p.1 #1 · Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully?
Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully in Epson and Canon printers? I recently bought a new pigment Canon Pro-310 printer, which I am very happy with and with which I will always use Canon inks.
But I also have an older Epson XP-7100 printer that has given very good service and that I might keep for making some copies or tests of photographs for non-critical purposes.
Has anyone had success with off-brand inks for their printer?
By "success" I mean:
1. the printer doesn't clog or smear or create bands or otherwise malfunction
2. the colors are accurate
3. the prints don't fade more rapidly than other prints
I am ready to believe that Canon and Epson inks are of better quality and more fit-for-purpose than the off-brands. But I thought I would ask.
p.1 #2 · Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully?
The only off brand inks I’ve used are piezography inks. I believe going the off brand route you’ll save on the price of inks with the consequences of lower quality prints. Do the off brand inks have profiles for all the different papers you want to use? How consistent are the off brand inks between batches?
I print at home in order to get the best prints I can make. Using unknown off brand inks just goes against why I want to print at home.
p.1 #3 · Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully?
chez wrote:
The only off brand inks I’ve used are piezography inks. I believe going the off brand route you’ll save on the price of inks with the consequences of lower quality prints. Do the off brand inks have profiles for all the different papers you want to use? How consistent are the off brand inks between batches?
I print at home in order to get the best prints I can make. Using unknown off brand inks just goes against why I want to print at home.
Those are good questions and what you say makes a lot of sense. I get tempted by a $30 price vs. a $90 price, especially as I am printing much more than I used to. But what really is the point, given how much effort we put into our images?
p.1 #4 · Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully?
Another issue is image permanence or lack thereof.
With OEM inks from Epson, Canon and HP, longevity tests have been performed for a variety of papers. These tests give some inkling about how long an image can be expected to last before "noticeable" fading and color shifting, if exposed to their controlled test environment: light, temperature, humidity, etc. As far as I know, there is no agreed-upon definition of "noticeable". For tests not sponsored by manufacturers, see Aardenburg Imaging.
With 3rd party inks, it may well be the case that the savings come in using more dyes (dyes are less stable) and less pigments (pigments are more stable). Or less stable binders. Or more clog-prone ingredients (if you leave the printer un-attended and don't periodically agitate the inks, do the heads become clogged ?)... etc.
p.1 #5 · Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully?
I have an Epson R1900 which is still perfectly able to make excellent prints and I have always used Epson's inks … until now.
I had been invited to have a Gallery show, needed ink and discover that Epson has decided to stop making its inks. Before sending my R1900 to a landfill, I decided to look for third-party inks and discovered that Comboink makes ink for my printer. I gingerly order from them while reckoning that I am probably wasting money.
I am wrong— there is nothing wrong with their inks at all. So I reorder a large quantity of their inks (which mixed and matched with the Epson inks until I had used up the Epsons). I have printed all the large prints for the exhibition perfectly and with no clogging or any other problem. The paper profiles that I used with the Epson inks also worked with the Camboinks,
I only wish that I had explored third-party inks earier because I could have saved a lot of money if I had!
p.1 #6 · Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully?
AnnJS wrote:
I have an Epson R1900 which is still perfectly able to make excellent prints and I have always used Epson's inks … until now.
I had been invited to have a Gallery show, needed ink and discover that Epson has decided to stop making its inks. Before sending my R1900 to a landfill, I decided to look for third-party inks and discovered that Comboink makes ink for my printer. I gingerly order from them while reckoning that I am probably wasting money.
I am wrong— there is nothing wrong with their inks at all. So I reorder a large quantity of their inks (which mixed and matched with the Epson inks until I had used up the Epsons). I have printed all the large prints for the exhibition perfectly and with no clogging or any other problem. The paper profiles that I used with the Epson inks also worked with the Camboinks,
I only wish that I had explored third-party inks earier because I could have saved a lot of money if I had!...Show more →
Ann,
This is what I have wondered about as a route to go. You were driven to make the off-brand choice by the non-availability of Epson ink, and it seems to have worked out very well for you, but i am not yet in that dire situation!
Thank you for the recommendation. I'll save the name Comboink in case I decide to give off-brand a try.
p.1 #7 · Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully?
Chiron:
Thank you for your kind comments on the Gallery show: we will be installing it on Friday!
The problem with using third-party inks is that doing so could void an Epson Warranty which may matter to you?
My R1900 is no longer supported by Epson so that was not a concern in my case.
The R1900 uses pigment inks so I have not had any experience with Dye-based inks but I see no reason for them to cause problems.
p.1 #8 · Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully?
AnnJS wrote:
Chiron:
Thank you for your kind comments on the Gallery show: we will be installing it on Friday!
The problem with using third-party inks is that doing so could void an Epson Warranty which may matter to you?
My R1900 is no longer supported by Epson so that was not a concern in my case.
The R1900 uses pigment inks so I have not had any experience with Dye-based inks but I see no reason for them to cause problems.
Do your 3rd party ink providers have printer profiles for a variety of papers? Do you know the longevity of the inks / paper combinations? I’ve seen 3rd party ink tests that resulted in excessive fading over short exposures to sunlight.
p.1 #9 · Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully?
I buy paper from Red River Paper and they provide profiles for all the papers that they sell and for various printers. Those Profiles work with the Comboinks on my R1900. I do set and profile my monitor for 100 candelas.
No coloured anything will survive for long in direct exposure to sunlight so anything that I frame has protective UV-blocking glazing.
Pigment inks (as opposed to Dye-based inks) have a projected life of 100 years and I don't imagine that any of us will still be around to check that out when a century has passed?!
As a matter of interest, the paper of Ektacolor (C-type) prints that I made in the sixties has yellowed, and the colours have faded somewhat as well, but it is a simple task to scan the negatives and make new digital prints.
p.1 #10 · Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully?
AnnJS wrote:
I buy paper from Red River Paper and they provide profiles for all the papers that they sell and for various printers. Those Profiles work with the Comboinks on my R1900. I do set and profile my monitor for 100 candelas.
No coloured anything will survive for long in direct exposure to sunlight so anything that I frame has protective UV-blocking glazing.
Pigment inks (as opposed to Dye-based inks) have a projected life of 100 years and I don't imagine that any of us will still be around to check that out when a century has passed?!
As a matter of interest, the paper of Ektacolor (C-type) prints that I made in the sixties has yellowed, and the colours have faded somewhat as well, but it is a simple task to scan the negatives and make new digital prints. ...Show more →
Those profiles you get from red river are made for the manufactures ink, not anything from Comboinks. Maybe the results are good enough…but I can guarantee you they are not optimum. We buy cameras and lenses into the thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars to get the best results we can…then compromise on inks which in the big scheme of things really don’t cost that much.
One way to reduce ink price is to use a large format printer which takes ink cartridges over 100ml and the price per ml is quite a bit cheaper than using small cartridges.
p.1 #11 · Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully?
Perhaps … but when Epson abandon support it's either send a perfectly good printer to the landfill or find alternative inks.
I chose to find an alternative supplier and I have managed to make some vibrant and beautiful prints as a result.
p.1 #12 · Has anyone used off-brand inks successfully?
I bought my Epson 3880 in 2013 and immediately started to use third party inks: Inkjetmall (Cone). At the time these inks cost about 1/3 the amount of OEM inks. These inks are microencapulated pigment inks that are very similar to the OEM inks. ICC profiles are nearly identical and the blacks are actually superior to OEM inks giving slightly deeper blacks than the OEM.
Testing has shown that they fade more rapidly than the OEM inks. This is based on both test data from Inkjetmall and two independent test labs. I even did my own testing, leaving a print in a south facing window for months and also 18" from a lighting fixture that was typically on everyday for 18 hours. I could see no sign of fading after more than a year. The prints may not last 200 years but they will last 50-100 years when exposed to display lighting without any glazing or added protection.
I continue to use the Cone black and gray inks because they are superior to OEM inks, but for the remainder I have switched back to OEM strictly due to cost. I have been able to harvest expired OEM inks from large (200-700ml) cartridges I bought from Ebay. Use of expired inks is another controversial issue. My experience and that of others has shown no issues with inks expired for many years.
Being able to use refillable cartridges and third party inks is now almost impossible. Epson has locked down the software to prevent this. That also means that newer printers cannot using refillable cartridges with cleaning solution. Using cleaning solutions has been a huge plus for me. When I travel for months, I like to replace the ink with PiezoFlush cleaning solution. When I return, my printer is absolutely clean, like new. Otherwise leaving a printer unused for months can result in serious clogging.
