Looking at a large collection of prints it would be difcult to say that any printer consistently produced the best
prints. The greens were more saturated on the 7900 and Z3200 than those produced on the 7880. The 7900
hold more saturation in the shadows, while the Z3200 produced marginally punchier bright greens. In a few
specic cases, the Z3200 produced a red that was perceived as more saturated than the Epson’s. Interestingly,
the blue on the 7880 produced consistently good results, while the
Z3200 had a tendency to produce slightly purple blues.
For the proong market the gamut improvements translate into
more spot colors that can be reproduced. For packaging, exo
proong and textile design the expanded gamut is welcome. Stan-
dard SWOP/GRACoL proofs for press proong are achievable on
the X880 series printers as well as the 7900.
While not a specic attribute of the HRD ink set, the Epson pigment
is generally very compatible with third party media.
Overall I would say that the for the photographer the expanded
gamut offered by the x900 is not reason enough to justify upgrading
from a 7880. Nor would I suggest that gamut should be a signicant
factor in choosing between an Epson 7900 and a Z3200.
Print Permanence
Wilhelm Imaging Research is one of leading resources on print
permanence. They regularly evaluate the professional printers and
publish the results on their website, http://www.wilhelm-research.
com. These results often form the basis for the permanence claims
by the manufactures, including Epson.
As of November, 2008, Wilhelm has not publicly released a com-
plete set of results for the x900, but initial ndings show the printer
to be essentially the same as the x880. Listed below are the gures
for the 9880, which should be a good indication of the X900 prints.
One thing to note is that often times only the framed UV ratings are
given. As you can see the from the chart below the unframed prints
can have a signicantly shorter lifespan, as will prints not protected
under UV ltered glass. Black and white prints on this series of
printers should be extremely stable regardless of the display condi-
tions. Even unframed color prints are comparably quite archival, in
many cases lasting twice as long as comparable traditional silver
halide prints.
unframed framed under glass framed under uv glass
Prm Glossy 260 60 85 98
Prm Glossy 260(B/W) 100 200 250
Prm Luster 260 45 85 200
Prm Luster 260(B/W) 315 315 315
UltraSmooth FA 57 108 175
UltraSmooth FA(B/W) 140 205 395
Epson 7900 Prem Luster - Color Wire frame
Epson 7880 Prem Luster - Solid Magenta
Epson 7900 Prem Luster - Color Wire frame
Epson 7880 Prem Luster - Solid Magenta
Top view
Lower view
