[Leica] Epson P600 printer

[Paul Roark]

It appears to be a rather standard Epson K3 pigment printer but with a new
PK that has a new coating that allows a better dmax.  They are claiming a
dmax in the high 2's.  I've actually hit 3 with a few other combinations,
and, frankly, once you're at about 2.4 it's very hard to see any difference.

The "Advanced B&W" printing will have the same limitations as usual,
including no control of the distribution of the colors across the scale.
But, with their own papers, hopefully they've done a good job with the
profiles.

QTR with OEM inks is usually better if you know how to use QTR -- including
profiling if there are not pre-existing profiles for the paper and
printer.  I don't know if QTR supports this printer, but probably not since
it is so new.

I have insufficient experience to know if OEM inks clog less than the
current third party glossy-compatible inks.  With pigments on glossy paper,
they have to be stuck to the paper someway.  So a somewhat sticky coating
or a binder in the fluid base is necessary.  These significantly increase
the clogging problems.  Frankly I use pigments (with no binder or coating)
on matte paper and dyes on glossy paper.  Dyes have no binders and thus no
clogging.  They also have no artifacts such as gloss differential,
bronzing, etc.  So, my Epson 1400 is printing my gallery brochures (B&W) on
Red River Polar Pearl Metallic paper as I write this.

Of course, OEM color pigs will give better longevity.  However, where the
Claria/Noritsu/UltraChrome D6 dyes are sprayed after printing, they can
jump into the OEM pigment class -- rather amazing actually.  Wilhelm claims
98 years of display for normal Claria dye color prints behind glass.

FWIW

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

On Sun, Dec 14, 2014 at 1:58 PM, Ken Carney <kcarney1 at cox.net> wrote:
>
> http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Product.do?sku=
> C11CE21201&ref=van_p600
>
> This might be interesting.  Per Epson it is optimized for b&w prints, with
> a better black.  I have used third-party b&w inks and the Quadtone RIP with
> good results, but was never able to keep the printer from clogging (in
> fairness the dealer tried to tell me I needed to print every day).
>
> Ken
>
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