memjet 60 ppm line inkjet

[Jeff]

It appears HP's edgeline technology may have a competitor soon with memjet: Take a look at the A4 and the large format video and tell me you aren't impressed with these speeds and coverage quality from such a small device! Amazing!
http://www.memjet.com/pages.aspx?id=videoimages#

Memjet technology is a new color page printing technology that enables high-quality, 60-pages-per-minute color printing at breakthrough prices for both print engines and consumables.

While there are a number of page-width printing technologies in the market, none of them delivers high-quality, 1600 dpi printing at 60 pages per minute in a low-cost format. One of the differences of the Memjet technology is the density of its nozzles and the < 1mm print path, which simplifies paper handling complexity and lowers the overall cost of the technology.

While subjective, print quality is a combination of dots-per-inch capability as well as the size and accuracy of the placement of dots on a page. Memjet technology prints in a single pass at 1600x1600 dots per inch, better than the eye can see, with nozzles that are 17 times denser than the leading inkjet printhead designs. The technology exceeds the standard for color laser at 1200 dpi.

http://www.memjet.com/faqs.aspx

It will be very interesting to start seeing this technology actualized in the market.

On one hand I imagine as consumers are able to have a 60 ppm full color printer with economical ink and the size of a desktop machine it may cut into the business of a lot of small copy shops and printers.

On the other hand, this technology could also open up a world of flexibility for short run printing.

The speed of the large format example compared to the plotters we currently have is amazing... a run of 200 20x30 or 30x40 posters - no problem. Proof in one minute. No setup. Hit print, and they're printed and stacked in an hour. Amazing, and something we just can't do right now economically at all.