Color Label Solutions

Color Label Solutions
www.colorlabelsolutions.com

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Label Expo 2016

On September 14 and 15, 2016, I attended Label Expo http://www.labelexpo-americas.com/  in Rosemont, IL.


Label Expo is large; covering all types of machines and materials for producing labels.  So let me tell you about 6 new products that I found interesting.

First, Epson announced officially the new Wasatch RIP for the C7500 and C7500G. 


C7500 With Wasatch RIP
C7500 With Wasatch RIP

You can learn more about the RIP here in a post from an earlier post from this year:


Again, the RIP enables users to control colors better and produce much better results:




C7500G Full-Bleed Label Using the Wasatch RIP
C7500G Full-Bleed Label Using the Wasatch RIP

What is interesting to me is the price.  Epson has bundled together the C7500 printer including the new firmware, the RIP software and a year of on-site service for $9,450; only $800 more than the C7500 printer.  So for $800, you get the RIP software and on-site service which has a list price of $1,029.  It’s a great deal.  According to Epson, you’ll be able to order this bundle beginning October 31, 2016.  Be sure to contact me if you’re interested this bundle.


In addition to color controls, Epson’s new firmware/RIP enables continuous printing.  Now you can print and use a secondary finishing unit to laminate and die-cut the labels.  In the booth, Epson showed a finishing unit from their new partner Metas:



Watch the finishing unit work here: 



And learn more about this new finishing unit here: http://www.metas.global/.  And look at the differences between a matte paper label and a matte paper label laminated:
C7500 Printed Matte Paper (L) & Laminated (R)
C7500 Printed Matte Paper (L) & Laminated (R)
I hope you can see the differences in the photo; They are big!



At $20,000, I believe the Metas finish unit is the most affordable option to laminate and die-cut labels.  The new RIP/continuous label printing capability combined with this finishing unit make the C7500 a great option for printers wanting to begin digital label printing for less than $30,000; much less than buying a $1 million press from a company like HP-Indigo.


Second, Epson showed a new round bottle semi-automatic label applicator integrated with the C7500.  Now you can print and apply great looking labels to wine, chemical or other round bottles.

Watch this new print and apply applicator work here: 



At approximately $14,000, the semi-automatic applicator takes full use of the C7500 printer.  Plus this applicator is the only print and apply color label applicator available.  This applicator works with the C7500 for two key reasons.  First, the C7500 has a GPIO board that enables communication between the printer and applicator.  Second, the applicator allows the printer to reverse up to the 8” to 10” required by the C7500.  If you need to apply labels to round containers quickly, affordably and in the same place every time, then the C7500 and applicator combination is a great option.

Third, DPR showed a new Gemini die-cutter for sheet-fed labels.  Now you can die-cut sheets of A3-A4 labels (up to 13” x 19”) into lots of smaller labels for a limited amount of money. 

 
Gemini Die-Cutter


At $6,500, you can turn a standard sheet fed color printer into a system to print any shape die cut labels on sheets.  It’s a very affordable way to print colorful and complex labels.  For example, printers can produce labels for their customers in just about any shape and label material.  Or manufacturers can produce unique specialty on-demand when they need them.  From my perspective, this machine opens up on-demand color labels to new customers.

Fourth, Afinia Label introduced the L301 label printer; a wide, high resolution and affordable printer that should fit small volume manufacturers.


Afinia L301 Label Printer
Afinia L301 Label Printer


At less than $2,000 and using a HP printhead, the new Afinia label printer will enable companies to print a limited number of high resolution labels in color.  I say limited as the printer is slow and the ink cost will be relatively high.  Plus the L301 uses dye based C, M, Y inks, that are susceptible to water and other compounds.  But this printer provides an easy to use option for printing great looking labels for not much money.  If you need to produce wider labels and don’t want to spend a lot of money, the Afinia L301 label printer is an interesting option.

Fifth, Addmaster introduce their new sub-$1000 color label printer; seemingly great for prescription and color code labels.
Addmaster Color Label Printer
Addmaster Color Label Printer

At 2.5” print widths, the new Addmaster printer is not for every application. But where color codes and simple images are required, especially for short duration labels, the Addmaster printer seems like a good option.

Addmaster Label
Addmaster Label

This printer should fit applicators such as prescription labels; with color-coded warning message, highlighted and bold text and images.  In addition, I can see how this printer may work in manufacturing where color-coded in-process inventory labels would be of value.

The Addmaster printer doesn’t produce masterpieces; nor is it fast.  But this printer enables color-coded labels with images at a low initial hardware price.

Sixth, Trojan Label Systems introduced a new corrugated printer; the Trojan 3. 

Trojan 3
Trojan 3


And learn more here:  http://www.trojanlabel.com/products/trojanthree

At $49,500, this 8” wide, Memjet-based corrugated printer is complementary to our existing corrugated printer. (See our $20,000 corrugated, CYMK printer here: www.directtocorrugated.com).  And the much more expensive ($115,000), 48” Excelagraphix 4800 corrugated printer: 

http://www.xante.com/product-information/excelagraphix/excelagraphix-4800/?gclid=Cj0KEQjw9vi-BRCx1_GZgN7N4voBEiQAaACKVhstS8ffDE0dli4xm1parrmoR88JdsHNYjFPOi2tfQ8aAo_D8P8HAQ

The Trojan 3 produced great looking images and text on corrugated using the touch-screen and print engine module found in the Trojan 2 mini-press. 

Trojan 3 Print
Trojan 3 Print


Seemingly durable and available with RIP software, the Trojan 3 is built for long life. 

With the recent additional of several color corrugated printers, the market for these new packaging machines will grow significantly.

Label Expo 2016 was a successful show for us; and lots of promise for our industry.  If you found any of these new products/technology of interest, contact us to discuss how we can fit them into your operation.

Guy Mikel
855-962-7670

Monday, September 5, 2016

C7500 BarTender Driver

Do you know that Seagull Scientific offers a BarTender driver for the C7500 printer? 





But nowhere can you get a set of release notes using this alternative driver.  At least I couldn’t find or get one.

Although the BarTender driver has been available, I’ve said that I preferred the Epson over the Seagull C7500 Driver.  I made this recommendation primarily because you can get to the Printer Setting Utility using only the Epson version.  You need the Printer Setting Utility to make adjustments in the printer such as beep volume, gap/blackmark sensor calibration and a host of other capabilities that I felt were mandatory for users.  Therefore, I believe you must load the Epson C7500 driver for every deployment.

But the BarTender driver has a few capabilities that may make it a better option for selected users.  Let me show you two capabilities that you may find of value to install a second driver for your C7500/C7500G printer.

C7500 Available Drivers
C7500 Available Drivers
First, BarTender users are not required to add the label size to the driver.  Typically, I recommend C7500 users add their various label sizes to the Epson driver first thing:

C7500 Label Size Setting
C7500 Label Size Setting

But BarTender users will set up the page size using either the Label Wizard to Page Setup which shows User Defined Size: 

C7500 BarTender Page Size Setting
BarTender Page Size Setting
Therefore, the BarTender driver eliminates one step in the label setup process.  Many BarTender users find this capability of value.  And companies automating label printing find this setup process mandatory.

Second, the BarTender driver makes it easier to adjust the print start/stop position when printing full bleed.  Let me explain what I mean.

When printing full bleed, typically you need to make adjustments in the print start position in order to cover the label 100% edge-to-edge with ink.  For example, when I printed this label as a PDF, you see some white along the edge:


C7500 Print Start Adjustment
C7500 Label Requiring Print Start Adjustment
To adjust the print start position using the Epson driver, you would need to open the Printer Setting Utility and make the adjustment by selecting either Print Start vertical or horizontal:


C7500 Print Start Adjustment
And then the amount:

C7500 Print Start Adjustment
C7500 Print Start Adjustment
Frankly, I always find it confusing when to make the adjustment positive or negative.  Further, as the Printer Setting Utility runs as a separate application, some IT department policies prevent this application from running.

When I printed this same label as an embedded image in BarTender, I still had some white showing on the label:

C7500 BarTender Driver Printed
BarTender Printed File
With the BarTender C7500, I can easily make position adjustments without opening up the Printer Setting Utilities.  By opening up the BarTender driver:


Then navigating to the Stock tab:

BarTender C7500 Driver Position Adjustment
BarTender C7500 Driver Position Adjustment

I can adjust the top and left position easily and logically: Negative to start earlier and positive to start later to make the full bleed printing perfect with just a small amount of ink on the liner.

C7500 Full-Bleed Label Printing
Full-Bleed Label Printing
As a reminder, I recommend setting up the page size in the software slightly larger (.03”) than the actual label size when printing full-bleed.  This extra spare makes it easier to print 100% of the label with ink.  You can learn more about full-bleed label printing from this post on the LX2000:  http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2015/06/lx2000-full-bleed-color-label-printer.html 

If you decide to use the BarTender C7500 driver, I recommend making the following 3 configuration settings:

1.  In the page setup, I had to edit the page size to eliminate the liner margin.  First, go to the BarTender driver Page Setup and select “Edit”:

Edit C7500 Page Size
Edit Label Page Setup
And then take out the liner spacing.

C7500 BarTender Driver Liner Setting
C7500 BarTender Driver Liner Setting
I assume this issue is a result that I add the label as the exact size of the actual facestock; and not total construction size.

2.  On the Graphics Tab, I learned not to question the DPI setting.  It seems the BarTender driver says the DPI is 600 x 600; whereas the C7500 runs at 1200 x 600.  I guess the BarTender driver lists the INPUT and not the OUTPUT setting. 

C7500 Print Resolution

3.  On the Stock tab, you’ll need to configure the advanced settings under the Media Settings to insure you have the correct internal/external and gap/blackmark sensor settings as well as which media selection:

C7500 BarTender Stock Tab

BarTender C7500 Driver Media Setting
BarTender C7500 Driver Media Setting
If you are a BarTender user, you may find the BarTender C7500 driver easier/better to use.  If you’re not a BarTender user, you may find the driver easier to use to print full-bleed labels. If you do decide to run with the BarTender driver, be sure to load the Epson C7500 driver as well; and contact us if you have any questions on the C7500/C7500G and the available drivers.

Guy Mikel
855-962-7670