Four new Epson large format printers for University of Huddersfield

The University of Huddersfield has taken delivery of four new Epson large-format aqueous inkjet printers to keep up with increasing demand for high quality colour and mono digital print work within the School of Art, Design and Architecture. The School offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses including subjects such as Architecture, Contemporary Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, Product Design, Fashion and Textiles and Photography.

George Stewart, IT Technician, School of Art, Design and Architecture Print Bureau, comments, “We were already using Epson printers, including a 64-inch wide-format Stylus Pro 11880, to print students’ course and degree show work. The printers were performing well, giving us excellent quality mono and colour reproduction and were very easy to operate but with demand increasing we had to look at investing in more technology. We looked at other brands but decided we wanted to stick with Epson. It’s a brand we trust and we had been very impressed with the printers’ reliability and cost-effectiveness.”

The School went ahead, with guidance from large-format suppliers Digital Photo Solutions, and invested in two Epson Stylus Pro 7890 24-inch printers, one Epson Stylus Pro 7900 24-inch and an Epson Stylus Pro 9890 44-inch printer. All offer an ideal combination of accurate colour reproduction with unbeatable productivity and are compatible with a wide range of media up to 1.5mm in thickness including glossy paper, matte paper, matte board, fine art paper and plain paper.

The Print Bureau, located within the Technology Building Room at the university, is open Monday to Friday during term time and provides a large format printing service to approximately 2,800 students. “We don’t have a typical day as such,” say George. “There are certain times of the year when we are extremely busy â€" end of year shows and course deadlines during the year always create an increase in demand.”

Students supply PDF, JPEG or TIFF files of their work which are then run through Adobe Photoshop, InDesign or Mirage Print software before printing on one of the Epson printers. “The print quality for graphics, drawings and photography is of high importance to us and our students,” says Stewart. “The Epson printers allow us to print on an extensive array of media and are very well suited to the work we produce, from fine drawings to posters and banners to wallpaper, we can print it all here.”

Using Epson’s UltraChrome 9 and 11-colour inksets, the printers achieve one of the widest colour gamuts on the market, with consistently smooth gradations and photo-realistic image quality. Also, with three densities of black â€" standard photo or matte black (selected automatically depending on the media) plus light black and light light black â€" users can create striking mono output with a high contrast ratio, perfect tonal range and improved grey tones. In combination with the Epson TFP print head, featuring 360 micro-fine nozzles per colour, the printers deliver at high speed, incredibly sharp, grain-free images which make them ideal for art, photographic and CAD applications.

Martin Johns, market development manager, proGraphics, Epson, says, “It’s good to see the students and staff at the university using the Epson Stylus Pro range of printers across a wide variety of media and applications. Not only do the printers offer first class colour and mono reproduction but they also represent a big boost in productivity and remain cost-effective.”