Epson has announced a new A2 printer, the Stylus Pro 3800, which is positioned to bridge the gap between its professional and advanced enthusiast printers.

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September 26, 2006: Epson has announced a new A2 printer, the Stylus Pro 3800, which is positioned to bridge the gap between its professional and advanced enthusiast printers.

Claimed as the smallest A2 printer available, the Stylus Pro 3800 is 30% smaller and 51% lighter than the Stylus Pro 4800. It is designed for printing on cut sheets only and will not accept roll paper. Three paper feeding paths are provided: a standard top-loading feeder for most paper types, a second rear manual feeder for fine art papers and a front-loading, straight-through manual feeder for heavier stock, which supports media up to 1.5 mm thick. Borderless printing is supported and the printer provides both USB 2.0 and Ethernet standard support. Maximum resolution is 2880 x 1440dpi.

Priced at $2195 (incl. GST), the Stylus Pro 3800 slots in between the Stylus Photo R2400 and Stylus Pro 4800 models. Like them, it uses Epson’s UltraChrome K3 inks, with 80 mL ink tanks offering better operational economy than R2400 users obtain. The eight-colour pigment ink set (K, Lk, LLk, C, M, Y, Lc and Lm) consists of nine ink tanks. A new 1-inch wide print head has a new Auto-sharing Black ink technology, allowing both Photo and Matte Black ink to be installed simultaneously. (Approximately 4 mL of ink is used when switching from Matte Black the Photo Black and 2 mL in the reverse direction.) The ‘intelligent’ ink cartridge system enables users to track ink usage and calculate production costs. Cartridges will sell for $99 each (incl. GST).

An advanced AMC (Active Meniscus Control) print head design provides extremely accurate droplet placement capabilities with droplets as small as 3.5 picolitres. Along with a new nozzle and head design, software changes have added a new algorithm for determining dot placement and screening. These allow the printer to produce extremely fine photographic prints even in bi-directional and lower resolution print modes. The driver now compensates for various ink densities between resolutions, allowing for a single ICC profile to be used per media type. The 3800 is also faster than other pigment printers.

Epson Australia expects the Stylus Pro 3800 to ship in the summer of this year, with likely availability in December. For more information visit www.epson.com.au.