Epson’s New 17-inch Photo Printer Doubles Lifespan of Your Print

January 12, 2017

By Greg Scoblete

Making an inkjet print of your photo is one of the best ways to preserve it for the long term (don’t take my word for it, we asked the experts).

Epson has a new photo printer in its arsenal that promises to double the already impressive print life of the model it replaces. The 17-Inch SureColor P5000, which replaces the Stylus Pro 4900 and uses Epson’s 200mL UltraChrome HDX 10-color pigment ink set, can deliver prints that will resist fading for over 160 years.

image001

Epson says they’ve improved the dust and static control on the printer to reduce maintenance (fewer clogged nozzles, etc.).

The UltraChrome HDX ink has new orange and green inks and the black inks are 1.5 denser than the prior generation for a wider contrast ratio. 

The P5000’s resin encapsulation technology has also been improved, which Epson says results in better gloss uniformity and sharper images. The P5000 delivers variable droplet sizes as small as 3.5 picoliters and features a 2.7-inch LCD panel for accessing printer settings.

See Also: How long will photo prints really last? We asked the expert.

The printer features auto-switching between a high-capacity front paper cassette and a power-driven roll media feeder (included). Using roll media, you can crank out panoramas up to 100-feet in length.

The high-capacity cassette can hold up to 100 sheets of premium paper up to 17 x 22 inches in size. There’s also a front feed straight path for fine art sheet media up to 1.5mm thick. 

The SureColor P5000 will be available three editions. The Standard and Designer editions offer Light Light Black ink for twice the overall print permanence of prior versions plus support for Epson’s Advanced Black and White print mode. Given the performance of the older ink (tested here by Wilhelm Imaging Research), users should expect around 170 of fade resistance for Photo Paper Glossy prints under glass.

The Standard edition will retail for $2,000 and is available now. The Designer version, due in March, includes EFI Fiery eXpress 4.6.1 software for Epson and will cost $2,500.

A Commercial edition, for $2,000 will swap out the Light Light Black in favor of Violet ink to expand the color gamut. 

Don’t Miss: Here’s how long various photo prints will last.