In September HP announced the Latex 630 and 630W 64” printers. These new entry level 64” printers are expected to be the best-selling Latex printers for sign shops and local print service providers. But what about the rest of the HP Latex family? Are any printers going away? Today we are going take you through the full 54” and 64” HP Latex product offering and help you understand the features of each printer so you can make the best decision for your business.
At one point about 10 years ago, HP sold a single 61” Latex printer model. It used the second generation of latex inks and was called the Latex 26500 or Latex 260. Now, 10 years later, HP has filled out its product mix to offer 10, 10(!) 54” and 64” printers. If you add the print and cut sku options, you are up to 15 unique options to choose from today. This is great as it gives every slice of the market a printer that is tailored for those specific needs… but it has also become pretty confusing to navigate the available options.
We are going to go printer by printer until all 10 printers (and 5 cutter skus) are placed in their slot within the HP Latex portfolio. We’re going to give you the price of each printer but please note that these prices are BEFORE promotions, which change monthly and can SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the price we quote here. It’s important to visit itsupplies.com to see the current price and better yet, give us a call to discuss any additional options to reduce your printer price, like HP Loyalty or Trade-in promotions. Along with price we’ll highlight several key differentiators across the Latex printer lineup: the ink set the printer uses, the cost of the inks, and the speed that it can print at. For print speed we’ll compare what HP calls their Indoor Quality mode. This is a high-quality mode suitable for almost any job outside of specialty backlit or textile printing. Beyond all these printer comparisons, we’ll also highlight other relevant differentiators as we go.
So where should we start? Let’s start with the 54” HP Latex 315. This highly affordable sign printer costs just under $11,000 before promos. It will print 129 sq ft per hour in Indoor Quality mode. The 315 uses HP’s generation 3 ink formulation that has been around since 2014. This set has CMYK, LC, LM and an Optimizer cartridge. The optimizer liquid was a breakthrough for HP with their gen 3 inks, allowing for the pinning of ink drops for faster print speeds and sharper quality. The inks for the Latex 315 come in 775 ml cartridges for $152 or $.19 per ml.
Next up is the HP Latex 335. This printer is the 64” big brother to the 315. It is the most affordable Latex printer if you need 64” capabilities, with a price tag just under $12,500. It’s also the lowest cost entry point if you need a take up reel. The 335 will print Indoor Quality at 140 sq ft per hour and uses the same 775 ml gen 3 inks at the same cartridge cost.
From here we step up to the HP Latex 365. This printer is also 64” wide and also uses gen 3 Latex inks. But the 365 offers a number of benefits the 315 and 335 do not. It has an 8” touchscreen control panel, it allows for onboard ICC color profiling with a built in i1 spectrophotometer, it has assisted double sided printing capability, and it allows for the printing of porous textiles and mesh with the included ink collector kit. All these features are available on a printer that now costs under $14,500 before promotions. The Latex 365 will print Indoor Quality at 183 sq ft per hour and uses the same gen 3 inks in 775 ml cartridges.
Now before we can move on to HP’s latest Gen 4 printers, we first need to look at one more printer that uses third generation Latex inks. It’s called the HP Latex 115, and it stands on its own as an ultra-budget 54” option for very low volume usage. It costs under $10,000 and uses smaller 400 ml inks. The inks cost 30% more than the 775 ml inks in the 3 series printers. It has no media advance sensor, no skew tracking, no take up reel, and no installation service. Most customers would be better off with a 315 for a number of reasons, but its still part of the Latex family so it belongs on this list.
Now let’s move on to HP’s latest printers using fourth generation Latex inks. Before we do that, let’s review the improvements that come with gen 4 inks. This new ink set is still CMYK, LC, and LM, but it has increased pigment to bring a 20% larger gamut. It requires reduced curing heat which offers more media compatibility on heat sensitive materials. It’s added a new cartridge alongside the Optimizer which is called Overcoat. This gives you the ability to use the dedicated overcoat channel to control your own scratch resistance and turn off the overcoat completely for enhanced bonding to laminates. Last but not least, Gen 4 inks bring the option to add white ink to your printer. White ink gives you the ability to print to clear films, colored textiles, metallic films and other high value substrates for specialty applications. All of the remaining printers on this list use HP’s gen 4 ink set with the option to add white ink at the time of purchase.
So lets look at the lowest cost entry point into the latest 4th generation Latex inks. This is HP’s newest printer, the 64” Latex 630 and 630W. HP has positioned this printer as the lowest cost white ink printer in the market. It can be purchased without white ink for $14,995 and WITH white ink for $17,995 before promotions. Inks come in 1L eco-boxes at a price of $147 each, for a per ml cost of $.14. Print speeds at Indoor Quality are 150 sq ft per hour. Because this is HP’s newest printer it has some features that aren’t found on even the more expensive models we’ll cover next. First it uses HP’s Pixel Control technology for more uniform colors and smoother gradients. Second it has a new ribbed curing unit and enhanced feed system to reduce head strikes and allow printing from the lead edge with less media waste. It also uses a mechanical advance sensor wheel instead of the Optical OMAS that has been used in all the other printers on this list.
The next step up in the HP Latex family is to the 64” Latex 700 and 700W. These printers are priced at just under $19,000 without white ink and $23,000 WITH white ink, before promotions. Print speeds increase significantly to 226 sq ft per hour due to a second row of print heads added. This second row of print heads also allows for a blockout 5 layer white ink mode: CWKWC. This is a specialty mode not available on the 630W. Other features of the 700 not found on the 630 are a spectrophotometer for on board ICC color profile generation and an optional ink collector kit for the ability to print on porous textiles and mesh material. The 1L inks for the 700 are shared with the 630, so the ink cost is the same.
The final printers in the line up, at the very top of the product line are the Latex 800 and 800W. The HP Latex 800 costs just under $28,000 and the 800W with White ink costs $30,000, before promos. The Latex 800 and 800W are built to offer the most productivity for volume users. Production print speeds are 269 sq ft per hour, about 15% faster than the Latex 700. It also is the only printer in the family that uses 3L bulk boxes of ink. These 3L boxes cost $315 for a per ml cost of just $.10. This volume ink price is the most important factor for some businesses using their printers in fleet or high productivity environments.
So that’s all the 54” and 64” printers in HP’s roll to roll Latex line up. But we aren’t quite done yet. HP also offers print and cut bundles with some of these printers. We’ll quickly highlight which printers are available as a single sku bundle with a Summa cutter. If your business requires contour cutting for stickers, vehicle wraps, or other applications this is the simplest way to get everything you need in one bundle with an intuitive HP workflow BUT every one of these printers can be paired with a Graphtec or Summa cutter in a package that your sales rep helps you put together.
So which printers offer a print and cut bundle option. Starting from the bottom, you can bundle a cutter with the 115, 315, 335, 630 and 630W. We’ll highlight those bundle prices here, but again, if you need to productivity of a Latex 700 or 800 we can help you pair a standalone cutter with these printers as well.
Phew, so we did it. We made it through all 10 printers and 5 print and cut bundles that HP offers in the 54” and 64” Latex line up. There is so much more to know about each of these printers that we didn’t cover in this video, we didn’t even get into which printers come with which RIP software . We would encourage you to let this be the start of your research but PLEASE reach out to an IT Supplies sale rep to have a more detailed, nuanced discussion about your needs and expectations so that we can suggest the best printer for your business. You’re also going to want to call to find out about those PROMOS.
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Still have questions regarding the HP Latex? Call 1-800-771-9665 and ask to talk to one of our commercial sales specialists or visit our website https://www.itsupplies.com.
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