Wide-Format Market Gets Wider

Over the past 10 years, following the debut of large-format ink-jet printers, oversized color digital output capability has evolved from a novelty portfolio offering to a viable profit sector.

There are more than two dozen companies distributing wide-format digital printing devices, and new installations continue to grow at a double-digit percentage rate, reflecting wide-format's growing popularity in print-for-pay venues as well as in corporate markets. Revenues generated by wide-format imaging, however, are slowing down.

In its most recent analysis of the wide-format imaging market released in early spring, Hanover, Mass.-based I.T. Strategies found that worldwide installations of all wide-format (over 24") technologies for 2000 tracked at 131,949, and were projected to grow to 470,320 by 2005 for a categorical growth rate of 29%. Among these products, ink-jet units accounted for 128,488 installations, and were projected to grow to 464,609 in 2005.

"The dollar value of the revenue generated by wide-format imaging worldwide from 2000 to 2005 is projected to grow at a rate of 4%, from $18.9 billion to $22.5 billion," says I.T. Strategies consultant Michael Flippin.

In addition to more traditional wide-format output—fleet graphics, billboards, fine art prints, and point-of-purchase signs—new applications are found constantly. Wide-format imagers allow consumers to customize anything and everything, from wallpaper to caskets.

And, with software such as BestColor's Screenproof, wide-format printers from Epson, Hewlett-Packard (HP), and Roland DGA Corporation are now being marketed as full-signature contract color proofing devices.

Innovations continue to be made in hardware and software, resulting in higher-quality color output and faster print engines. One new technology advancement—the ability to vary droplet size—can be found in the Kodak Professional 5260 printer, the Roland DGA Hi-Jet Pro series of printers, and the Epson Stylus Pro 10000.

Variable-droplet technology allows an output device to vary the droplet size on demand within a specific print. Large droplets are placed in large fill areas; small and medium-size droplets are placed side by side for tonal variation. Since the size of the dot can be increased in areas of solid color, this technology can also help maximize print speed.

"In the past, ink-jets could only print one dot size; it was a fixed-droplet mode," says Rick Scrimger, senior product manager for Roland DGA. "By varying the grouping and proximity of the colors to one another, you could fool the eye into seeing many millions of shades.

"We can still use proximity and grouping of dots," Scrimger continues, "but we can also vary the size of that dot. By placing a small droplet of yellow next to a larger droplet of magenta, we can create more subtle hues of red. There now are more hues available to us."

Another advancement lets wide-format printers image onto rigid media, giving service providers the ability to print on substrates up to 1/2" thick, such as foam core. The Encad NovaJet 880 and Scitex Vision ENjet systems offer this as a built-in capability, while Roland DGA and HP are offering it as optional accessories to their wide-format devices.

Vendors also are looking beyond products to help their customers. Marketing programs, such as one developed by Nur Macroprinters, help service providers promote their wide-format business. Nur Macroprinters also works with its customers to develop vertical market applications, which are then packaged as full solutions.

"An example is our NurFleet program, in which we offer not just printing systems, but a selection of media and matched inks, coatings, a coating machine, and warranties," says Ron Michael, vice president of marketing for Nur Macroprinters.

Service providers offering wide-format technology are continually looking for new applications to demonstrate their capabilities.

For example, Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Copies Plus started out as a black-and-white and color quick printer. It later moved into printing oversize blueprints and architectural drawings, and finally evolved into wide-format color output shop.

"We found out that a client, a cabinet manufacturer, was going to buy a wide-format device," relates Copies Plus president Michael R. Weichers. "We told them, 'You are in the cabinet manufacturing business, so let us buy the printer and we will print it for you.' This enabled us to start out with a guaranteed customer, printing point-of-sale pieces that were used in stores such as Home Depot."

Customer research also led Copies Plus to the Encad NovaJet 850 printer, which afforded the firm a capability not found elsewhere within its local area. "No other shop has the ability to print both outdoor and indoor signage," says Weichers. "And nothing can print and dry as quickly as the NovaJet 850; we can laminate or mount right after the print is imaged."

Weichers relates that Copies Plus's NovaJet 850 has been used to print customized 11" wallpaper borders that are applied around the top of the walls in 50 Pickerman's Soup and Sandwich franchise locations.

Wide-format output also was used as a starting point for a Pickerman's job that involved printing sets of eight different illustrations featuring sandwich ingredients. Weichers says that Copies Plus provided a turnkey solution for Pickerman's by having the prints matted and framed, then shipped to franchise locations across the country.

Weichers now is working with a carton manufacturer to develop customized pieces for golf courses. "Sometimes finding this type of work is an uphill battle," Weichers testifies. "I am in rural Iowa; I have to educate my clients that the wide-format product is even out there. Once we educate them, though, they are amazed that we can do this type of work here."

Document Solutions Inc., a four-year-old Houston-based firm that began as a copy shop for litigators, made its leap into wide-format imaging following an evaluation of the cost of vending out the work, which included oversize output used during trials. "We looked at how much revenue was being produced in the wide-format area, and it justified us getting a wide-format solution," says company president Robert Quezada.

Documents Solutions chose the Océ 5070 scan-to-print solution, a four-head imaging device that comes packaged with an Océ 4040CS color scanner. "A lot of our work in the litigation area comes in as hard copy, and the attorneys want hard copy back," explains Quezada. "They walk in with a picture of a car that has been dented and want it blown up 1,000%."

Adds Josh Hamous, Documents Solutions senior graphic designer, "The Océ machines scan and print almost simultaneously. You place the hard copy in the scanner, and it starts printing in high-quality color almost as soon as it starts scanning. It saves us a lot of time."

Two months ago, the company purchased a second wide-format machine, an Océ 5080 eight-head printer, which can also work from the same Océ 4040CS color scanner. "If we didn't have the scan-to-print solution, it would take us at least another 20 minutes to complete each job," says Hamous. "Plus, the quality is excellent; we've made some second-generation copies that look better than the original."

Throughout the past year, graphic arts equipment manufacturers have launched numerous new wide-format product offerings. Following is a sampling:

Encad, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in October, has begun shipping its newest model, the 60" NovaJet 880 hybrid roll "flatbed" printer. It differs from its predecessor, the NovaJet 850, in one key area: the platen that holds the media can be adjusted down to enable printing on any substrate up to 1/2" thick that has an ink-jet receptive coating. The machine also can print on traditional substrates.

A dynamic thermal dryer can be rotated into vertical position to dry and feed rigid media on the NovaJet 880. A rigid media kit includes several plates and rollers that guide, flatten, and load the media into the printer. Additionally, a media thickness handle/gauge lets users manually adjust the print head's height.

Like the NovaJet 850, the NovaJet 880 is an eight-color printer featuring thermal ink-jet MicroBurst technology. It comes equipped with multiple ink lines and reservoirs that permit instant switching between indoor and outdoor inks. Print speeds range from 132 square feet per hour in production mode to 41 square feet per hour with eight-color imaging.

Says the manufacturer, the NovaJet 880, which sells for $18,995, incorporates double-drop print technology that doubles the number of ink droplets and boosts the ink saturation level on absorbent, porous substrates.

Launched this spring, the Epson six-color Stylus Pro 10000 features variable-droplet Micro Piezo DX3 technology to produce up to three different dot sizes, ranging in size from five to 18 picoliters, depending on the resolution and driver.

"The 10000 has a brand-new print head featuring 180 nozzles per color," says Epson America's Mark Radogna, product manager, high-end ink-jet printers. "It is the first print head designed for wide-format printers that will support a five-picoliter droplet size, thereby offering superb image quality."

The Stylus Pro 10000, which is priced at $10,000, can create images up to 44" wide by any length at a 1,440x720-dpi resolution. It is equipped with photo accelerator technology, which guarantees full print engine performance when printing RGB-based files, even with the slowest computer, claims the manufacturer. Print engine speeds vary from 25 square feet per hour to a maximum of 231 square feet per hour.

Moreover, says Radogna, high-quality photographic printing can be produced at approximately 72 square feet per hour; everyday production speeds range between 125 to 140 square feet per hour.

The Epson Stylus Pro 10000's automatic nozzle verification technology uses a laser to continuously scan across the surface of the print head to look for possible nozzle clogging; if detected, the system automatically cleans the print head to eliminate streaking or banding.

Gretag's Professional Imaging Division markets wide-format devices from Raster Graphics and Cymbolic Sciences.

The Raster Graphics Arizona 90 device, designed for outdoor applications only, prints at speeds of up to 90 square feet per hour depending on ink coverage, size of graphic, and media. Using solvent-based inks, it prints directly onto a variety of select vinyl materials from 3M and paper media from Gretag.

The machine, which sells for $54,995 and includes the Onyx PosterShop RIP, uses ColorBlend six-color inks (Super CMYK plus light cyan and light magenta), and prints at an apparent resolution of 600 dpi (309 dpi addressable).

The four-color Arizona 1100-3 is a solvent-based piezoelectric ink-jet printer also built for outdoor applications. It is equipped with 72 piezoelectric ink-jet print heads for output at a top speed of 1,100 square feet per hour at 360 dpi. Featuring a print width of up to 111", it accepts roll media and can accommodate media rolls up to 16" in diameter. It is priced at $249,995.

Cymbolic Sciences' LightJet devices, designed for indoor applications only, have an internal drum that holds photo media stationery while imaging with red, green, and blue lasers onto photographic paper, which must then be processed in a darkroom.

The LightJet 430, released at the end of 2000, has been highly successful with 150 installations, says Gary Feltham, vice president of North America sales for Gretag Professional Imaging. "It can image a 50x10-foot image in under six minutes, or 430 square feet an hour, in true photographic quality," he states. "Darkroom processing time is additional."

The LightJet solution has a price tag of $150,000, plus the cost of the processor. "While the capital expenditure is higher than ink-jet, there are no additional consumables costs aside from paper," says Feltham. "Output will cost 35 cents per square foot."

The newest family of wide-format printers from Kodak Professional was announced late last summer. The Kodak 5260 ink-jet printer is the first of the family, designed specifically for high-production environments.

Model 5260's dynamic continuous-tone technology delivers five distinct droplet sizes, from eight to 67 picoliters, on an individual pixel-by-pixel basis, claims the manufacturer. It produces output at up to 500 square feet per hour at 300 dpi with an apparent resolution three to four times higher.

Measuring 11 feet long and weighing in at 700 lbs., the device is targeted for service providers that currently have three or more wide-format printers, and that use 100,000 square feet of image media or generate more than $1 million in ink-jet revenues per month.

"We are able to take a 300-dpi file and give it an apparent resolution three times that amount, without the processing time of a more complex file," says Bruce Hyland, communications manager for Kodak Professional. "The 5260 is able to do this because it optimizes the size of every drop—the larger the droplet size, the faster the speed of the printer."

Moreover, says Hyland, the printer itself moves faster. "There are two 1" heads for each color. We've also introduced instant dry media, which are fast-dry inks that can let the image be touched as soon as it comes out of the printer. Thus, output can go right to the laminator."

The Kodak 5260 will be available in the U.S. in the early part of 2002, and will cost $29,995, relates Hyland. Dye-based inks will be available initially; pigment-based inks won't be available until mid-year 2002.

Introduced in September 2000, the HP six-color Kodak DesignJet 5000 is available in several models, reports Sandy Gramley, HP DesignJet product manager for North America. It is available as a 42" or 60" unit, as a dye-based system, or, for longer-lasting light-fast prints, as an interchangeable ink system that supports both UV and dye-based inks.

The offering can be used with a third-party RIP, or can be equipped with an integrated, built-in RIP that resides in the printer for a plug-and-play solution, says Gramley.

Depending on the model and options chosen, the DesignJet ranges in price from $10,495 to $21,995. It features up to 1,200x600-dpi resolution, and a maximum print speed of 549 square feet per hour for the 60" model. The productivity model outputs at 100 square feet per hour, while the photographic-quality version outputs at 76 square feet per hour.

The DesignJet offerings also employ HP's color layering technology. "Our color layering technology lets us cluster and layer ink droplets in such a way that we can dither with a larger palette of colors for smoother gradation and more precision," says Gramley.

Introduced this spring, the DisplayMaker Mach 12 from MacDermid ColorSpan uses 12 600-dpi print heads with Color-Span EnduraChrome and PermaChrome inks to produce indoor and outdoor large-format output.

The device can be configured with one or more four-, six-, eight- or 12-color ink sets to balance the need for output speed up to 400 square feet per hour; in terms of print quality, the Mach 12 features an apparent resolution of up to 1,800 dpi.

Say company officials, the machine uses a modular ink delivery system featuring 960-ml ink reservoirs that can be "hot-swapped" without interrupting printing, semi-permanent ink supply lines, and near 1" wide extended-life print heads.

The DisplayMaker Mach 12 is available in 42"-, 60"-, and 72"-wide configurations. Prices range from $19,995 for the 42" unit to $22,995 for the 60" model and $25,995 for the 72" device.

In September, Nur Macroprinters announced the availability of upgraded models for its Fresco HiQ series, a screenless wide-format press designed to produce output at up to 900 square feet per hour. The Fresco HiQ 1800 (six feet wide) and 3200 (101/2 feet wide) both provide enhancements to the original Nur Fresco machines in the areas of image quality, color gamut, text sharpness, operational ease, improved uptime, and productivity, claims the manufacturer.

Fresco HiQ printers also offer double-density printing for the output of backlit graphics. Hardware modifications both in the ink and the electronics systems are said to improve text sharpness, eliminate over-spray, and provide overall improved reliability.

Nur's Fresco HiQ models are slated to begin shipping this month. Model 1800 will sell for $349,000, while Model 3200 will cost $429,000. An upgrade kit for original Nur Fresco machines is priced at $35,000 and can be installed at a customer's site.

Available in 42" or 60" print widths, the Océ CS5090 houses eight print heads, affording several flexible ink usage configurations based on customer needs. Says the company, the 600-dpi printer can be configured with two identical CMYK ink sets for printing twice as fast as existing product offerings, two different CMYK ink sets for rapid switching between indoor and outdoor inks, or an eight-color ink set that offers a choice of spot colors or additional shades of cyan and magenta ink.

Printing CMYK only in two-pass mode, the CS5090 outputs at 132 square feet per hour; in three-pass mode at 83 square feet per hour; and in four-pass mode at 62 square feet per hour.

Additionally, the machine features a dynamic thermal drying system that constantly adjusts for temperature and humidity conditions, applying the right amount of heat to the drying process to allow for faster output.

The 42" unit lists for $12,495, while the 60" sells for $17,495.

At the end of last year, Roland DGA launched its Pro Series Hi-Fi Jet Pro V8 eight-color printers. "It was the first large-format printer series to introduce variable-droplet printing and features that we call V8 technology, where 'V' stands for versatile and variable-droplet," says Roland DGA's Rick Scrimger, who adds that his company's variable-droplet technology automatically adjusts droplet size so that dots are larger in solid areas and smaller in pastel regions.

Available with UV-stable pigment or dye-based inks, all three models have been Pantone Hexachrome-licensed to simulate over 97% of PMS colors. In eight-color mode, the Hi-Fi Jet Pro prints CMYK plus orange, green, light cyan, and light magenta at its highest resolution of 1,440x1,440 dpi. For faster throughput of up to 127 square feet per hour, the printers can be loaded with two sets of CMYK inks.

The newest model in the Pro Series Hi-Fi Jet Pro V8, the 64" FJ-600 ($20,995), joins the 44" FJ-400 ($16,995) and 54" FJ-500 ($17,995).

Scitex Vision, formerly called Scitex Wide Format Printing Ltd., is getting ready to launch its ENjet, a high-performance, heavy-duty industrial wide-format digital printer targeted at the screen printing marketplace. Equipped with automatic sheetfeeding capability, the ENjet prints on rigid substrates up to 10-mm thick, including corrugated cardboard, foam board, and other rigid boards.

The ENjet features an image area of 61x100" and media size of 63x102". Throughput is rated at up to 1,612 square feet per hour, contingent upon the media used and quality requirements.

Says the company, the foundation for the ENjet machine is Scitex spin-off Aprion Digital's "Magic" (Multiple Array Graphic Ink-jet Color) technology, an ink-jet head and matched ink technology that enables dispersion speeds of 25,000 droplets per second per nozzle.

Simultaneously, Magic technology is said to ensure an accurate drop size and shape, supporting a true resolution of 600 dpi in six colors (CMYK, light magenta, and light cyan). ENjet inks are water-based, pigmented inks, offering a minimum two-year durability guarantee.

Launched in February, the Xerox Engineering Systems (XES) ColorgrafX X2 device is a 54", six-color piezoelectric ink-jet printer designed for high-volume environments. XES designed the ColorgrafX X2 with PixelCorrect, a patent-pending image technology that is said to eliminate banding and deliver sellable-quality output at the printer's fastest speed, thereby eliminating draft mode as a "wasted" print speed.

ColorgrafX X2 prints at both 360- and 720-dpi resolution, printing at speeds ranging from 130 square feet per hour for the highest-quality mode to 431 square feet per hour for high-productivity printing. U.S. list price is $33,995.