<x-flowed>Ray wrote to Royce Bair: >The new features you've posted on the 7600/9600 look absolutely >fantastic, and certainly look like Epson has come close to the >perfect printer. > >I have only one objection. I don't need the 24" size, but I do need >to print a 16x20 with a paper border a la 3000. > >Can you put in a word for a 3600? We hear that from quite a few people. Despite the SP3000's terrible paper handling capabilities*, it's remained very popular because of it's adaptability, 17" wide platen and large individual cartridges. We've already put in a word to Epson for a "3600". Epson says it ain't going to happen. Why? Even though the 3000's age (over 5 years old), and it's old technology (4 inks instead of 6, spitting out huge, 20 picoliters non-variable droplets), Epson is still selling a remarkable 1500 of these great old 3000 work horses a month! And they told us they plan to continue to make them for at least one more year. (Why fix it if it still works?!) Also, they feel the 24 inch 7600 at the new lower price point of $2995 ($2K less than a 7500) is a remarkable buy, with much greater capacity than a 17" printer. I can assure you that neither dealers or Epson is making very much money on these printers -- both of us are hoping to make it up on the consumables. By the way, did you know that during the first 2 years that the 3000 was available, it sold for $1995.00? That's only a $1000 less than the 7600, and that's 1997 money! * Although the 7600 doesn't have a paper tray like the 3000 (it can only handle individual sheets and rolls), the 3000 was never designed to feed the thick sheets must of us put through it (it's a graphic arts printer, mainly for proofing page layouts). The friction feed on the paper tray balks at anything thicker than 52 lb. paper (those are Epson's specs). Although you can get it to accept 140 lb. (about 20mil or 300 gsm) paper, it doesn't like it. Whereas the 7600's straight path will take thickness up to 1.5mm (about 65mil or over 700 gsm), and it's vacuum (suction) assisted feed is much more reliable than friction and pizza wheels! Epson's 2200 model (available in July) will only have a 13" wide platen, but that's all Epson is going to give us besides the 3000 to fill the gap between 8.5" and 24" (beside the 1280, of course). -- Royce Bair, director Inkjet Art Solutions A division of The Stock Solution http://www.inkjetart.com/ - Turn off HTML mail features. Keep quoted material short. Use accurate subject lines. http://www.leben.com/lists for list instructions. </x-flowed>