Meridian Cyber Solutions made the announcement of the 7900 Stylus Pro public on October 15, 2008 through a disclosure agreement with Epson America. With the launch of the new Epson 7900 professional printer, many people wonder if the Epson 7880 will be replaced. If not, why did Epson introduce another 24-inch professional printer and how do the Epson 7900 and Epson 7880 compare? ?
The Epson Stylus Pro 7900 is not a replacement for the Epson Stylus Pro 7880. The Epson 7900 will be an addition to the Epson 24-inch line of professional printers. The Epson 7880 will continue to be part of the Epson line for the foreseeable future.
The Epson 7880 has proven to be a stalwart production printer for photographers, fine artists, prepress, and commercial users. The 7880’s print quality, color gamut, flexibility, performance, and price will continue to make it a very viable option in professional inkjet printers. If you decide to buy an Epson 7880, your compromises are minimal to zero.
So what makes the Epson Stylus Pro 7900 special? As good as the 7880; Epson has made significant improvements to the 7900 in terms of print quality, color gamut, ease of use, and performance.
With the launch of the 7900 Stylus Pro, Epson introduces the HDR ink set, High Dynamic Range, with green and orange inks. Additionally, the HDR ink set includes the long-awaited matte black and auto-switching photo black inks. Finally, users can select from three cartridge sizes, including 150ml, 300ml, and 700ml. 700 ml cartridges offer the lowest pigment ink costs in Epson’s history. That compares to a maximum ink cartridge size of 220 ml for the Epson 7880.
The following is a short list of comparisons between the Epson 7900 and the Epson 7880. You can refer to the following information for a complete comparison table and information:
Ink: 7,900 10 HDR, high dynamic range inks, including matte black and photo black, as well as the newest additions, orange and green. That’s a total of 11 inks compared to 8 inks on the 7880. (Note: matte black and photo black, a long-awaited feature).
Printhead: The 7900 uses a TFP, Thin Film Piezo technology, while the 7880 uses the older MicroPiezo AMC technology. Both have an ink repellent coating, but the 7900 printhead is more than twice as large with 360 nozzles x 10 inks compared to the 7880 at 180 nozzles at 8 inks. Additionally, the Stylus Pro 7900 has nozzle checking and cleaning that was not available on the 7880.
Speed: The larger print head speeds up the 7900 to almost twice the speed of the 7880. A 20-by-30-inch print printed at high-speed 1440 by 720 dpi takes 12 minutes on the 7880 and 6 minutes 39 seconds on the 7900.
Ease of Use Features: The 7900 has several enhancements that are not implemented in the 7880; These include: roll media loading without spindles (no more spindles); Rotary cutter instead of blade cutter that allows cutting even thick media such as canvas and watercolor paper; and ePlaten technology for easy and precise loading of paper and media.
The 7880 will remain a true competitor in the 24-inch professional inkjet printer market, but the Epson Stylus Pro 7900 offers significant advancements that many diehard professionals will find compelling.