Describe your business
We are based in Kingston Upon Thames and we produce exhibition and shop graphics. We carry out a lot of work for flagship high-street stores and we also do samples before marketing campaigns are rolled out.

What does the machine do?
It's an eco-solvent wide-format machine that delivers high-quality print on a wide range of substrates.

Why did you choose this particular machine?
Our previous machine used UV inks, but we needed something that produced higher quality. Originally, I thought about installing two machines - one for the outdoor market and the other for indoor and high-quality work. But the Stylus Pro means that we only need one.

Did you look at any other similar machines?
Our previous machine was from HP and we did look at Océ.

What features do you particularly like?
We are able to print onto material that you don't need to protect. Other machines tend to be more aggressive, but this one isn't and that suits us. Also, the inks are more environmentally friendly and we don't have to include an extraction unit.

Is there anything that you dislike?
There is nothing lacking and it has all we need.

How fast is it?
There are variations in speed depending on what you're running on the machine. It's slower for high-quality work, although for banner work it can be twice as fast.

How reliable is it?
No matter how long we've left it without using it, once we start it up it's not a problem.

What's the quality like?
It was a big selling point. The Stylus Pro has green and orange inks and we find that we are getting very bright colours. When we printed with our old machine, we had to use CMYK, but now we can get closer to RGB and hit our customers' Pantone colours. We have a much wider colour gamut with this machine.

How easy is it to use?
It is fairly straightforward and we've not needed to have any training to operate the machine.

Has it won you any new work?
We have won new business after people had seen what we could do.

Would you say that it offers value for money?
The machine was fairly expensive compared to others, but it has been a good investment for us.

Were there any difficulties experienced during the installation or after?
It was a very smooth installation.

What about the pre- and after-sale service?
We've not had to contact Epson at all since it was installed.

Who do you think the machine is right for?
Anyone who prints banner or large backdrops and needs photographic quality.

Under what circumstances would you buy another?
If we had a large increase in work and tighter deadlines, then we would consider another.

CONCLUSION
User's verdict    
Speed 3/5
Quality 4/5
Reliability 3/5
Value for money 4/5

Supplier's response     
Martin Johns, senior product manager, Pro Graphics, Epson, said: "When we developed the Epson Stylus Pro GS6000, it was important to get the right mix of price, features and quality. Showprint's experience shows that we have developed a printer that ticks all the boxes. It is a high-quality, affordable printer that has high-ecological integrity, an exceptionally wide colour gamut and produces consistent results on a wide range of paper, backlit and transparent substrates. Furthermore, we focused on significantly reducing the need for time-consuming daily operator maintenance in order to increase available production time."
Price £18,995
Contact Colourgen 01628 588 722 www.colourgen.com