What printer should I buy: iGen4 / Nexpress S2500 / Indigo 3500

Based on my personal experience and those of other printers - they have never steered me wrong yet!:)

I've learned that it's best to check with them about support FIRST.
 
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Go for HP Indigo 5500 digital offset press

Go for HP Indigo 5500 digital offset press

Please find Reasons that why Indigo is much above these powder tonner advanced photocopy devices

1) Indigo is the only Digital Press in the world which is based on offset architecture (Plate – Blanket – Impression Cylinders)

2) Indigo works on a unique patent technology of Liquid Electro Ink, In which Ink pigments are translucent and actually are offset pigments. this is a video on Liquid ink Vs Powder tonner (YouTube - HPIndigovsTheOthers)

3) Offers a complete range of pantones for spot color printing, which is not available in any other digital machine

4) Photo inks is another unique feature in HP Indigo 5500 which helps to print better photography products like albums

5) Thick substrate kit (optional) in HP Indigo allows you to print jobs up to 450 microns (approx 400 plus gsm)

6) High DPI printing allows Indigo to print as fine as 0.423 point size text for security applications

7) color printing ensures the accuracy of color and perfect color matching vis-à-vis offset printing up till 97 %

8) The press is structurally based on Ryobi offset machine chassis which makes it very heavy and robust (no plastic part, only metal) work-horse

9) Widest variety of paper stock, like textured, metallic, non tear-able, transparency, etc. can be printed on Indigo

10) White Ink is new added advantage to create high quality Tags, Designed Photo Albums, Printing on Transparent material

also ask for GMG software with the Indigo for advanced color consistancy
 
What Printer to use

What Printer to use

I have used the IGen3, the Indigo 3500, the Canon 7000, Toshiba 3100 and consulted on the NextPress. All printers are great printers but they each have their niche. The IGen was fantastic on Variable print using the propietary VIPP software. The rate of person to run the machine is above the average digital printer operator and MUST have a good eye for color. The Indigo is almost exactly like a traditional press as the maintenance is extreme and I would not ever recommend this press again. The level of person required to run and maintain this press is no different than the high paid employee running an offset press. However this person must also have computer skills. I cannot say enough about the level of 'Mechanical' features this machine has. The Canon 7000 press is a good press with fine color. What I liked about this press is the redundant cleaning stations built into the machine. The Toshiba is much to small to be grouped in this group of presses.

I have run variable on all 3 of the machines listed above. All seemed to run OK, but if I had to rate them the IGEN is number 1, Canon would be number 2 and Indigo would be number 3. The RIP time on the Canon and the Indigo seemed very slow, however a recomendation from me personally is not to use a PDF workflow. The RIP on all when it comes to PDF's is too slow.

I hope this may help you make a decision.
 
Selling Ricoh c900

Selling Ricoh c900

I have a pair of Ricoh C900 for sale. 1 is a copy/print/scan "S" version with only 53,000 impressions (showroom model). It comes with SR 5000, BK 5000, LCT and Fiery. Asking $55k

Also have a Print only version with SR 5000, LCT and Fiery for $35k with 1.5 million impressions.

[email protected]
 
I have a pair of Ricoh C900 for sale. 1 is a copy/print/scan "S" version with only 53,000 impressions (showroom model). It comes with SR 5000, BK 5000, LCT and Fiery. Asking $55k

Also have a Print only version with SR 5000, LCT and Fiery for $35k with 1.5 million impressions.

[email protected]

Greetings,
If it is still available, please make your best offer. With whom you have service contract.
My email is [email protected].
Thanks.
Salecha
 
Quality :
I read an article by 3rd party lab comparing igen4 and indigo 5000 & 7000. Surprised me that for photo quality, indigo 5000 with ymck+light cyan & light magenta is quite near to igen4 print quality. Indigo 7000 ymck is totally out of the game. Question : does anyone has Experience with igen4 photo quality print? Is that true? I had been using indigo 5000. With right paper, the quality is very good.

Reliability is important too. Indigo is a complicated machine. It need alot of maintenance to get the quality print. Some maintenance required the indigo people to perform which cost extra. No idea of igen4.
 
Greetings, Please give us details about third party lab comparison. If possible link to that report.Thanks.It will help me & other forum members.
Thanks.
Salecha

Quality :
I read an article by 3rd party lab comparing igen4 and indigo 5000 & 7000. Surprised me that for photo quality, indigo 5000 with ymck+light cyan & light magenta is quite near to igen4 print quality. Indigo 7000 ymck is totally out of the game. Question : does anyone has Experience with igen4 photo quality print? Is that true? I had been using indigo 5000. With right paper, the quality is very good.

Reliability is important too. Indigo is a complicated machine. It need alot of maintenance to get the quality print. Some maintenance required the indigo people to perform which cost extra. No idea of igen4.
 
We are currently running 3X iGen3, and are scoping an upgrade to the iGen4. A good bit of the reason we're looking at the iGen4 is that we are generally very, very pleased with the quality and uptime of the iGen, but like Dave says, we have a devil of a time with transparencies, duotones, tints/screens, etc. A lot of the color issues are, according to Xerox, resolved with the improvements to the iGen platform like in-line spectrophotometry, QI automation, and the like.

In light of the EXCELLENT service we receive from Xerox, and in light of the generally very good quality we see on our three machines (a combined total output of nearly 3 million impressions/month), I am very hopeful that the new developer handling and color management features will resolve the quality issues we've been having.

Finally, I would caution against reaching ANY conclusions based on ANY printed samples a salesguy shows you. Who the hell knows how they got that beauty-full proof, anyway? A better test would be to have them print you a sample--on YOUR stock, with YOUR specs--of a file you're having issues with.

Cheers,
-d-
 
Our Indigo 5500 puts out some pretty nice prints when its not down or uindergoing maintenance. Our IGEN 4 also produces excellent prints (not as good photographic) and runs, runs, runs, this is a life saveing machine.

The Indigo service model is the worst in existence. Unless you plan on stocking a large inventory of parts ( which you have to pay for if its inventory) then your going down for minimum a day till you get your parts overnighted.

Our Indigo is down right now because the computer is throwing a memory parity error. Its just a memory module but I'l be down for a day, the other day belts broke, down for a day, another day it was a sensor, all these minor problems start to add up. We were down so much that we can't wait to get Indigo out the door!

The Xerox went down at end of day yesterday due to a power outage. This morning we had a tech waiting at the door to get in. In contrast with Indigo, you get charged if a tech comes out more than once a month. Never again HP!
 
Okay, related to my original reply:

We upgraded to the iGen4, but tints and screens remain a challenge for us. I'm looking for some best practices around handling tints on an iGen4. We're having some issues with hitting and holding tints--device to device and run to run on the same device. Our original idea was to create named plates in the LUT for each Pantone value (i.e. 417_90; 417_85, etc.), but this option doesn't quite work out due to how InDesign names color swatches (it forces a percentage into the naming that cannot be added to the LUT, i.e. 417_85 85%). Using the CMYK breakdown of the Pantone doesn't always work because each press has its own personality with regard to how the CMYK breakdown outputs, so what we're trying to accomplish here is a way to "own" each of the tints so we can make device-specific adjustments.

It's worth noting here that we do NOT have any prepress ability in our shop, since this responsibilty is farmed out to another unit in the same company. We're supplied only with the print-ready PDF from our prepress group.

Any ideas/insights/offers are very much welcome!

Cheers,
David
 
Please find Reasons that why Indigo is much above these powder tonner advanced photocopy devices

1) Indigo is the only Digital Press in the world which is based on offset architecture (Plate – Blanket – Impression Cylinders)

2) Indigo works on a unique patent technology of Liquid Electro Ink, In which Ink pigments are translucent and actually are offset pigments. this is a video on Liquid ink Vs Powder tonner (YouTube - HPIndigovsTheOthers)

3) Offers a complete range of pantones for spot color printing, which is not available in any other digital machine

4) Photo inks is another unique feature in HP Indigo 5500 which helps to print better photography products like albums

5) Thick substrate kit (optional) in HP Indigo allows you to print jobs up to 450 microns (approx 400 plus gsm)

6) High DPI printing allows Indigo to print as fine as 0.423 point size text for security applications

7) color printing ensures the accuracy of color and perfect color matching vis-à-vis offset printing up till 97 %

8) The press is structurally based on Ryobi offset machine chassis which makes it very heavy and robust (no plastic part, only metal) work-horse

9) Widest variety of paper stock, like textured, metallic, non tear-able, transparency, etc. can be printed on Indigo

10) White Ink is new added advantage to create high quality Tags, Designed Photo Albums, Printing on Transparent material

also ask for GMG software with the Indigo for advanced color consistancy

Indigo is the way to go if you want to match a pantone blue...

The violet ink makes the blues 'pop' as you describe..

About the above quote, it is like an offset press but the only issue, contrary to what is stated above, is it rips at a low resolution (600 or max 1200 dpi) so it will never be as sharp on text or fine dot as an offset press (which is minimum 2400 dpi up to 6000+ for FM screens)

But colour is where the indigo really has the advantage, especially for 'out of gamut' CMYK colours...

And, you have the added bonus of buying your own ink mixer, and just mixing the pantone colour yourself... if you only need the pantone colour and black, you only pay for 2 colours rather than 4 or 6...

But, as stated, is requires A LOT MORE MAINTENANCE than any toner machine...

My 2c
 
Okay, related to my original reply:

We upgraded to the iGen4, but tints and screens remain a challenge for us. I'm looking for some best practices around handling tints on an iGen4. We're having some issues with hitting and holding tints--device to device and run to run on the same device. Our original idea was to create named plates in the LUT for each Pantone value (i.e. 417_90; 417_85, etc.), but this option doesn't quite work out due to how InDesign names color swatches (it forces a percentage into the naming that cannot be added to the LUT, i.e. 417_85 85%). Using the CMYK breakdown of the Pantone doesn't always work because each press has its own personality with regard to how the CMYK breakdown outputs, so what we're trying to accomplish here is a way to "own" each of the tints so we can make device-specific adjustments.

It's worth noting here that we do NOT have any prepress ability in our shop, since this responsibilty is farmed out to another unit in the same company. We're supplied only with the print-ready PDF from our prepress group.

Any ideas/insights/offers are very much welcome!

Cheers,
David

The way inDesign works, is if a colour is defined as a SPOT COLOUR, most rips can be set to look at the colour name, and make its own decision as to how the colour should be made, rather than looking at the CMYK values associated with that colour swatch in indesign...
 
Hi,


I would suggest you Indigo 3500. The HP Indigo press 3500 is an affordable, offset quality digital printing solution designed to meet the challenges of today’s demanding market. Combining HP Indigo’s legendary quality and innovation with exceptional durability and versatility, it’s the ideal solution for those making their initial entry into color digital production.


t1285
 
My 2 cents. If you enjoy having an albatross tied around your neck, opt for the Indigo...
 
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