Flatbed Printer

[viclpp]

We are in the market of getting a Flatbed Printer. As of right now I am not sure what type of material would be our main material but we've been outsourcing a lot of gator boards and some other signage. I've been looking at HP Scitex FB750 and the Roland VersaUV LEJ-640FT Flatbed.

Anyone familiar with both of these machine? Are there any other machine that are similar that I should look at? I see the HP has the Light magenta and Light Cyan but the Roland don't say it does. Is that pretty critical for color? like being more vibrant.

 

[Tim-Ellis]

Hello,

Sorry but I cannot recommend any Flatbed Printer for you but I can tell you a bit about Light Magenta and Light Cyan.

It depends what you are printing but:

"CcMmYK colorants reduce graininess in the middle tone region. This reduced graininess typically improves the photographic appearance of blue skies and some flesh tones."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CcMmYK_color_model

If you are trying to emulate Pantone Colours you might want to look at CMYK plus Orange & Green.

Hope that helps you a little bit.

 

[slush11]

I use the OCE Arizona 350GT. It's a bloody workhorse and can print on pretty much any substrate plus it has a roll to roll option. We've even printed on golfballs and laptops. Also, the Fuji Acuity is basically the same machine. It's pricey, but 100% worth it.

 

[KLMiller611]

I'd agree with Tim about improving midtones in photos. We have an AGFA Anapurna that was installed in December 2008, it has the CMYKLcLM and varnish. The varnish has been virtually useless to us as most of our stuff is a few days use at most. However, a lot of what we print is trade show display material on gator. I'd have to say the color on this machine, including a pretty wide spectrum of PMS matching is excellent, naturally, bright orange, green is not matchable, but most folks are not using that anyway. The machine has generally been a good one, no major problems over the last 6.5 years.

Now, printing on Gatorfoam, I don't know that the additional colors make much difference, as gator is a matte finish. We have had issues with heavy coverage on coroplast as well as it being super sensitive to finger and handprints on any glossy stock. Careful handling of the material is critical.

Ken Miller