Is it Color Magic, Or Epson's New Inks and Software for the EPSON F2270 DTG / DTF Printer?

JAY: Hello, I'm Jay Busselle from Equipment Zone, and I’m happy to be visiting Epson America headquarters in Southern California and I've got a friend I’m excited to introduce. I've got Paul Morales here, Paul what's going on my friend?

PAUL: Hey what's going on, Jay? Welcome back!

JAY: Thanks for letting us hang out with you today. We were just in the neighborhood and thought we should stop by. I'm really excited about this new printer. The truth is, we couldn't wait to see it so Terry and I had to fly over. I'd love to get more insights and info from you! Maybe you could give us a couple of minutes and tell us what's different, what’s new and what's special about the Epson F2270 DTG & DTF printer?

PAUL: Absolutely! Let’s start with the ink. I'm going to just open this door right here. We have ink packs on both sides of the machine; so you can see we have our CMYK on the left hand side and we got our white inks and our maintenance liquid on the right side. These are easy to replace ink packs that will just drop right in these trays. Each pack has a chip on it so the printer knows exactly which ink is being loaded and how much ink is in the packs. If you look closely at the pack that Jay's holding up you can see that there are actually filters built right inside the ink pack. The ink gets filtered before it even enters the machine. In fact it gets filtered multiple times before it ever gets into contact with the printheads.

JAY: Wow!

PAUL: A big advantage with this machine is the way it’s always actively performing maintenance and that starts right in our ink lines. You can rest assured that you're not going to have to deal with ink clogs or anything like that because we start the filtration right at the very beginning in the ink packs. The ink packs are 800 milliliters in capacity, so that's larger than the old cartridges and as you can see they’re much more eco-friendly.

JAY: I cannot describe well enough how Epson plans for all of the details. The attention to detail here at Epson is so impressive! It seems like everything that Epson is doing right now has a focus on sustainability and is eco-friendly. I really appreciate how Epson and your team are concerned about the impact it’s making or not making on the environment.

PAUL: That’s right Jay! Since we've done away with all of our cartridge systems and all the bulky parts, we've actually reduced our landfill waste now by up to 70 percent. Because the ink packs are also larger in capacity, that means less frequent ink changes. We are trying to maximize that printer uptime and minimize the downtime.

JAY: That’s excellent news that all operators will appreciate. I want to talk a little bit about maybe chemistry or what's new with the inks. Is the Epson F2270 printer using a whole new system, Paul?

PAUL: Yes. So if you open that door right there to your side, those are the CMYK inks. Our CMYK inks are formulated as new Ultra Chrome DG2 inks. One thing that we've done with our new CMYK DG2 ink set is to improve the color vibrancy, the color clarity and the color consistency. Another improvement is the inkjet dot will hold its shape really well and no longer do we have to worry about light colors and dark colors next to each other wicking into the lighter areas or causing any issues like that. We are lucky to have ink chemists here at Epson. Because they design our ink, they're able to do certain things that others may not be able to do. We take full advantage of that and anytime we can improve the quality and consistency of our ink, you know we will.

JAY: So I want to make sure I use the correct term. Is it ink bags or packs?

PAUL: We are calling them ink packs.

JAY: I also want to talk about vibrancy. We were pretty impressed and noticed that the print that we did earlier just looks like it's popping more. I don't know if I'm right or wrong?

PAUL: Great observation Jay! You're definitely noticing improved color clarity and vibrancy. In addition to the inks, one of the ways that we make that possible is in our all-new garment Creator 2 software. There are a couple of new things within Garment Creator 2 that users of the F2270 will really enjoy. We now have four times the input resolution - so we can now bring in images and take full advantage of a 600 by 600 DPI resolution. When we're printing a really sharp, fine print, or small type and intricate designs like what you have right here, you're really going to see a noticeable difference in color clarity, resolution and vibrancy.

PAUL: The other thing that we added from a color standpoint is a vivid color profile setting. We still have our auto profile settings for color management, but the vivid color profile setting is bringing in a wider color gamut. So think of it like a saturation or vibrancy boost. I have a simple slider and if I want a little bit more color, we simply click a button.

JAY: Is there anything else about color management on the Epson F2270 DTG/DTF printer that you would like to mention?

PAUL: You know there is Jay! We didn’t stop with just the vivid color profile in Garment Creator 2. Users have the option to input their own color profile if they're familiar with doing that sort of thing. They can further increase their printing capabilities and color capabilities. We give people the tools necessary in order to get as close as possible to a perfect color match.

For example, we now have the first spectrophotometer engineered by Epson. The SD-10 is an easy-to-use, portable device that measures colors accurately, consistently and quickly. It gives you the color information you need to make critical color decisions. Its compact size makes it really easy to carry and allows you to take measurements virtually anywhere, anytime.

JAY: Thanks Paul, I’ve learned a lot about the printer, the ink and the software. Thanks for this interview, I know our customers will enjoy it too!

PAUL: You’re welcome Jay! You and Terry should drop by more often.