Printer News

The Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) member magazines recently convened for their General Assembly to vote for the best photo and imaging products launched by the industry in the last 12 months. The voting took place during the General Assembly that was held in spring 2016 in San Francisco, California.

The Goods spotlights the hottest premium photo gear out there. If you have a product you’d like considered for The Goods, e-mail images and info to editorial@shutterbug.com.

Call it “the battle of the printer giants.” A few days after Epson launched its 44-inch Sure Color P10000 photo printer, Canon unveiled two new large format professional printers of its own: the imagePROGRAF Pro-4000 and 24-inch imagePROGRAF Pro-2000.

There’s no question that digital printmaking equipment, ink, and paper has undergone steady improvement over the years. Gone are the days of excessive dry-down effects and color shifts, poor paper feed mechanisms, and complicated setups. The debate over silver vs. inkjet image resonance and quality is seldom heard anymore, and we’re at the point now where the precision and ease of use of printers, the amazing selection of papers and “substrates” (things you can print on), and the fact that getting WYSIWYG results does not need an advanced degree in color science all make producing really good prints accessible to all.

Epson continued to “think big” this morning while debuting a new 64-inch SureColor P20000 photo printer. Yes, you read that right: it’s a 64-inch photo printer! The Epson SureColor P20000 is the successor to the Epson Stylus Pro 11880, which came out eight years ago.

What's the latest buzz in photo printing? Meet the Ripple Maker, an innovative new device that  customizes a cup of coffee by "printing" photos on top of the coffee foam. This isn’t a coffee maker; it doesn’t brew the coffee, it simply uses tiny coffee bean drops to color the white cream foam on the surface of the coffee to create the images in just a few seconds—and without affecting the taste of the drink.