We have had our eyes on Latex as a large format printing option for years. In earlier iterations, the printing looked great, but there were issues with durability and media limitations. That is until now. This past summer HP released the R2000 – a 98” hybrid latex printer. Hybrid means it can print DIRECTLY to both flexible media AND rigid substrates including all the common, and not so common, display substrates our customers use.

Here are a few reasons why the state-of the-art R2000 will make your graphics look better than ever:

• The color gamut of this new latex ink set is the best we’ve seen. HP claims it can hit 82% of pantone colors within a delta E of 2 – that’s better than any other CMYK printer on the market.
• The native resolution of the R2000 print heads is 1200dpi. That is nearly twice the resolution of the latest Vutek printers. You CAN see the difference.
• It has the best ink adhesion we have tested.
• The last step of the printing process is a clear overcoat that makes it the toughest and most scratch resistant ink we tested.
• The ink layers it prints are thinner than equivalent UV inks. This means it is better at accepting overlaminates when special finishes are desired.
• It prints without cure-banding. We did extensive testing on this issue before making the purchase.

Of course, great printing is only one step in the complicated route to great work. Getting each step right, from good communication at the beginning, to on-time delivery at the end, is every bit as important. But we’re confident that this new technology will keep Benchmark in the lead as the best large format printing vendor you can trust with your work.

We install the 2nd week of December. If you are curious please get in touch so we can schedule a time for you to come see it in action. In the meantime, here is a link and a video with more details:

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