Encad NovaJet 850, eight color octachrome? How does it compare with other 8 color systems such as Roland?

Upcoming, comparison of all the new eight color printers: Encad NovaJet 850, Roland Hi-Fi Pro, new Konica 8 color, and the ColorSpan Esprit.

Pros and cons, how to cut through the hype of the advertisements claiming unrealistic features of eight color inkjets. Roland claims "continuous tone." Is this true? We looked at countless Roland prints, printing dots everywhere sure did not look like true continuous tone to us. So you might enjoy reading the PDF format reports from FLAAR. Just find the Inquiry Form and send it in. Our university makes these reports available at no cost.

FLAAR has always been a supporter of Encad's endeavors in inkjet printing, after all, it was Encad that started this entire industry, jumpling form the plodding plotters of the earlier generation to the faster inkjet printers of today.

But the marketplace is a rough and tumble place and shows no mercy for inkjet manufacturers who stumble. The question is not only whether 8 color inkjets are fluff and puff (a gimmick). What about the good solid six color printers, such as Epson and the newest Hewlett-Packard 5000ps? Actually our favorite eight color printer is the ColorSpan. You can even add four more colors and get the combined beauty and higher apparant dpi of twelve.Visit our page on the NovaJet 1000i.

FLAAR was at all the trade shows, Seybold San Francisco 2000, DRUPA, Photokina, then three more in October and November 2000. We have taken all our findings and added them to a wide range of reports. During 2001 our three editors visited five more trade shows. Six more people are being added to our staff as we open a new office at a state university. We still maintain a staff of eight at our office in Latin America. All these data are provided in the reports-in-PDF-format.

If you really want technical details on inkjet media, inks, and/or inkjet printhead technology, and especially if you wish to meet the movers and shakers in this industry, be sure to sign up for the next conference organized by IMI. Their contact is [email protected]. These seminars are outstanding; the senior review editor of FLAAR usually attends because he can get so much fresh information for the readers of the FLAAR Reports in PDF format and the FLAAR Information Network of web sites.

Most recently updated June 1, 2002.
Previous updates: July 12, 2001.