wasatch SoftRIP is also a very elegant RIP for colour printing having 16 bit colour rendering.
Wasatch SoftRIP is the industry leader for screenprint separations.
Source...