Epson's newest ink set—the Ultrachrome K3—delivers an enhanced color gamut, excellent black-and-white prints, superb black density, and promising print life and scratch, gas and water resistance.

Epson's new 9800, 7800 and 4800 Stylus Pro wide-format printers are eight-ink models that completely replace the earlier 9600 and 7600, and all but make obsolete its smaller 4000 sheet-feed cousin.

According to Epson, the new Ultrachrome K3 inks produce colors that stabilize within half an hour, allowing proofing professionals to make accurate color matches quickly. Three black inks supplement the color inks, offering more neutral gradations in color and black-and-white prints, and enhancing the accurate rendition of skin tones.

Thanks to the reformulation of the inks, Epson also announced higher density in the blacks, and reduced metamerism and bronzing.

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Interchangeable photo or matte black ink enables printing on both glossy and matte media. In addition to the photo or matte black, the ink set features light black and light, light black. The ink set colors, in addition to the blacks above, are cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan and light magenta.

For monochrome prints, a dedicated black-and-white mode is incorporated in the driver of the new printers using the Ultrachrome K3 inks. This mode allows the toning of the prints to be adjusted.

The 4800 printer is a desk unit that prints up to A2 (17-inch-wide), with a sheet-feed paper tray as well as the ability to handle roll media; the 7800 prints up to A1 (24-inch-wide), and the 9800 prints up to B0+ (44-inch-wide).

All these printers can simultaneously use Epson's new pressurized 110ml and 220ml ink cartridges. They incorporate Epson's variable-sized droplet technology, spraying up to three different droplet sizes per print line at a maximum of 2,880 dpi, with a minimum droplet size of 3.5 pl.

Dedicated four-color versions of the three new printers, specifically targeted at the POS, CAD and GIS markets, have also been announced, namely the Stylus Pro 4400, 7400 and 9400.

All of the above devices are supplied with USB and FireWire (IEEE 1394) connectivity, with Ethernet optional.

According to Epson's U.S. Web site, the desktop Stylus Pro 4800 will ship in June for $1,995, while the two wider formats will ship in the fall—the 7800 for $2,995 and the 9800 for $4,995.

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