HP Seizes the Day with Latex

Those of us who grew up doing around-the-house painting using oil-based paints hardly saw latex coming. We just assumed it would never match the quality and durability of traditional paint. How wrong we were! Today, it's hard to even find oil-based paints, and the quality gap has disappeared entirely.

Unexpectedly, the same thing is happening in the wide format world, with many of the major players making the same mistake we do-it-yourselfers made years ago. Latex is set to push solvent and even eco-solvent inks aside, yet almost nobody seems to be taking advantage, with the exception of Hewlett Packard, with their new Designjet L2550 latex printer.

FLAAR has a report outlining the trend, and if they are right (as they usually are), we are about to see a major shift in how wide-format printing is done, with pretty serious implications for the other players.

"If there is no new ink technology in the Roland, Mimaki, or Mutoh booth at SGIA 2009 then there is no evidence that these manufacturers of eco-solvent printers realize the impact that HP latex ink and the HP Designjet L25500 latex ink printer will have on market share of eco-solvent, mild-solvent, and full-solvent ink printers."