12 percent from 1996, while ink-jet prices have dropped 16 percent in the same time. Plus, these color ink-jets have achie
ved near-photographic color quality.
Ink-jet companies say color ink-jets will further encroach on other classes of laser printers. "The price for lasers is coming down fast," says Dan Crane, vice president of marketing for Epson. "I think the collision will be at $999." To compete, ink-jets must improve print speeds considerably. Currently, most classes of ink-jet printers are limited to around 5 ppm in monochrome and 3 ppm in color. Ink-jet vendors generally inflate these estimates, warns Charles LeCompte, publisher of the
Hardcopy Observer
, an industry newsletter. But "there is no question they will squeeze higher speeds out of these machines," he says. "You can shoot more drops onto the page, or get the ink to dry faster, but some technology will emerge that can improve on what printers are achieving today."
A collision between workgroup laser printers and color ink-jets will not happen for some time. Ink-jet printing speed will probably not increase significantly for s
everal years. The next-highest class of laser printers is the "deluxe personal laser printer," and no ink-jet has been able to match the speed (around 12 ppm) and monochrome text printing capabilities of this class. These lasers will continue to be affordable printers for high-volume monochrome document printing. Laser printers are rapidly coming down in price. They now offer higher print speeds with color printing at prices that start around $3000 (see "Color Lasers: Cheaper, More Compact," August Bits). Also, according to Marco Boer, consultant partner with IT Strategies, color ink-jets are poorly positioned to compete with workgroup printers because only 2 percent of ink-jet printers have network interface cards.
Several strategies are in use to improve speeds in ink-jet printers. Hewlett- Packard's 1600C has paper-heating elements to speed the drying process, but this is an inelegant solution and is not likely to be common in the future. Epson has two technologies that are potentially beneficial --
quick-drying ink and piezo print heads -- but they have yet to result in significant improvement. The quick-drying ink has not yet produced faster print speeds and, like most color ink-jet printers, requires special paper. Micro piezo print heads, which use electronic impulses instead of thermal pressure, could significantly improve printing speeds, but most vendors are committed to thermal printhead technology.
Despite the limitations, it is a mistake to dismiss color ink-jets as consumer appliances, specialty devices, or low-end color printing solutions. IT Strategies estimates that $19 billion will be spent on wide-format graphics printers (with a printing width in excess of 24 inches) by the year 2000. Ink-jets are a major player in this market. In 1996, 6700 such color ink-jet systems were sold, expected to climb to 24,000 by the end of the century. These printers replace crude CAD plotter printers and are widely used for proofing by art departments. Designers can create inexpensive proofs, and it
is simple to output big, bold prints in-house. Color ink-jets are making inroads into print production houses. As professional printers increasingly turn to ink-jets, sales of electrostatic printers have declined 18 percent, and wide-format ink-jets have experienced a 6 percent jump during the same time.
Typical of these color ink-jet printers is the Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 2500CP ($11,995). It has 600-dpi print resolution and can print 16 million colors on paper up to 3 x 150 feet. Some manufacturers are betting on smaller wide-format printers, giving people outside design departments more printing options. The Epson Stylus Color 3000 (less than $2000) enables professional graphics artists and digital photographers to produce color proofs. It prints on paper ranging from 4 x 4 inches to 17 x 22 inches. Tektronix is offering similar functionality in its wide- format solid-ink printers. Ink-jets are beginning to penetrate the textiles market, too. Canon is selling an ink-jet printer to textiles compani
es that's priced around $1 million.
Vendors will continue to focus on mainstream consumer printers. But for graphic artists, engineers, and office workers, cheaper, wide-format color ink-jets are offering some of the same printing capabilities that professional print shops are deploying.
Ink-Jets: No Longer Just Low-End
