Encad wide format inkjet : printing textiles

Flatbed scans of indigenous textiles look fabulous when printed on laser printers such as Minolta-QMS, GCC, or Xerox Textronix which can handle oversize (A3 size, tabloid, full-bleed up to 13x19 inches). But a wide format ink jet printer can also reproduce beautiful poster-size or banner-size images.

On the original Encad print the colors are vibrant. The Internet requires JPEGing the file so it can pass over the telephone lines to your computer. JPEGing the file removes all the fine detail and the finesse of the true color. Furthermore, internet pages viewed on monitors on PC computers are so dark that the image has to be lightened on a Macintosh or its color will be too dark on every PC monitor.

But the actual print from an RGB scan, on photo matte paper, is eye-catching.

As a poster, or extended as a banner, this kind of print will draw crowds to any exhibit.

Here is a snapshot of an actual Encad print from the NovaJetPro 36 inch large format inkjet printer (snapshot with a Nikon CoolPix 950). Even though this is a picture of a picture, the quality is still evident.

FLAAR has about nine wide format printers currently. In addition to the Epson, Encad, Hewlett-Packard DesignJet we have also tried our images on a Mutoh I-Jet, Roland HiFi Pro, and other printers.

Based on years experience with all these machines, which wide format inkjet printer does Nicholas Hellmuth recommend?

FLAAR offers free reports based on our six years experience with the nine inkjet printers we have at the two universities where FLAAR maintains evaluation facilities.

Over 14,000 people a year write us an e-mail asking this very question. So we have prepared over 50 distinct and separate reports on inkjet printers as answers to their questions. You too can obtain some of these free reports. Just fill out the request form and the reports come to you in convenient full-color Adobe Acrobat PDF format from our university.

• Site redesign May, 2004 / Last updated July 16, 2002