Epson is widening its focus on apparel decorators, announcing new printers, plus updates to its direct-to-garment software. For screen printers, the manufacturer released two film printers that come bundled with RIP software and positive films: the 17-inch SureColor P800 Screen Print Edition and the SureColor T3270 Screen Print Edition.

“Epson is committed to bringing the most advanced printing solutions to market for proofing, graphic arts, photography and screen-printing professionals,” says Matt Kochanowski, a product manager at Epson America Inc.

According to the company, the printer bundles provide a complete film positive printing solution, producing high-quality solid and halftone films up to 65 lines per inch, with high UV opacity and exceptional black density.  With a full-color ink set, the printers can also be used to produce high-quality comps and even graphics. The P800 retails for $1,795, and the T3270 for $3,495. Click here for more information.

For DTG printers who use the SureColor F2000, Epson has updated the associated Garment Creator software, to enable high-quality prints on black garments, a challenge of the decorating medium. The new “Use Garment Black” feature both reduces ink usage and improves the look and feel of digital prints on black garments. The preset function automatically recognizes and knocks out the black areas of an image file, leveraging the black fabric of a garment, so that the printer doesn’t lay down a layer of white, then black ink in those areas.

“Our goal when Epson first entered the DTG market in 2013 was to deliver superior print quality, reliability and ease of use,” says Larry Kaufman, a product manager at Epson. “Now with the addition of our updated Garment Creator software, we are fulfilling our highest priority requests, and our customers will be able to achieve new levels of image quality, all the while cutting down on the ink costs associated with imaging in the very popular black garment segment.”

Epson is making the new software available online as a free download.