The printer replaced an older wide-format machine in July and was installed by local distributor Focal Point Imaging, a company which Stormpress digital director Tristan Tripp said he already had a relationship with.

Tripp said: “The Epson was bought to complement the latex printer that we already have and for fine art printing. It gives us very accurate control and enables us to print at a much higher quality, so it is a lot more reliable for outputting prints for the art market and the colour consistency is incredible."

Stormpress’ latex printer is an HP Designjet L26500.

“The paper loading [on the Epson] is much better than anything I’ve used before and all the software that is with it is very good and gives us control over everything,” added Tripp.

“We’ve got a couple of new customers from it and existing customers have been very impressed with the quality we can now offer them.”

The 44" Epson takes media up to 1,118mm wide at a maximum thickness of 1.5mm. It has a 10-ink configuration, using Epson’s Ultrachrome ink set, which includes CMY, four different types of black (light black, light light black, matt black and photo black), light cyan, vivid magenta and vivid light magenta.

Tripp contacted Focal Point when he first decided to seek out a new printer and the company provided the installation and two full days of training on the Epson.

Tripp said: “We have known Focal for a number of years. It is one of the leading photographic suppliers in the area so we knew that it would be able to deliver the machine honestly and reliably."

Last month, Stormpress installed a new Kluge EHF machine, for foil stamping, embossing and die-cutting.

The 15-staff outfit operates from two sites in Exeter: the digital side of the business is based in the city cenre and runs kit including the HP Designjet, a Ricoh, two Konica Minoltas and a Canon imagePRESS 1110, while the litho side includes a B3 Heidelberg Speedmaster and a two-colour Ryobi 512 and operates from an industrial unit five miles away.