Johannesburg-based Worth Framing, a specialist photography, printing and framing company, has taken its high-quality and large-format professional photography printing needs in-house, with the purchase of an Epson Stylus Pro 9880.
“As a company that offers professional printing, canvas stretching and framing services, when you deal with photographers you need to ensure that you get the pictures absolutely perfect in every way,” says Richard Knee, marketing director of Worth Framing.
“Unfortunately,” he adds, “we were continually frustrated with the poor-quality printing, banding and bad colour-matching that we kept getting from companies that we outsourced our large-format and canvas printing to.
“So we decided to take the plunge and invest in a high-end large format printer that we could use to print photographs to the standard that our customers demanded. After months of research, and based on overwhelming recommendations from many of our customers who are professional photographers, we settled on the Epson Stylus Pro 9880.”
Having already patented a new method of stretch-framing canvas prints, which is being adopted across South Africa as a framing best-practice, Worth Framing not only has to maintain its reputation as an innovator in the framing arena, but also has to ensure that it can deliver printing services that make it one of the leaders in South Africa's printing and framing industry.
“The framing market is a tough place to compete in,” Richard says. “It's not as easy as printing a picture and just putting it in a stylish frame - there's a lot more art and technique to it than people give it credit for. That's why we need to be on top of our game.”
Colour consistency and image clarity
Richard and his wife, Julia (who is also Worth Framing's art and production director), are sticklers for the finest detail, so much so that they would rather re-do a print at their own expense than settle for second best. This ensures that its quality meets their exacting standards and beats the customer's expectations.
“We don't believe in half-measures,” Julia says. “So this means that the printer that we use must be able to deliver unbelievably high colour consistency and image clarity, and the Epson Stylus Pro 9880 passes these tests with flying colours.”
Where Worth Framing would have outsourced its printing in the past, the company now prints 95% of its jobs on-site, which means that Richard and Julia have total control over the prints that are finally delivered to their customers.
It also means that the little bit of printing that the company does outsource is completed to specification, because Worth Framing has gained the reputation of accepting nothing less than the best quality prints for its customers.
“Bringing the printing in-house has not necessarily saved us a lot of money, but from an efficiency and overall satisfaction perspective, it has made our job so much easier,” Richard says.
Epson's regional manager for southern Africa, Albert Fayard, says that the Stylus Pro 9880 uses the latest MicroPiezo Thin Film Piezo print head, which delivers superior printing performance, optimised for pigment-based ink technology.
“The eight-colour ink set used in the Epson Stylus Pro 9880 features a new formulation of Epson's UltraChrome K3 inks with a Vivid Magenta. It uses a new high-density form of magenta pigments for an extremely wide colour gamut - especially blues and purples,” he says.
Media and consumables
Worth Framing understands that not everyone can afford to spend thousands of rands to have their photos professionally printed and framed, particularly in large format. This is why the company offers a wide variety of printing and mounting options to cater for the high-end photographic and trade professional, and the walk-in amateur who just wants something nice to put on the wall.
“We always recommend using original Epson canvas for our professional printing. The colour consistency and, especially the richness of the black in photographs, really make photos come alive - whether it's on matte or glossy canvass,” Julia says.
“But, we also offer lower-cost canvas printing options, which look surprisingly good on low-cost compatible media. Obviously it doesn't match the quality of original Epson media, but the Epson Stylus Pro 9880 is a very flexible printer and makes a good job of printing on virtually any media.”
Fayard comments that the Epson Stylus Pro 9880 features an automatic take-up reel to support heavy-duty production for improved usability.
“It will also support flexible paper handling for cut sheet printing from A3 up to 44-inches. The optional paper basket stores prints cleanly and securely,” he adds.
From the horse's mouth
Hennie Botha is a well-known wildlife photographer and regular customer of Worth Framing. He says that, when it comes to colour clarity and vibrancy, you cannot compare the prints from the Epson printer to anything else because they are far superior to the prints from many other brands in the market.
“Particularly in my line of work, where my photography is my livelihood, I can't sell a print if it's not perfect as that has an effect on my reputation as a photographer. When I take a photo, I put my best into making it a real work of art, and I expect nothing less when it's printed, framed and mounted on the wall of one of my customers.
“I have a colleague who bought a different brand of large format printer that was almost three times the price of the Epson Stylus Pro 9880 and his prints are nowhere near as good as the ones I get from Worth Framing.
“When the colours don't match, he makes all sorts of excuses. But print the same photo on the Epson printer and you get the colours and quality that you expect.” And that, Botha says, is why he will always recommend Epson as a great photo printer.
For more information on the products and services offered by Worth Framing please contact Richard or Julia on 011 792 3709 or e-mail richard@worthframing.co.za or visit http://www.worthframing.co.za or http://www.imageengineers.co.za
For more information on Epson please contact Epson SA on (011) 465 9621 or Albert Fayard on afayard@epson.co.za
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