Epson 9800 Review

by sammy
(Berkeley, CA)

Perhaps you have you seen an Epson 9800 before and often wondered what kind of business makes use of a large format that looks like some knitting machine. Giclee art and giclee printmaking are the latest trend in fine arts and latest in printmaking industry. As a giclee printer, I never realized that a lot of people seriously invest their money in fine art paintings. Artists on the other hand have found a good way of marketing their art works through giclee art since they are widely used for commercial purposes.

What is giclee art by the way?

Giclee art is simply reproducing an exact replica of a gallery art piece in any kind of substrate or material, paper or canvas using a high-tech inkjet printer like Epson 9800. The substrate or size of the giclee art will depend on the preference of the customer.

You see it works like this: a painter creates his fine art painting and puts it on exhibit in his gallery. A lot of people will be invited to view his or her works of art but not all of these visitors can afford the painting itself because there's a high price attached to it.

Giclee art will come to the rescue then, because anyone who is interested in a particular painting can buy a reproduction of the fine art whether in paper or canvas through the use of the inkjet printer technology. That is why a cooperative and hardworking printer like Epson Stylus Pro 9880 is quite in demand nowadays. The Epson can print giclee art using a variety of materials and sizes. It can produce giclee fine art pieces larger than the actual size of the original painting, or in the same size of the original or as small as 5" x 5" to be printed on a large sheet and will be cut into small sizes later.

Some customers would like the giclee art to be authentic looking, hence they order a fine art giclee reproduction done in canvas. The inkjet technological capacity of the Epson 9800 is quite impressive as it is able to deliver an almost exact likeness of the original painting. The gallery customer is happy of course because he was able to acquire a fine art painting at a very affordable price.

Why Epson 9800 and Not Just Any Desktop Inkjet Printers?

Now there will be those skeptics who will think that the giclee art reproduction will not last a lifetime like the original even if the reproduction was made on canvas. That's where they are wrong and that is why the use of high tech inkjet printers like the Epson Stylus Pro 9800 is very important.

Not just any desktop inkjet printer will do because it has to make use of the specially formulated Epson UltraChrome K3TM inks, one of the more important technological finds in the printing industry. The ink has been tested to be highly resistant against UV light. The most conservative estimate length of time by which the giclee art reproduction will stand the test of time is 30 years. Although tests have shown that it can reach 75 years before it will start to lose its tonality.

The Epson 9800 is quite cooperative with its ability to jet spray as much as 2880x1440 dots per inch wherein the reproduced giclee art will have no visible dot pattern. Giclee by the way is a French word that means "to squirt or to spray". Now the latest in ink technology which is the Vivid Magenta pigments have even made Epson 9800 the most reliable printer to bank on when it comes to art reproductions. It's an eight-color ink technology to enhance the quality of large color prints while the use of a three-level black technology is responsible for raising the quality of black and white gliclee art prints.

On top of that, Epson 9800 has this MicroPiezo AMCTM print head . The print head is protected by another innovation as guard against nozzle clogging as the print head is coated with an ink repelling technology. For giclee art reproductions in paper, another new advancement used by the Epson 9800 Pro Stylus printer is the Mycrocrystal Encapsulation Technology which ensures high-gloss quality of the prints and that it will not thin out easily.

So if you think that a large format printer like Epson 9800 is good only for banners, streamers and graphic wall covers, think again. The Epson Pro Stylus 9800 is quite a competent partner for giclee art printing.


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