Hey Barry I recently oversaw a midtoszed toner printer "digital press" evaluation project for a client that was retiring a Xerox system and wanted to evalaute the current options throughly. They are a high quality photo lab used to using top quality papers chemistry, and ink to achieve maximum gamut, dmax and overall print quality. The units they identified for evaluation were from Xerox, Konica Minolta and Canon. They also had four papers for the evaluation - a glossy, matte, stick heavy stock and a heavily textured “linen” paper. We decided custom calibration and profiles was required for each printer paper combination for a fair evaluation. RIPs were included in all cases as they are a requirement for the needs of a client like this (imposition, binding, etc). We used my v9 evaluation image for evaluation, along with one they made. I wasn’t involved in the cost analysis part of the comparison. The salesmen were a little bewildered but our insistence on spending so much time on their machines without own papers but ultimately appreciated seeing the findings and learned from it It’s funny how those sales people brag about their products but often don’t have any experience with competitor’s products... The first three we worked with had nearly identical Dmax and color gamut. The Canon imagePRESS was a surprise because the Dmax and gamut was more impressive than we’d ever seen from a toner printer before. And the Canon was the only one that could saturate the texture “valleys” for total and even coverage. The financing terms were attractive as well so this was a surprising win-win for them. They now calibrate within the RIP and have found it to be remarkably stable. I’ve done a number of evaluations like this over the years. 10+ years ago it seems like Xerox had the quality and tight registration edge. About 10 years ago Konica Minolta changed that and dominated the quality/value sweet spot. Now it Seems Canon is doing something unusual with their toner that the others haven’t caught up with. That said, this was for midsized oner machines like the imagePRESS C750 they ended up buying. Within the last year I purchased a small $300 Canon Color imageCLASS MF733Cdw and that thing was a terrible piece of junk that I returned. What you're looking for sounds like it’s somewhere in the middle and while I’m not certain what to recommend, I think it would be smart to include a Canon imagePRESS and a Konica Minolta BizHub in your list of devices to evaluate. Scott Martin www.on-sight.com Precise color science for printmaking professionals

On May 20, 2019, at 12:09 PM, Barry Gorrell <bgorrell@cecil.edu> wrote:

Hello,

We’re considering replacement of our 10 year old Xerox Phaser 7800GX, but it appears Xerox has not released an newer replacement for their 7800. We do not use a RIP, but have made custom profiles for students to use with our Phaser and have been very happy with it’s excellent color gamut and accuracy as a proof printer.

With any new printer we’d prefer one with a somewhat higher print volume and lower consumable costs. We’re looking at Canon’s imageRUNNER 5535i v3 and were wondering if any colorsync list subscribers might have experience with one or both of these printers and could comment on their comparative color gamuts, reliability and ease of profiling. Canon offers a EFI Fiery RIP option, but we’d much prefer either a 3rd party RIP or no RIP at all.

Any and all comment regarding these two printers are welcome, especially on the issue of using a RIP or not and if so which would be preferable. Years ago we used the imagePRINT RIP with an Epson 4800 inkjet printer and got good results, but ultimately abandoned it because of a low level of need, high maintenance costs and poor support.

Thanks in advance for any comment you might care to share.

Regards,

Barry Gorrell VCP Lab Coordinator

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