by
David Nagel
Executive
Producer
dnagel@digitalmedianet.com
Xerox Engineering Systems is adding more weight to the wide-format market with the introduction today of the ColorgrafX X2 wide-format piezoelectric inkjet printer. The new model is a 54", six-color (tonal, not hexachromatic) printer that supports both 720 DPI and 360 DPI for final and draft output.
According to Xerox, the ColorgrafX X2 uses PixelCorrect, the company's own technology, to eliminate banding and deliver "sellable" quality for repro houses, service bureaus, etc. Xerox says a 36" model will also be available shortly targeted for the graphic arts market.
In high-quality mode, the X2 prints at 130 square feet per hour and put to 431 square feet per hour in "productivity" mode.
The X2 uses CMYK, light cyan and light magenta to approximate more colors within the SWOP spectrum. The inks themselves are oil-based and instant-drying, so, according to Xerox, users can finish, laminate or otherwise work with prints as soon as they come through the printer. The company says the inks are resistant to water, smudging and UV, though Xerox did not provide information on lifespan with any more specificity than "many years."
A full line of media—papers, films, fabrics and vinyls—is available for use in the ColorgrafX X2 to accommodate most indoor and outdoor applications. And a two-roll online media supply means that multiple media can be loaded simultaneously and changed with the push of a button or click of a mouse, eliminating the need to halt production to change media.
The ColorgrafX X2 is supported by the NTX 2.0 RIP, with PostScript level 3 support, and Onyx Postershop 5.0 software RIP. In addition, XES will launch a ColorgrafX X2 solution designed to meet the needs of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and CAD applications during the first half of 2001.
Pricing was not available. For more information, visit http://www.xes.com.
(At press time this site was down.)
