Comparison Epson SureColor SC-T2100 vs Epson SureColor SC-F500

The type of plotter is indicated by the technology used for printing. Nowadays, laser and inkjet models are most widely used, but other, more specific varieties can be found — solvent, sublimation, ultraviolet, textile, latex and solid ink plotters. Here are the main features of each of these types:

— Inkjet. In inkjet plotters, the image is built from the smallest drops of ink, “spit out” by the print head onto the paper. Such devices are relatively inexpensive, while they provide good print quality and can work with plain paper, and the inkjet technology itself is suitable for full-colour images. One of its key cons can be called poor suitability for making numerous prints in a short time: printing is relatively slow, and prints are more expensive than, for example, laser ones. In addition, the ink used for classical inkjet printing is sensitive to humidity, temperature changes and, in most cases, ultraviolet light. Therefore, materials printed on such a plotter are only suitable for indoor use; for outdoor installations, either protective coatings or more sustainable technology such as UV or solvent (see below) should be used.

— Laser. Laser printing is carried out using powdered toner: the laser beam "marks" indivi...dual areas on a special light-sensitive drum, toner sticks to these areas, which is then transferred to paper. Such devices are very convenient for operating with numerous materials: printing is fast, and the cost of one print is low. On the other hand, the vast majority of such plotters are monochrome, for drawings and other similar materials. For colour printing, laser technology is poorly suited. Laser plotters are expensive. However, relatively recently, a specific variety has appeared — LED-plotters. They are similar in principle of operation, which is why they are also commonly referred to as laser ones; however, instead of a single emitter, such devices use a system of LEDs. This made it possible to simplify the design and reduce its cost.

— Solvent. This printing technology is generally similar to inkjet, but it uses a special ink based on solvent — a solvent obtained from petroleum products. The advantage of such inks over common inks is that the solvent "penetrates" deeply into the surface of the material. This ensures reliability, resistance to adverse conditions, as well as the ability to print on a wide variety of materials — banners, vinyl films, fabrics, etc. At the same time, unlike UV printing, the materials do not require special processing — it is enough to wait for the solvent to dry. Thanks to all this, as well as the ability to create a colorful image, solvent plotters are very popular, in particular, in the production of outdoor advertising. However, this technology has its cons — foremost, a pungent smell, which makes it difficult to print materials for internal use.

— Sublimation. Plotters, which action is based on the phenomenon of sublimation — the evaporation of a solid dye and the settling of its particles on the media (often under the surface of the media). There are two types of sublimation printing: direct, when the image is applied directly to the final media, and transfer, when the image is printed on a transitional carrier and transferred from it to the media surface using a heat press. In modern plotters, the second option is most often found — it allows you to print on a wide variety of materials, including voluminous objects that simply would not fit in a plotter. This way of plotter operating that are meant in this case by the term “sublimation”, and devices with the possibility of direct printing are highlighted in a separate category — textile; see below for more details. Anyway, sublimation technology provides a higher quality image than inkjet (and its analogues), however, the ink is sensitive to ultraviolet light, which may require the use of protective coatings.

— Ultraviolet. A variation of inkjet printing (see above), using the so-called UV-ink – an ink that solidify when exposed to UV light. Such ink forms a film on the surface of the printed media that protects the applied image from adverse influences (dust, humidity); At the same time, due to the good adhesive properties of the ink, a wide variety of materials can be used for printing, which makes this technology well suited for outdoor advertising. Compared to another similar technology — solvent — UV inks are more expensive, but for a number of reasons, prints are somewhat cheaper. Other pros include instant solidification and less expressed odour, making UV printing suitable for indoor materials as well.

— Textile. Plotters with the ability to print on fabrics. Usually, they are a kind of sublimation models (see above), which support the possibility of direct printing. Note that a durable and stable image with such printing can only be obtained on synthetics — the ink is gradually washed off from cotton and other natural fabrics during washing. In addition, this method is not suitable for materials sensitive to heat.

— Solid ink. As the name suggests, this type of plotter uses solid state dyes to print. When printing, the required portions of ink are melted and applied to the drum, which prints them onto the media. Solid ink devices are compatible with a wide variety of materials (paper, film, cardboard), they provide bright, rich colour images with excellent resolution, provide good speed, and the cost of prints over long periods of use is very low. Among the cons of this technology, is the necessary to constantly keep the plotter turned on — otherwise, each time it is turned on, part of the ink will be dumped into the waste container.

— Latex. Plotters using water-based ink with the addition of synthetic latex. During operation, individual dots are applied similarly to inkjet printing (see above), after which they are heated with an oven to evaporate water and holding the latex. One of the key advantages of this type of plotters is environmental friendliness: they are safe and can be installed in any room. In addition, latex plotters are compatible with a wide range of materials (including even textiles), provide good brightness and colour reproduction, and prints are odorless and resistant to moisture.

- Floor. Plotters designed for installation directly on the floor, on special stands; the availability of a stand for such a device is mandatory, because it carries various auxiliary equipment – particularly, a basket for completed prints. The floor models are predominantly advanced models, which are distinguished by their large weight and size. This option is convenient because the plotter does not require additional surfaces such as tables for installation. On the other hand, such a unit can create inconvenience in tight room where there is little free space on the floor. Also note that some floor models are not equipped with stands, they must be purchased separately.

- Desktop. Plotters designed to be placed on a table, workbench, or other similar stand. This installation is good in constrained conditions, because it does not require floor space. On the other hand, it imposes some restrictions on weight and dimensions, which is why desktop plotters are usually designed for relatively small paper sizes - A2, less often A1 (see above).

Approximate time taken by the plotter to print one sheet.

This indicates for the paper size that the machine was originally designed for (see "Paper Size"). And it is approximate because it is usually given for optimal or almost optimal printing conditions: low quality and resolution, relatively simple images, etc. So the actual print time of the sheet may differ from the claimed one in one direction or another, depending on the operating parameters — starting from the mentioned quality and resolution to the type of media. However, according to the figures indicated in the specs, it is quite possible to evaluate different models and compare them with each other: the difference in the claimed time, usually, will proportionally correspond to the difference in the actual printing speed.

It is also worth noting that this time is usually indicated by the duration of the printing process itself — from the capture of the sheet by the feeder to the output of the completed print from the device. Interruptions inevitably occur between printing individual sheets, so that the total printing time is longer than the printing time of a sheet multiplied by the number of sheets. For example, a device with a time consumption of 36 sec per sheet theoretically should print about 100 sheets per hour (1 h = 3600 s, 3600/36 = 100), but in fact such a plotter usually produces about 70 – 75 sheets in this time.

The availability of a built-in CISS in the design of a device — a continuous ink supply system. Instead of cartridges, such plotters use external ink tanks, where the ink is pumped to the print heads. This allows you to reduce the cost of consumables: one refill of CISS is much cheaper than several replacement cartridges for the same print volumes. And you have to refill such systems less often than changing the cartridge.

The largest roll diameter that can be installed in a plotter with roll printing (see above). This parameter is useful primarily for the selection of media: the material of the same width can be produced in rolls of different diameters.

Data transfer supported by the plotter.

In addition to direct connection to a PC via USB, supported by the vast majority of such devices, connection to PC network is very popular nowadays — usually via a wired LAN port, and often via Wi-Fi. The last one may additionally support special modes of operation — Wi-Fi Direct and/or . You can also find plotters with support of external media — in the form of a card reader or its own USB port for flash drives.

Here is a more detailed description of each of these options:

— Connection to a PC (USB). Connecting to a standard USB port on a PC or laptop is a classic data transfer format found in almost all modern plotters. It allows you to send print tasks to the device, manage settings, receive various operation notifications on your PC, save digitized materials from the built-in scanner (if available — see above), etc. The disadvantages of this connection include the fact that it is designed for interaction between the plotter and only one specific PC. Anyway, you can also manage a network sharing on this PC — but this is quite complicated; it is easier to immediately select a device with network connectivity (see below).

— Network connection (LAN).... LAN connection via wired LAN interface. By itself, network connectivity at least makes the plotter accessible from any PC on the local network; and some models even allow to be used over the Internet. In addition, such devices may provide various specific network functions — for example, sending materials from a scanner to file storage or e-mail. A wired connection is not as convenient as Wi-Fi — in fact, because of the need to run a wire — but it is cheaper, and it also provides a more stable and reliable connection, not dependent on obstacles and interference levels near the device.

— USB (for flash drives). USB port for connecting various external media, installed in the plotter. In addition to flash drives, this connector can be used for external HDDs, as well as for cameras and many other portable devices with built-in storage. In any case, such a connection is mainly used for direct printing — sending files for printing without using a PC. And if you have a scanner (see above), you can also copy scanned materials to an external device via the USB port. Navigation through the contents of external media is usually carried out using the display installed on the plotter.

— Card reader. Built-in memory card reader — most often SD format (although specific types and volumes of supported cards should be clarified separately, since the SD standard covers several subspecies of media). The use of this function is generally similar to the USB port for flash drives described above — it makes it possible to print files directly from external media, as well as save data received from the scanner (if available) to this media. Memory cards are now supported in many types of electronic devices — in particular, laptops are almost always equipped with card readers, and in digital cameras this type of media is used as a standard for saving footage. Accordingly, the presence of a card reader in the plotter facilitates data exchange with such equipment: removing and inserting a card is often easier than copying materials to a computer or fiddling with a direct USB connection (if it is available at all).

— WiFi. The presence of its own Wi-Fi module allows the plotter to connect to PC network, as well as use special features such as Wi-Fi Direct and Airprint. See below for such features; as for the network connection, it provides all the same features as the wired LAN standard described above. At the same time, a Wi-Fi connection is much more convenient, as it allows you to do without laying cables. True, such a connection is somewhat more expensive, besides, the data transfer rate may drop with an abundance of interference; however, for plotters, the last one is most often not critical, and the price of a Wi-Fi module is often insignificant compared to the price of the entire device. So most modern network models support not only wired, but also wireless connections.
Specifications may also specify the Wi-Fi standard used by the device; most often it is Wi-Fi 4 or Wi-Fi 5. However, the difference between these standards in this case is not fundamental: both of them provide sufficient speed for functions implemented in plotters, and modern wireless equipment usually provides compatibility with all major Wi-Fi standards .

— WiFi Direct. A feature found on models with built-in Wi-Fi modules (see above). Direct support allows you to connect other Wi-Fi devices (laptops, smartphones, cameras, etc.) to such a plotter directly, without using a router and a local network. This can be especially convenient if there is no network equipment, or if it needs to be additionally configured. The set of functions available with this connection includes, at least, sending materials to print; however, control of plotter settings and other more specific features may also be provided.

— AirPrint. Wireless direct printing technology found on Apple devices such as iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and more. AirPrint printing is convenient and simple—it requires no additional setup when connected to a plotter and can be done with just one touch ". In this case, communication with the printing device is carried out via Wi-Fi directly — similar to the Wi-Fi Direct described above (in fact, AirPrint is usually provided as an addition to this mode).

The number of individual cartridges the plotter needs to operate.

Each cartridge is responsible for its base colour used in printing. Monochrome plotters (see "Output Type"), by definition, use only one cartridge, for black colour and for such devices this parameter is usually not specified at all. But in colour printing, where all available shades are obtained by mixing basic colours, the number of such colours (and, accordingly, cartridges) can be different.

The most modest of modern colour plotters are designed to work with 4 or 5 cartridges. The first option corresponds to the CMYK colour scheme with 4 basic colours — this is the minimum required for full colour printing. In turn, 5 cartridges usually mean a CMYK colour scheme, supplemented by a separate supply of black ink for monochrome images — this allows you not to waste consumables for such images that may be needed for colour prints, and also to print monochrome even with empty colour cartridges, and vice versa.

In general, these sets of basic colours are inexpensive, while they are able to provide fairly good quality prints; so plotters for 4 – 5 cartridges are very popular nowadays. However, the use of additional basic colours can significantly increase the quality of the image, primarily the reliability of colour reproduction. Thereby, advanced plotters can provide a larger number of cartridges — 6 – 10, and s...ometimes more. Such devices are quite expensive and difficult to maintain, but they are indispensable for printing materials with high requirements of colour quality.

Models of cartridges used in the plotter. With this info, you can easily find original consumables for the device.

The maximum noise level produced by the plotter during operation. The lower this indicator, the less inconvenience to others the device will create. At the same time, in modern plotters, the noise level usually does not exceed 60 dB, which is comparable to a TV set at an average volume; and many of them do not "reach" even up to 50 dB, corresponding to a quiet conversation at a distance of 2-3 m. And if we also take into account the fact that plotters are usually used in industrial premises, then we can say that in most cases this indicator does not play a significant role.