Pigment inks HP Designjet Z2100 and Z3100

Good news with the recent introduction of pigment printers from both HP and Canon have finally added competition to the market that has been owned by Epson for years. Not being content to merely catch up to Epson though, HP has taken a large step forward with the new Z2100 and Z3100 photo printers. Both printers, available in 24″ and 44″ sizes, use the new Vivera pigment inks first seen in the B size PhotoSmart Pro B9180 printer.

The Z series is also the first printer that includes a built-in spectrophotometer for creating custom profiles.

Pigment inks have two major advantages over dye-based inks. First, archival life is much greater, with most offering 70 or more years of display life before visible fading occurs. The Vivera inks in the new HP printers are rated by Wilhelm Research at 200 years for both colour and black-and-white prints. The other primary advantage is the variety of media available. While dye ink printers are optimized to work with luster and gloss finish papers, pigments can print on almost any surface.