SuperGamut Kraken Color Beast, Super Hydra, Sentinel Scout

SuperGamut, the East Peoria, Illinois DTF equipment company, announced three industrial additions on September 10, 2026: a 13-color Kraken Color Beast printer configuration that adds fluorescent inks, a Super Hydra commercial DTF system, and the Sentinel Scout, a compact vision-guided cutter for 24-inch film. Final specifications and pricing for the Kraken Color Beast and Super Hydra have not been released; the Sentinel Scout's cutting format is confirmed at 25 inches.

The announcement landed two weeks before PRINTING United Expo, which runs September 23 to 25 in Las Vegas. Our PRINTING United 2026 DTF preview covers the other launches timed to the show.

Kraken Color Beast: 13 Colors Including Fluorescents

SuperGamut's existing Kraken is already the widest-gamut DTF printer in its range: eight Epson i3200 printheads, 32-inch roll media with a 31-inch maximum print width, and a nine-color ink set the company describes as 3CMYK + 2W + 3RGBO. In plain terms that is three sets of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, two white channels, and red, green, blue, and orange spot channels. SuperGamut rates it at more than 400 square feet per hour in six-pass production mode.

The Kraken Color Beast configuration expands that to 13 colors by adding fluorescent inks. SuperGamut has said the complete ink configuration and technical specifications are still pending, so it has not confirmed which fluorescent colors are included or whether print speed changes.

Rob Super, SuperGamut's president, framed the expansion in screen-print terms: "Screen printing has always been the benchmark for serious apparel production, but we're pushing DTF into territory people used to assume belonged only to screen printing."

Why Extra Channels Matter

Standard DTF printers run CMYK plus white. Bright oranges, deep greens, and saturated blues fall outside what CMYK pigments can reproduce, which is why brand-color matching is the most common complaint in our DTF color management guide. Adding red, green, blue, and orange inks widens the gamut the RIP can hit. Fluorescent inks go a step further: they reflect more visible light than the paper-white base, producing neon effects that CMYK cannot simulate. Our specialty DTF transfers guide covers the neon and glow options currently sold as finished transfers.

Super Hydra: The Commercial System

SuperGamut has described the Super Hydra only as its new commercial DTF system and has not published its specifications. The current Hydra it builds on runs six Epson i3200 heads, prints 23.6 inches wide on 24-inch media, and is rated at more than 250 square feet per hour in six-pass mode with a nine-color 2CMYK + 2W + 2RGBO ink set. Like the Kraken, it ships as a turnkey package with a matching powder duster, laptop, RIP software, starter supplies, and mandatory on-site installation and training.

Aaron Montgomery, SuperGamut's education and community outreach director, tied the new machine to the rest of the workflow: "A printer by itself isn't the production system. It is how all the pieces work together that creates the business advantage."

Sentinel Scout: 25-Inch Vision Cutting

The Sentinel Scout is a smaller version of SuperGamut's Sentinel and Sentinel XL automated vision cutters. It reads printed transfers on a 24-inch DTF roll with a camera, identifies each design, and cuts it out without a human tracing outlines. The cutting format is 25 inches, and the unit is aimed at shops that gang designs across the full roll width and currently pay someone to separate them with scissors or a manual cutter.

Automated cutting is the step most mid-volume DTF shops still do by hand. Our gang sheet optimization guide explains how tight nesting cuts film cost, and a vision cutter is what makes tight nesting practical at volume.

Pricing and Availability

SuperGamut does not publish prices for its printers; all three products are quote-based. The company's packages require on-site installation and training, which is standard for equipment at this level and is part of why our DTF transfer economics guide treats industrial systems differently from desktop machines.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the SuperGamut Kraken Color Beast?

The Kraken Color Beast is a 13-color configuration of SuperGamut's Kraken DTF printer that adds fluorescent inks to the existing nine-color CMYK, white, red, green, blue, and orange set. SuperGamut announced it on September 10, 2026 and has not yet published the full ink lineup or pricing.

How fast is the SuperGamut Kraken?

SuperGamut rates the current eight-head Kraken at more than 400 square feet per hour in six-pass production mode on 32-inch media. The company has not said whether the 13-color Color Beast configuration changes that figure.

What does the Sentinel Scout do?

The Sentinel Scout is a compact vision-based cutter with a 25-inch cutting format. A camera locates each printed transfer on a 24-inch DTF roll and the machine cuts it out automatically, removing the manual trimming step in DTF finishing.

How much do SuperGamut DTF printers cost?

SuperGamut does not list prices. The Kraken, Hydra, and the new Super Hydra are sold as quote-based turnkey packages that include a matching duster, laptop, RIP software, and on-site installation.

Related Resources

See how the Kraken and Hydra compare with other production machines in the DTF printer directory, and read the Mimaki TxF330-800 announcement and STS XPD-924D review for the other 2026 production DTF launches.