Canvas Prints: Epson or Canon

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Canvas Printing: Epson or Canon

Maybe your a wedding photographer, or possibly a landscape photographer or maybe a print professional or you could be  a person with a camera and a printer , and because of the properties of canvas you print on it occasionally or maybe like me, you print on it exclusively. After all after all canvas is timeless, it has been the medium of choice for hundreds of years and when you think of a million-dollar art piece or one that’s valued even higher, no doubt it was created on canvas.
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When I got into the photo on canvas business Epson was really the only name in fine art canvas printing. Now it seems that Canon has entered the market, HP has made an attempt however in my opinion Epson and Canon are really the only two names when it comes to printing on canvas. Now there are some out there who would say that the iris drum printing machine is the only way to make giclée prints. This particular printer was originally designed for proofing and later was retrofitted to handle art papers for the purpose of fine art prints, at first it’s inks did not last very long but over the years many adjustments have been made to the iris printer in order to produce fine art giclée prints. The original company CreoScitex of which iris was a division no longer exists. The company that makes the equivalent is called Ixia. These printers retail for $45,000.

The first printer I purchased for printing photos on canvas was the Epson 7800. This particular printer has eight ink sets three of them are black those being, matt black, light black, and light light black. The matte black ink is primarily for printing on more porous type substrata such as canvas and fine art papers. The matte black and can be swapped out with photo black for printing on photo papers. This printer is a 24 inch wide printer. From time to time I need to make larger prints to accommodate my clients I have a good friend who has a 11880 and a 9800. This enables me if need be to make prints up to 64 inches wide although the need for this is rare. The 880 series printers from Canon introduced a few new features the most prominent being the addition of an ink to the ink set, vivid magenta, and A Teflon coated printhead for less clogging. The idea behind adding this new ink was to be able to hit a broader color gamut.

As I made comparisons between prints from the 7800 7880 the differences were marginal this prompted me to hold off on upgrade as long as possible in order to spend upgrade capital on a future printer with a marked improvement. On the horizon I am now looking at the 9900 printer as the next upgrade for our company. This particular printer is speculated to be available from Epson some time in the early spring of 2009 possibly February or March. The 9900 Epson printer boasts a 10 ink, ink set with the introduction of orange and green inks. There are many other improvements along the way including a take-up spool for those long overnight print jobs. Another feature of this printer that is looking appealing at present is the faster print speeds, it looks to be about twice as fast roughly.

In making a determination as to which printer would make the most sense as an upgrade I can’t count out canons imagePROGRAF iPF8100. As I make comparisons between this model and what is currently available the 9800 which would be the equivalent in size, when comparing prints from these two printers the differences are marginal. As a the images begin to be scrutinized under a loop the differences become clearer. The Epson has slightly better gradient transitions whereas the Canon has the capacity to hit a wider color gamut. Canon can hit a wider color gamut because it has more inks, 12 in total and Epson has better gradient transitions because it’s printhead technology utilizes a smaller droplet size and the droplets are adjusted in their size with electric currents. Another huge point for Canon right at the moment is that it can produce prints way faster. All of these things have to be considered and depending on how much volume you do and the type of client you have the pendulum in the decision-making process could swing either direction. As for me at this moment I’m going to hold my breath until March and see about putting these two companies in the ring again before I make my final decision.
In a perfect world I would have a 9880 until then.

Tags: 9880 epson printer, 9880 epson printer canvas, 9900 canvas printer, 9900 printer, canon canvas printer, canvas prints, epson 9900 canvas printer, epson canvas printer, iPF8100, iPF8100 canvas, iPF8100 canvas printer

6 Comments to Canvas Prints: Epson or Canon

1. 

   Great info. I’ve been rethinking my devotion to Epson as I consider a new printer. Definitely food for thought. Thanks
Jim Goldstein on November 6th, 2008
2. 

   You mentioned giclee prints. I’ve heard this term before, but am not sure what the effect or final product looks like. Can you elaborate>
Mandy on November 6th, 2008
3. 

   I typically only get prints done in a lab and don’t do too much worrying about the printer type, this was very informative on whats out there
Nick Nieto on November 6th, 2008
4. 

   I’ve been looking for an affordable company who prints on canvas!!
Jena Ardell on November 7th, 2008
5. 

   First things first… I’m an HP and Canon dealer, so take my words with whatever salt you wish. However, besides being a dealer I’m also a professional printer and have been a printer 10 years before becoming a dealer.

   In my opinion, the 12 ink Canon 8100/9100 beats the Epson’s hands down. Even in B&W which used to be Epson’s domain. Epson has an EXCELENT market share and has been at it longer so word of mouth always leans towards epson… canon being the new kid on the block suffers from that. There is no argument that either choice is high quality, but I believe Canon is just a bit better. HP, in my opinion, is not in the same league for artist type printing.

   I currently have a canon 6100 and a 9100. I’ve used a 8000, 8100 and a 9000 (all professionally, not just as demo machines). I’ve also used a HP z6100 and currently use a HP 5500 (absolute workhorse!! Won’t trade it for a z6100 until it dies!!)

   I’ve never used Epson on a day to day basis, but I have seen them print a lot and seen lot’s of results and comparisons. For the common user it’ll be hard if not impossible to tell the difference between an epson print and canon print (same image, same material). For the trained eye it is possible, but you really have to look and you look in the shades, in the gradients and in the “white” areas.
emdub on November 10th, 2008
6. 

   Great Article. I’ve had hands on experience with both the newest Epsons and Canons. Both are phenominal machines. Some things that you should consider when analyzing the options…

   Canon and Epson use different printhead technology and each has it’s pros and cons. Epson uses electric (PIEZO) printheads that use controlled pulses that allow for differential droplet sizes which in turn gives you very smooth transitions from darks to lights (evident mostly in skin tones and dark to light gradients). The downside to Piezo is the clogging issues. If you are in a dry climate and are not constantly printing to these machines you will get clogging issues even with their updated teflon coated printheads. With the current body types (4880,7880,9880) Epson only allows for photo OR matte ink to be loaded in the printer. Many have found this to be annoying because it’s such a costly process to switch back and forth ($50 on average worth of ink everytime you switch). Epson recently added the use of VIVID Magenta and VIVID light magenta to widen up the color gamut. The inkset is their Ultrachrome brand which is extremely consistent and well formulated. You will also be able to partner the IMAGEPRINT Rip software for large run printing and Easy color management with the best profiling in the industry.
   On Canon’s newest technology (6100,6200,8100,9100) they use thermal printhead technology which uses heat to create a bubble within the cartridge to push the ink through the nozzles. With this type of technology you are held to a constant 4 picoliter drop size. Many are critical of this universal drop size but with the dithering changes Canon has made from their last generation (dithering being the formula for the patern of how the drops are positioned)and the change to the ink formulation, the gradient has improved and can be considered neck and neck with the Epson. Thermal printheads use heat so that in turn compromises the length that the printheads will last for. Canon understands this therefore they made most of the interior of the printer user replaceable including the printheads. The printer uses both photo and matte ink loaded at the same time and the media type selected determines which ink to lay down. Also, Canon has a plugin for all their Imageprograf series that is pretty sweet. It has sticky settings so that the last paper you printed to the settings are still in the plugin from the last time you printed. The Canons have a nozzle detection system that if one nozzle goes out, it will deflect it’s workload on to the next closest usable nozzle and after it’s done printing go back and clean itself. Since you are using heat with the ink there are little to no clogs at all in these printers.

   For anyone looking to get into a printer between now and the end of the year, both are excellent options and the quality of both prints is phenominal.
Michael Clementi on November 17th, 2008