The manufacturer this week commercialised its VersaExpress RF-640 8 Colour across Europe and further afield. The kit features CMYK plus light black, red, green and orange ink. It costs £13,000 with RIP software.
The company bills the machine as an evolution of its RF-640 dual-CMYK printer and claims it is “priced to be the industry's most affordable eight-colour printer”.
Previewed earlier this year at Fespa, the printer boasts strong colour reproduction capabilities to accurately match and reproduce colours that were previously difficult to achieve.
Roland DG head of sales Rob Goleniowski said: “The machine meets the growing demand for high accuracy of colour, such as for sports with expensive sponsorship agreements, or with retail and exhibition suppliers.
“More clients want to achieve the kind of specific Pantone or corporate colours that a four-colour machine can do only to a certain degree and to a certain percentage of Pantone colours.
“This eight-colour model can hit 99% of Pantone solid colours and addresses the needs for the orange, green and deeper blue that other machines can't reach.”
He added: “The colour has to be seen to be believed – it just jumps off the page. When we showed the machine at Fespa, it stopped people in their tracks. And it's really really affordable.”
Head of business development and product management Paul Willems added the vibrancy of colour, detail and overall print quality created a “buzz” at Fespa.
“Green and orange are notoriously difficult colours to accurately reproduce, so these additions, along with red, offer enormous opportunities to printers working with corporate customers and major brands such as FMCG and sports companies,” he explained.
“People producing branded signage, POS displays, vehicle wraps, and exhibition graphics will benefit from the RF-640 8 Colour’s colour matching capabilities.”
Red, green and orange extend the range of achievable colours across the spectrum, and with light black deliver strong colour and skin tones and smooth gradients for photographic reproduction.
Willems said this also makes the RF-640 8 Colour good for interior décor applications, fine art and image reproduction for hotel chains, museums, galleries, entertainment spaces or offices.
The VersaExpress RF-640 8 Colour is powered by ErgoSoft Roland Edition 2 Special Plus RIP to boost productivity, job and colour management and deliver good overall performance.
