After running an Epson 7600 for the past seven years, the time to upgrade has arrived. This is a photo of the Epson 9900 running a 44″ canvas roll. My first impressions of this new model are very positive. It is fast, very fast, especially when compared to the 7600. The colors are extremely vivid and intense. Since the color palette of my work tends to be more saturated, I was concerned the results may get over saturated with the new orange and green ink combo on this model. However, this was not the case. The warmer end of the spectrum is where I saw biggest differences over my 7600 prints. The yellows are very rich and clean, while the reds and oranges had plenty of nuance.

I ran the majority of my prints using Epson’s standard driver. I tried tweaking some of the settings, but the best results came from using Epson’s recommended settings. The premium driver, which Epson actually recommends for more accurate reproduction, did not improve my results, so for now, I’m sticking with the standard driver until I have more time to experiment.

The reason I moved up to the 44″ from the 24″ is my recent switch to producing my work on canvas. Canvas requires plenty of extra material and the 24″ model really limits your production sizes. If you plan on printing gallery wrapped canvas pieces, its a good rule of thumb that you will need the depth of the stretcher bars + 1.5″ – 1.75″ on all sides to get a good stretch, especially if you use a stretching machine.

The good news for small operations, such as myself, is you can expect five years or more of operation from these Epson printers. The helps to put the printer’s costs into perspective. My 7600 is still going strong and has only been serviced twice in the seven years I’ve owned it.