User Manual

Printing has been central to global culture and economics since Gutenberg intro-

duced moveable type to Europe around 1440. Over the past decade, growth in the

value of printing has averaged 1% a year and now stands at $800 billion

. Printing

takes place everywhere from home ofces to gargantuan manufacturing sites.

Yet, after more than 500 years of printing, the majority of ofce printing is still mono

chrome. In factories, millions of preprinted analog labels must be disposed of month-

ly as SKU demand changes, and textile manufacturers must commit to fashion trends

a year in advance. The demand for performance will only grow in the future, driven by

made-to-order products, labels, and packaging requiring “just in time” delivery and

variable data. The effect of the move from mass marketing to mass personalization is

that print runs will continue to get shorter, pushing the boundaries on cost and speed.

In recent years, digital print has demonstrated the benets of on-demand exibility,

but to continue its rapid growth it must deliver even greater speeds with no compro

mises in established expectations of print quality. By meeting these needs, inkjet print

usage is expected to grow rapidly in the two largest printer market segments. The

rst is where traditional analog presses currently dominate and the second is where

ofce laser printers currently dominate.

While traditional analog presses are fast, they are only cost-effective when produc

ing high volumes of identical output. At lower volumes, their overhead costs, includ-

ing platemaking and press make-ready, drive their amortized per-print costs to non-

economical levels. Consequently, digital inkjet printers are already starting to replace

analog presses for short-run labels and garments. Not only are they easier to setup

but they can deliver customized content on every piece.

The remaining bulk of the world’s current print volume comes from ofce laser print

ers, along with a few commercial grade dry and liquid toner devices. A new genera-

tion of inkjet products is emerging that combine laser printer duty cycles and text

quality with inkjet color and efciencies, but at the ever higher speeds that we are

starting to see from commercial inkjet products. This new generation of inkjet print

ers will continue to become more prominent in the segment now dominated by ofce

laser printers at an even more rapid pace.

To meet this challenge fully, Epson offers customers dramatically faster speeds and

on-demand exibility with the introduction of its PrecisionCore scalable print chip.

PrecisionCore extends the industry-leading piezo performance of its commercial

printers both upwards to the industrial press, and downwards to the desktop.

2. Meeting Customers’ Need for Speed, Economy, and

　　Flexibility

PrecisionCore white paper