Archival inks are nothing new.
By supplying both the printer and the ink set, Epson is entering this market with a big advantage over third parties, which must derive their ink formulas without the benefit of being able to engineer the print head, the driver, or the ink delivery system. Epson is also using a patented pigment technology that encapsulates each pigment in a drop of resin, which the company claims produces more uniform drop sizes, resulting in better coverage and reducing clogging. Because existing Epson papers are optimized for dye-based inks, the 2000P requires new media types as well. The latter has a lovely texture similar to many watercolor papers, although it is not as thick as that found in art supply stores. It comes with both USB and high-speed parallel ports, and includes Windows and Mac drivers in the box.