Epson America Inc. has today announced two new additions to its lineup of wide-format photo printers, in the form of the Stylus Pro 7600 and 9600. Both printers are almost identical with the exception of carriage width and maximum ink cartridge size, and they bring some pretty interesting new features as compared to older models. Most obvious is the ink choice; as well as the existing 6-color photographic dye inks, the printers can also use the company's new 7-color UltraChrome inks similar to the recently-debuted Stylus Photo 2200 consumer printer (in fact, although it was announced first the UltraChrome inks were developed for these new printers and trickled down to the consumer division of Epson). Epson reps we spoke to recently were very bullish about the performance of UltraChrome for both color and black & white printing, loosely describing this and other developments in the 7600 / 9600 printers as a quantum leap over offerings from other companies (which they felt were just catching up to the Stylus Pro 7000 and 9500 models). Obviously you'd expect the company to be using such terms, but the prints we've seen seem to suggest it may be more than just marketing hyperbolae. For more on the UltraChrome inks read our coverage of the Stylus Photo 2200 announcement; in brief they should offer reduced graininess, improved gradation and much better metamerism characteristics.

The new Stylus Pro models offer a lot more changes than just the ink-sets though. Resolution has been doubled in both directions to 2880 x 1440 dpi, whilst droplet size has been shrunk to 4 picoliters and three variable droplet sizes are now offered. The number of nozzles has been increased significantly, allowing for faster printing (although the much more expensive Stylus Pro 10000 is still tops in this regard). Wilhelm Research's preliminary data suggests lifetimes of 90 to 100 years on Premium Glossy Photo Paper under glass. You can switch between different ink sets in about 10 minutes, but due to the long ink lines each change will lose you about 180 to 215ml of ink across all 7 ink cartridges, for a cost of $112 each time you switch inks. Epson suggested that with the comparitively low cost of the new models, some users may actually prefer to just buy two printers and leave them running different inks all the time, avoiding this loss and saving time.

The new ink cartridges are available in 110ml or 220ml sizes (the larger size being for the 9600 model only), and feature intelligence that tracks ink levels, ink type and usage rates. On the 9600 model, you can even mix and match different ink cartridge sizes together to optimise your ink usage. A new built-in automatic cutting system cuts your media for you to allow true borderless printing on all sides, a first for a wide-format printer. The roll-media spindles are adjustable to accept media with two or three-inch cores, and on the 9600 model there's an optional automatic take-up reel system for use on unattended print runs.

Epson claims print speeds for the new models are about 2.5 times faster than the 7000 and 9500 printers, with speeds varying from 8 ft² per hour to a maximum of 192 ft² per hour. Connectivity-wise, USB 1.1 and 2 are standard, as well as Parallel and Epson Expansion; 10/100 BaseT ethernet and IEEE 1394 FireWire are offered as options. Perhaps the most impressive point is the pricing though - we've alluded to the low prices a number of times in this article, and we're sure you're waiting with baited breath. As compared to the Stylus Pro 7000 (which cost $3995 or $4995 depending on the ink set), the Stylus Pro 7600 is up to 40% cheaper at an estimated street price of $2995. The Stylus Pro 9600 meanwhile bests the previous 9500 model by some $1000 (17%) at a cost of $4995 - actually making it the same cost as the archival ink version of the 7000 model (which has a carriage width some 20" less)!

Courtesy of Epson, we have specifications comparisons of both new printers with the older models, specs that the company feels are the best in each group being listed in green. We expect to have the official press release up soon...