Printing picture perfect prints with Epson

When you see an image of a model with flawless, glowing skin at one of the shopping malls along Orchard Road, you may well be looking at a piece of work produced by Profoto using the Epson S-Series printer.

Starting as a humble photo lab in 1998, Profoto now works with famous clients, including the biggest European and US brands in the fashion industry, globally renowned beauty and fragrance houses and an assortment of timepiece and jewellery retailers. Profoto provides a wide variety of solutions for its clients, including large format indoor and outdoor prints for light boxes, billboards, pillar cladding and lamp post banners. Profoto’s works are featured as window displays, promotional areas in malls, events, exhibitions and pop-up stores.

Profoto acquired five Epson S80670 printers in 2016 and that became a vital reason why Profoto is able to print high quality images for their esteemed clients.

Profoto prides itself in delivering optimum results to clients and according to Ms. Choong Li Foong, Profoto’s Senior Production Manager, the company first decided to invest in the Epson printers because of the vibrant and high quality prints it is able to achieve. Profoto has many beauty brands as clients and it is well known in the industry that achieving the clarity and suppleness of the human skin tone is one of the most challenging aspects of large format printing.

The Epson S-Series printer has a wider colour gamut than its rival printers, with two additional colours – red and orange – offering customers 10 colours in all. Colour gamut refers to the range of colours that the device can print, and Epson’s superior colour gradation affects how accurate the colour spectrums can be.

Epson’s print head nozzle is also much smaller than its competitors, at 3.5 picolitres, and the smaller drops of ink create finer and more photo-realistic images. For its rival printers, the bigger drops of ink can lead to print jobs that look very pixelated, making it unsuitable for printing intricate and complex images such as skin.

Choong also appreciates the fact that her new Epson printers deliver colours that are more vibrant due to the wider colour gamut. “Typically, we would touch up colours manually within the print file before we proceed with the final print. With the Epson printers we can achieve vibrant colours easily, and that saves us time,” says Choong.

Epson’s consistent excellence

Choong also praises the Epson printers for their print accuracy and colour consistency. This is particularly important for jobs that need to be mass-produced. “For example, when met with a print job that requires joining of two pieces together, one or more of the pieces will tend to fall short by a couple of millimetres, which can create a challenge for us in delivering quality prints for our clients,” Choong said. “We don’t have that problem with Epson printers. The length of the pieces that require joining remains consistent throughout the job.”

The colour consistency at the start of every print job should be the same as at the end, and this is particularly tricky when faced with an area of solid colour. With rival printers, the colour can be patchy when it’s printed, leaving wide streaks of obvious lines, resulting in a lot of material wastage due to rejected test prints. “For one project we had to print a large area of black and the Epson printer did a great job – there were no banding lines and the black was very solid,” says Choong.

Superb support

Choong also appreciates the expert and prompt technical support from Epson provided by their partner Cas Technology (Castech). “If we have problems with our Epson printer, we’ll just ask Epson and Castech and they’ll help us solve the issue,” Choong says. “The technicians are very good, the support is very strong and responsive.”

The Epson printers are also easy to maintain, which is a plus point for Choong. “The printers have an automated self-cleaning system. They are the cleanest large format printer around so we appreciate the convenience,” says Choong. “They’re also stable with little wear and tear, the machines work smoothly so we seldom need repairs.”

A thriving partnership

According to Mr. Frederick Sia, Business Development Representative of of Castech, his company has thrived through developing a close relationship with Epson. “We communicate very frequently with Epson,” Sia says, “Since we’re more on the ground and meet the end users often, we give their feedback back to Epson regularly.”

This close communication between Epson and Castech means that they can respond to end users’ problems swiftly. “If we need a part to service the printer, we can trigger Epson quickly and get the parts very fast,” says Sia. “If we request for parts today, we can get it tomorrow from Epson, whereas for other brands it might take them one to two days before they deliver the part.”

A growing trend for large format printing

Ms. Marilyn Loh, Senior Marketing Specialist of Profoto, believes that the need for signage printing will continue to increase in the long run and companies like Profoto are well-poised to benefit from this growth. “Along with the growing digital trend, there is also a demand for more exhibitions and experiential events so the need for large format printing will be there,” Loh says.

Profoto’s vision is to be not just a large format printing company but a one stop solution for retailers, offering creative, digital and design and build services as well. “We want to be the trusted leader in retail consumer experience,” Loh says. “That’s where Epson comes in – our printers provide us with the strong machines we need to get the quality we want to push for so that we can achieve our vision.”