Color Gamut

Roland was the first to offer pigmented inks with an exceptional color gamut. Though Roland offers both dye and pigmented aqueous inks, Roland pigment inks have a wider color gamut compared to other pigment inks currently on the market and have a gamut comparable to many dye-based inks. The diagram shows Roland pigment inks (Cyan lines) vs. a commercial SWOP standard (Magenta lines).

Roland pigment inks are available in two options - CMYK + Orange and Green inks to simulate over 97% of PANTONEŽ Colors or CMYK + Light Cyan and Light Magenta inks for photographic quality and smoother gradations in pastels, shadows and skin tones. Roland dye inks are available in CMYK + Light Cyan and Light Magenta for indoor or short-term outdoor applications.

Stability

Traditionally, there have been two inks available on the market - dye and pigment. Dye-based inks have been very bright but are not suitable for outdoor or light-sensitive applications due to quick fading. Roland pigment inks were developed to provide UV stability in outdoor applications. Roland inks use pigment particles (or chromaphores) that are suspended in an ink carrier fluid at higher concentrations than most thermal inkjet inks - yielding a wider color space.

Roland pigment inks changed the perception that only dye inks offer vivid colors. Now you can have the best of both worlds. Bright inks with an exceptional color gamut coupled with UV stability and exceptional light fastness. An added benefit is incomparable indoor stability. Ongoing tests at Wilhelm Research indicate over 100 years indoor print permanence with Roland pigment ink printed on the Hi-Fi JET or CAMMJET.

Roland is working in conjunction with Avery-Dennison to develop a warranted solution for outdoor applications to be introduced later this year.

Ease of Use

Roland inks are packaged in 220ml cartridges as an alternative to messy bulk ink systems. The cartridges insert easily into the Hi-Fi JET or CAMMJET to provide a clean, airtight seal to the ink delivery system on the device. The Roland cartridge delivery system means that there's no mess refilling cartridge containers and no debris can enter the ink delivery system or the print heads. Ink cartridges are self-sealing and can be removed and reinserted at a later time.

Piezo inkjet head technology is exceptionally ink efficient, using as little as 0.3 ml per square foot of printing at normal coverage.

In addition, all Roland printers monitor ink usage. There is a submenu function - which can be accessed at any time - for checking ink levels. More importantly, when the CAMMJET or the Hi-Fi JET senses a low ink cartridge, the printer can be set to finish the job and then pause or to pause immediately and chirp to indicate a nearly empty ink cartridge. The LED display will show which cartridge needs to be changed. Unlike other wide-format printers, once a Roland cartridge is replaced, printing will resume where it left off with no deviation in the final print.

Ink/Media Calibrations

Whether you use CMYKOG, CMYKLcLm, or dye CMYKLcLm, Roland has ink and media ICC calibrations for the different resolutions. The ColorChoiceŽ software that comes with each Roland inkjet printer has built in ICC profiles for every Roland media. These preset calibrations take ink load levels, color gamut of the inks, the white point of the media and many other factors into account to insure accurate color reproduction. Simply choose the ink/media combination that is right for your application and you can be confident of "Getting it right on a Roland."

Ink Optimization

The Hi-Fi JET and CAMMJET have been optimized specifically for these ink sets. Ink viscosity, pigment concentration, firing rate, droplet size and firmware specific calibrations are all important elements in determining printer/print performance. Roland engineers have taken these factors into careful consideration to insure the highest possible output quality using Roland inks and Roland media.